Life and Updates...

I haven't been really updating you all lately - as I've been a bit preoccupied mentally with a death in my family - my grandfather of 86 years old. He lived a very full and wonderful life. I only share this with you to remind everyone to cherish the moments they have with loved ones and friends - as sometimes you don't know when those moments will be gone.

On to the updates - obviously much less serious.


This is a view up the icy climb on the Pinnacle / Hawk mountain from Reservoir Rd. I got out for a short hour and some climb to the Helicopter pad and down some singletrack before I left for the viewing and family stuff on Thursday.

After the funeral on Friday, I decided to go out for a long road ride. I figured I would try to beat my longest year to date ride of 53ish. I just installed a new battery in my Ipod and with a fresh charge I headed out towards Emmaus, roughly 27 miles away, for a stop at SMC for some coffee and to see if anyone else was riding. I met up with Hans, who had just flown in from Kansas City on a 3 week business trip. He was itchin' for a ride so we headed out Mountain Rd which happens to be on my way home (thankfully). After some conversational miles Hans turned off to do some hill hunting and I headed back towards home. I got to my road at about 58 miles (only a 5 mile increase over YTD) so I blew right past the turn and headed out to Spokes to get in a few extra miles - and an extra caffeine gel pack. Arriving back at home I had clocked just shy of 70 miles in about 4 hours ride time. About 4400 feet of elevation gain and a 16.6 average speed - I'm pretty happy with that for my longest ride ytd.

-matt