Today my dad and I arrived in Yellowstone in -20 degree weather. Yes, it was that cold. I have never been so cold in my life, and there is probably a week more of this weather in my future. Anyways, we headed down to Gardiner Montana after landing in Bozeman. It is a winter wonderland here, there is snow everywhere. As we pulled into Mammoth Hot springs it was snowing and incredibly windy. My face still feels wind burned… ...
As many of you know last year I spent a week in Yellowstone following wolves and taking photos. I am blessed to yet again have this amazing opportunity to explore the harsh wild wilderness that is the Yellowstone tundra. The next week I will be in the Northern part of the park photographing animals and landscape. I haven’t been posting as often this month because I have been so busy with preparations. After this is over I am going to go back to posting regularly. Hopefully each day I will have time to post some of my pictures from my adventures of that day. Last year I couldn’t because we were so busy, but hopefully this year I can. I can’t wait to return to Yellowstone. Hopefully this year I will get some really good wolf shots! ...
It is always the most interesting type of beauty that can be found within the dead and withered objects. The things you believe are beyond the beauty of life and have passed over into a place where only death is. Often, however, it seems that these dead things carry their own beauty. A distinct majesty from the living beauty that stands far a part from any normal type of beauty. It seems there is even beauty in death. The withered and the dying, a beauty that is not from a world we can fully understand. Instead, a beauty that awaits us for a certain time and until then we can not fully understand this withered and dead beauty, just what it could mean. ...
Yesterday Gabe did the Pine Flat road race, and this afternoon it’s the Dinuba Criterium. He’ll be riding a small loop thirty times around very quiet Dinuba. This huskie anxiously awaits the start with the rest of us. Right away Jack from Specialized powers off the front as if today was a time trial. One guy manages to hang on for a couple of laps before running out of steam. Gabe is staying right on Aidan’s wheel, and the small group is working well together. ...
It’s a holiday weekend and we’re off to the central valley for some quality bike racing. First stop is the Pine Flat road race. It was pouring rain on the way out, but this morning it’s a fine day for racing. It’s going to be a long course with quite a bit of climbing, but fortunately Gabe’s junior field is pretty small. And the four of them are off up the steep short hill at the start. ...
Last week was the last training race, and today is the real thing. Fortunately the field isn’t packed with the usual ringers from SJBC or Specialized, so Gabe is hoping for a good finish. It’s a slower pace than previous races, and I’m happy to see Gabe hanging right at the front of the pack the whole race. He holds a pretty decent position on the last turn and pulls off a sixth with Ryan from Steven’s Bicycles taking first. ...
It seems there are windows hidden in all sorts of places. Windows to what, is the question.
Part two of our Napa adventure included the most amazing thing I saw all weekend was the Castello de Amorosa. We visited this castle out in the wine country was extraordinary. My favorite part of the castle was not actually the structure, but the animals around it. Especially the sheep, they cracked me up and made it feel almost like we were back in time at a medieval castle. ...
My family and I went on a short trip up to Napa for my little brother’s road bike race called the Cherry Pie Criterium. Yes, the winners do get cherry pies, sadly not us though. This was my first trip to wine country and because I am not yet of drinking age we had to find some pretty awesome adventures other than wine tasting. First plan for adventure: visiting cool looking wineries and taking pictures of fields with flowers. ...
We’re off to the Cherry Pie Criterium this weekend for Gabe’s first big official group crit. He’s pretty nervous considering he’s lumped in with the 17-18 year old group, and there are tons of advanced category riders. Looks like Specialized, SJBC, Tieni Duro, and Team Swift are here in force. A slow clip in doesn’t bode well. The pack is moving very fast today and there’s one crash at the switch over that came close to Gabe. They’ll be heading up and over this hill quite a few times. Specialized is working really hard at the front. ...