Peacocks and Chinchillas

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Fly Away, Little Birdie

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Published on February 28, 2010, by in ADVENTURES in biking, skiing, traveling, thinking, IMBA TCC, LISTS.

Since Steve and I left Boulder on January 19, we spent the next 33 days learning everything we would need to know in order to become trailbuilding professionals. We traveled to or through 6 states – Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas – and logged over 2,700 miles on the IMBAru. In a nutshell, and to paraphrase McDonald’s, we’re lovin’ it. The only damper so far had nothing to do with IMBA, but rather, a young man joyriding in a borrowed Cadillac Escalade and effectively totaling our IMBAru, three days into the job. This happened in snowy and icy Prescott, Arizona. The whole situation was a bummer, as it impeded our quality training time, but after a quick jaunt back up to Denver, we were able to pick up right where we left off in Prescott. Although wintry weather (snow, rain, hail, sleet, wind, mud, you name it) did

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Alta Is For Lovers

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Published on February 22, 2010, by in ADVENTURES in biking, skiing, traveling, thinking.

Steve and I are in Alta, Utah right now, with his dad and brother as well. I love Alta. Not only because we got engaged here about a year ago, but because of the powder on the mountain even with few storms, scarce lift lines, friendly folk, and comfy lodge.We’re here for three days. Here are shots of Scott and of Steve skiing today.

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Texas, Yee-Haw!

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Published on February 11, 2010, by in ADVENTURES in biking, skiing, traveling, thinking.

We’ve been in Texas for the past five days, and will be here until early March. We’ve spent time in El Paso, Fort Stockton, Fredericksburg, Austin, and, starting next Monday the 15th, will make our way through Waco, Dallas, Lake Meredith, and up through the NE part of the state. I can’t say anything bad about Texas. Folks are friendly as can be, and aside from the fact that Michelle’s Obama’s food deserts have a whole new meaning to me (Sonic’s popcorn chicken do not a healthy meal make) and that Steve might be in the early stages of seasonal affective disorder because of the gray weather, I can’t complain. These are some pictures from our drive eastward through half of Texas (“Texas is so big!” said Chris). Shout out to Tim Dooley, of Dooley’s 5 10 & 25 in Fredericksburg. Tim saw us pull up in the IMBArus in

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Oh The Places!

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Published on February 10, 2010, by in ADVENTURES in biking, skiing, traveling, thinking, IMBA TCC.

We’ve been on the road for three weeks now! It feels an eternity in all the good ways. Here are the wonderful corners of our great nation that we’ve set foot in over the past three weeks: View Larger Map Some of the places we expect to find ourselves over the next few months include (in this order): Bentonville, Arkansas Lake Meredith, Texas Kansas City, Missouri Salida, Colorado Omaha, Nebraska Marseilles, Illinois Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Augusta, Georgia New River Gorge, West Virginia Raystown Lake, Pennsylvnia Indianapolis, Indiana Happy travels to us!

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Better Pictures Elsewhere

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Published on January 31, 2010, by in IMBA TCC.

Chris & Leslie Kehmeier, the senior Trail Care Crew, have been fun travel companions and good teachers. They’ve been training us for the past couple of weeks, and we’ll travel to New Mexico and Texas together over the next three weeks. Leslie is a wonderful photographer, and captured some great moments of our first week on the road. The pictures are on the IMBA TCC blog, check back frequently for more stories and pictures. More of Leslie’s pictures are available on her personal website, too. From the IMBA TCC blog: TCC Week 1 in Photos.

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IMBARU

 

I have a new job. And it doesn’t involve a desk.

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Published on January 21, 2010, by in ADVENTURES in biking, skiing, traveling, thinking, IMBA TCC.

In Outside Magazine or National Geographic Traveler, do you ever read about dream jobs? Or the “job of a lifetime?” Welcome to my new world.  And welcome Steve, too! The International Mountain Bicycling Organization (IMBA) recently hired us as part of a team: we’re the new IMBA Trail Care Crew. Our duties include promoting mountain biking advocacy, training local mountain bike clubs and volunteers on sustainable trail building and design both in the classroom and in the field, educating bikers on how to establish and operate a club, meeting with land managers and other decision makers to discuss  and help solve trail management challenges, and in general, improving mountain biking experiences for all users across North America. It’s the perfect time in our lives to be hitting the road for a good cause, and we couldn’t be more excited. We spent two solid weeks packing up our home, moving furniture

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Barenaked Ladies Concert

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Published on December 14, 2009, by in MUSIC.

On Saturday night we made our way to Vail (quick drive from @coppermtn) to check out the Barenaked Ladies in concert. Did you hear that it snowed in the Rockies this weekend? It did. Which means that since the concert was outside, it snowed on us. Although my piggies were frozen by the end of the show, it was quite a magical evening. The Barenaked Ladies don’t put on a concert, they put on a show. That too was magical – comedic improv, snow angels, layers and layers of clothing, huge snowflakes, BNL hits and new songs, about 10 feet from the stage amongst a crowd of 8,000, and even Jason Biggs! Kevin, the BNL drummer, recapped the evening on the BNL blog, complete with some photographic evidence of the snow flakes. I think you might even be able to see us in the crowd in the second picture. I

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2009 – 2010 Ski Day #1

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Published on November 24, 2009, by in ADVENTURES in biking, skiing, traveling, thinking.

On Saturday (11/21), Steve (@SteveLommele), Ryan (@ryanamirault) and I skied at Copper Mountain (@coppermtn). For the three of us, it was our first time on the mountain this year. There were five lifts open, out of Copper’s suite of 23 lifts. We stuck to the American Eagle / Excelerator, and American Flyer lifts. Our first two runs and our last run were off of the former lift combo, while the rest of our runs (6-7) were off of American Flyer. We were skiing by 9 a.m. For a day in mid-November, the snow was remarkably good. The temps were between 20 and 30 degrees Fahrenheit. No powder, even though the weather forecast called for new snow on Saturday, but that was just as well, as the weather was stellar (as evidenced by my gaper goggle tan later that day). Most of the snow on the open runs was man-made, but

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Fiji’s For Lovers

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Published on November 10, 2009, by in ADVENTURES in biking, skiing, traveling, thinking.

If you’d like to know what I was doing between September 13 and September 27, 2009, think sand, scuba and lots of other things that start with ‘s.’ Sun, seashells, soft cover books, etc. We traveled to Fiji for our honeymoon, which went a bit like this: – Arrive at LAX, almost don’t board the plane to Fiji because of passport “complications” – One week on the island of Yaqeta (pronounced Yang-etta) in the Yasawa Group in NW Fiji, scuba, kayaking, lounging, sun, rain, 5-star food & drink, almost capsizing in a minuscule fishing boat during a torrential storm, music, walking around the island, periodic adventures. We stayed at the Navutu Stars Resort Fiji. – One week on the island of Taveuni (also known as the “Garden Island”) in NE Fiji, small aircrafts, hiking, kayaking, more reading, chai, Indo-Fijian cuisine, more scuba, sharks, sea snakes, sunsets, day-long taxi adventures with

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