Spent last weekend out in Carlisle. A friend of our was having her bridal shower, so while Ms. Geology went to that, I spent Saturday afternoon doing very adult things with the groom-to-be and his father. Adult things consisted of discussing/arguing about the difference between conservative and liberal politics, discussing negligence laws, talking about cookies, and watching Harry Potter 7 (part 1). All of those are clearly adult things. We spent that night getting reacquainted with the G-man, and I spent the night wondering why only one of the bartenders there can make a whiskey sour that is WHISKEY sour as opposed to whiskey SOUR. For the record, that bartender was not on that night. Much fun was had.
The next morning, I had sort of planned on hitting up the MBM ride out of big flat (after a bunch of other plans fell through). The 9 AM start to that deterred me, and I choose sleeping in and waffles at the hotel. I headed down to Michaux for a solo ride, and ended up riding for a little bit with some dudes. Don't remember who they were. I took us 1:10 to get from the Furnace Stacks to the top of Bunker Hill (at Michaux Road). Let me spell that out for you: one hour and ten minutes. After clearing a good bit of the deadfall off Creek Trail (whatever we could get by hand, for we had no tools), we hit Bunker Hill and began to do the same thing. After we crested that first little rise (having already cleared one section of deadfall) we were greeted by what more deadfall than I have ever seen on a trail. It looked like someone had run along side of the trail with a chainsaw and cut all the trees down. We walked from there until the gate and the hard road, which had been cleared by the power company or something. After the short ride to Michaux Road, I split off from the dudes, abandoning my plan to head out to Tumbling Run via Creek Trails both because I didn't have time for that loop and because I thought that the top of the ridge would be more clear of deadfall (stuff should fall away from the top right?). I headed straight uphill for the new ridge stuff.
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| Forgive the cell phone pictures. |
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| Still can't get this one. |
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| Classic PA chunkiness. |
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| An autumnal moonscape. |
Shortly after that, on the hard switchback on Traverse, I did something stupid and crashed. Not in the typical Zach crash spot (in the switchback, trying to take the not-over-the-rock line), but right before it. The leaves defeated me and I ended up on my back with legs up in the air, still attached to a bike that was standing on its front wheel with its back wheel up in the air against a tree. I must have wrenched my shoulder, because it hurt. I bailed down Cold Spring, rode back to the car and called it a semi-successful day. Riding like this needs to exist where I live...
Two days later, I was back in Carlisle for this:
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| I guess I'm legit now... |
Apparently I gave a really good talk, and lead a really good discussing about what is being done to improve Bay health in general. Honestly, I was surprised, as I though my talk to be horribly dull. It felt good to be in the presence of academic minds again; a refreshing reminder that I do know what I'm doing, and I am mostly intelligent. Unfortunately, the professor I had most wanted to see is on sabbatical this year and did not feel the need to come. I don't blame him since he lives almost three hours away. Fortunately, an old professor of mine, someone who I admire and respect greatly happened to be visiting from the school she now teaches at. That was a great surprise. I hope she had some good discussions about diabase. I do love me some diabase.
Damn renovations happening after I graduated! Soooo much space now...
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| I wish I had this rock prep lab when I was in college. |
Just remember, here at C3-Athletes Serving Athletes presented by Twenty20 Cycling, we care...
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| Love. |
