2011

Gabe is racing Elite 4 at the Burlingame Criterium today with Mack. It’s the first big elite field criterium Gabe has signed up for, and he’s been looking forward to it. Mack did a very nice job of attacking throughout the race, but unfortunately the field was plenty fast and no one was going to get away today. Gabe hung in the pack nicely for the entire race, while managing to avoid getting into any trouble. Sorry to see Justin and a few others go down, but I don’t think anyone was seriously hurt. ...

Time for the Central Coast Circuit road race again. Not much wind, but it’s a typical cool, foggy morning as Gabe and Mack get ready to roll in the Elite 4s. Charlotte and I hike out towards the other side of the course, and catch a glimpse of them coming down the hill before we continue up to the top. There’s a pretty cool lookout at the top of the hill, but Charlotte confirms that yellow jackets are swarming just like the warning sign indicated. Time to head back down the hill. ...

Last year in Horseshoe Bend I found an amazing looking lizard while out hiking. This year since we returned to the same spot I was hoping to again find a lizard like that. To do this we began a lizard hunt. We found several different types of lizard, the most common was this little guy with the black banded neck. We also spotted a nice small red lizard. He was enjoying his sun spot and was extremely good at camouflaging himself. ...

Gabe’s frame was recently cracked in a minor car accident, so it’s bad news for my wallet, but good news for the bike racing crazy junior. He was convinced the Specialized S-Works SL3 was the way to go, but we were both hooked on Cervelo once we checked them out at Spokesman in Santa Cruz. Gabe got the S3 with Roval wheels and S-Works shoes. Now that’s a racing machine! ...

Even now at 4:30 in the morning in Death Valley, it is near scorching. It is an ungodly heat, but for the beauty in this sparse land, it is worth it. We woke up really, really early in the morning to catch the sunrise and get a little hike in before it was too hot out. So we headed over to the Mesquite Sand Dunes to watch the sun rise over this sandy wonderland. ...

I know this is out of order but bear with me. Today was the last day of our road trip around the Southwest. After a week, four states, and twelve national parks my mom and I are finally home. Reasonably, we are both very tired so today’s story of how we went all the way from Death Valley’s 108 degree weather, to mountains of snow in Yosemite and finally home to our lovely little Santa Cruz. However you will have to wait one more day for the photos and the fully story. Stay tuned!!

Today was a day of reminiscing, we went back and visited many places that we saw last year on our road trip to Michigan and loved. The first of our most memorable revisits was Horseshoe Bend, a colossal gooseneck near Lake Powell. This extraordinarily impressive geological monolith is one of my favorite views I have ever seen. Sadly the lightning was a far cry from last years and resulted in shadowed photos. Good photos or not, this was beyond amazing and I am really glad to go back and have another chance to see this unique structure. ...

Today we decided to give Arches a second try but earlier, when there are not massive hordes of toursists all over the park. We had an extraordinary time! We first visited the Windows were there were no people at all and had a pleasant, but extremely fast paced hike as we took pictures of the window arches. Afterwards we headed over to the Delicate Arch where we were faced with a decision. To simply use the overlook of the arch or do a hike up a sheer rock face to stand right next to the cliff. We almost chose incorrectly and were thinking about doing the overlook for time’s sake. However in the end the hiker’s spirit won and we decided to make the trek to the arch. It was a decision we will never regret. ...

After last nights flat tire we were left behind schedule in Escalante instead of Moab for the night. As a result we had a lot of ground to make up tonight and did three national parks in one day. The first was Capitol Reef, a national park full of brightly colored cliffs, beautiful aspens, and petroglyphs. We saw many cool things in this park. The first was a little hidden cliff dwelling. I am not sure whether this is ancient (I doubt it) or something someone just decided would be cool to make but either way it was really interesting and cool. ...

Bryce was the next, highly anticipated stop on our trip. I have never been there before but my mom and dad rave about how beautiful and breathtakingly awesome this national park is. So naturally we went, because I am a national park spoiled brat. We were able to experience our first real wildlife besides lizards and a few sparse chipmunks. There were pronghorn antelope all over Bryce and they were relatively close to the road as well. ...