Glacier Sunset

Sunset in Glacier National Park, from Going-to-the-sun Road. It was overcast near the end of the day, but you can see the sun peeking through the misty mountains. Wish you were here! 

'Children of the Corn' Bike Ride

This ride got its name from the other Chris - because the whole thing is through farmland, which is great scenery, but smelly and buggy at times.  You'll notice though... no hills!  It was crazy how flat it was, which is great (and makes me super spoiled for when I come home and try to ride far), but it was a long time to keep your butt on the seat regardless.  Overall a really nice ride (I always say this), and it taught me the importance of having lights with you if you think there's any chance you might get caught in the dark!

 

Also, this ride capped off my first week of 100+ miles.  Cross country training.... ;-)

 

I'm looking forward to your return from Montana so that we can do some more riding together (among other things of course) !!.  It'd be a lot of fun to plan a couple rides of 30-50 miles (w/ stops for snacks and whatnot), and then maybe another charity ride if we can find one that fits well into our schedules :-).

The usual PA bike ride with a bump

 

Chris Morse really didn't like this hill... it was pretty funny, because it had several 'false peaks' so he was like, "if this isnt the top up here, we need to turn around!"  It was steep, but nothing out of the ordinary really, he's just a bit of a baby when it comes to hills I think.  Anyhow, it was another good one.  If you ever wanna come back to PA, I'll take you on it!! :-) 

KC's loop - Torrington, Winchester, Highland Lake

 

For reference, obviously you see Highland Lake, and where we started and stopped (red square with white circle inside) is Casey's house, and then Brendon's house is right about where it says "Platt Hill" in the center of the 'loop'.  I though it was really cool that I got a category 4 climb!!!  Casey was funny because on the climbs he was pushing really hard in the beginning I think, but he wasn't really showing it and then by the end of the ride he was super tired and took the last few hills really slowly.  He said he wasn't sure if it was just because he doesn't bike much, because biking uses muscles differently than running, or if it was the 18mi run he did earlier that day.  I was nice and said it was probably a combination of the two, though.  He had done this ride (without the section around highland lake like we did) with his friend Tony before, who isn't in any shape at all apparently, so he was like wow we just cruised up those hills!  I guess Tony had to stop a few times, but we didn't at all.  All in all though, it was a really nice ride so maybe I'll take you on it sometime :-) 

I though it was nice that MMR broke down the climbs like this (above)... for some reason I don't think it did for the King Ferry loop... so I was trying to figure out the percentage by estimating afterwards but this takes all the guess work out of it.

Words of Wisdom

Chris: http://www.adventurecycling.org/resources/blog/lessons-learned/
me:  that's way more than 5 words... he tricked me
Chris:  words of wisdom
me:  yeah, that's more than 5 words of wisdom... it is 5 paragraphs of wisdom
Chris:  words of wisdom is a saying; its not supposed to mean 5 words, like 5 messages of wisdom
me:  here are 5 words of wisdom: "Don't eat that yellow snow"
Chris:  no
me:  yes

After a long day of hiking, I think I earned a piece of cake this big!

Rachel's loop + Fenner Rd Hill

 I was happy we got out and did this ride before the reception... it was really nice out and felt good to get some exercise and explore :-).  Map my ride even rated the hill at the beginning as a climb, but only a category 5... meaning it was more than 3% grade for at least 500m.  Not sure what the cutoff is for cat 4, etc...  That's a mini feather for your hat though! :-)

 

 

Crispell Chocolate Cake

Ingredients:

• cake:
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup sour milk (add 1 tsp vinegar to regular milk and let it sit for a few minutes)
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup oil (or 1/2 cup oil, 1/2 cup applesauce)
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of hot water
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• icing:
• get non-Betty Crocker cream cheese white icing from the store
• mix in 2-3 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350
2. Dissolve the baking soda and salt in the hot water 
3. Mix together the ingredients in a bowl.
4. Bake for 35-45 minutes.

( Let me guess what your comment will be... "What makes it different than any other chocolate cake? Nothing? Then why put the 'Crispell' in front of it?" ) ;)

Aunt Alli Gets Married

Looking good in your shirts!

Oh wait, I guess I am supposed to put up pictures of you and I, not you and Wesley! 

Thanks for helping out with everything and for being such a trooper :) I had a really nice weekend with you! You were so good-humored about talking to so many strangers. Thanks mucho. I though you looked really handsome, too.