Beachin' it

I've been down on the "Delmarva" Peninsula for the past few days getting some beach time in. We started on Assateague Island for a couple of days of car camping, then we moved on through Ocean City and Bethany Beach to a hotel in Rehoboth Beach, DE (which is a really nice area). Selected Pictures:

All in all, it was a great trip.  Highlights included the Assateague Crab House (where we sort of learned how to eat crab), Camping with some really interesting people (although the mosquitoes were no fun), body boarding in the crazy rip currents, and hanging out with friends in Rehoboth (Fish tacos in Dewey Beach were tasty).

It was our first beach trip in a while (a really long while - in fact I don't really remember when we went last).  And I think I'm pretty good for the next couple of years as far as Beach Trips go.  I'd much rather spend my money on a sweet ski vacation, or even a new pair of skis.  It's not that I dislike the beach (like I said, we had a great time), but I like the mountains more.

Also, I said a couple of times over the course of the trip that I don't like going to the same place over and over again.  And beaches all seem pretty similar to me.  There's some sand, some waves, some cheap beachwear stores, some salt water taffy stores, and some pizza places.  Assateague was different (although we learned that it might have been the exact same, if not for random events), but every other place we went seemed like a repeat of the last place we were.  I don't know why, but every trip to the mountains seems different to me - especially if I'm exploring a new area.  It just seems like there are so many more options.  For example, there are a bunch of different ski areas in the east.  Each of those areas has a bunch of different trails.  And each of those trails has a bunch of different lines.  Even if I'm skiing the same hill over and over again, there's more than enough variety to keep me entertained for season after season.  This works for mountain biking and hiking too (there are a lot of ways to climb Mount Marcy).  At the beach, I just didn't get that feeling.

I'm not trying to say that if you've seen one beach, you've seen them all.  There are a lot of beaches that I've never been to that I'd like to go to (these seem like a good start), and I'm sure I'll take another beach trip eventually.  I just want to state once again, for the record, that if you're looking for an exciting, varied vacation, the mountains are the place to be.  And if you're looking for an exciting, varied life, the beach house might not be the best way to go.

Creativity

There's something to be said for creating something. That's really why I started this blog. I mean, I have a lot of thoughts that I could just keep to myself (and sometimes, I probably should), but I kind of like the idea of putting it down in print. It's sort of like taking a snapshot of where I am in my life, and it provides a loose road map for where I want to go (sometimes, it literally is a snapshot of my life). But sometimes a snapshot isn't enough. . .

I was listening to Howard Stern this morning (as per usual), and he had Sylvester Stallone on. I found the most interesting parts of the interview were the times that Sly talked about how his movies are made. Most of his films were all him - directing, writing, acting, etc. He wrote all of the Rocky movies, all of the Rambo movies, Over The Top, Cliffhanger, The Expendables (his new movie), and a bunch of others. He said that he didn't even make any money with the last Rocky movie, and he doesn't expect to make any money with The Expendables. Here's a guy who makes movies just because he wants to create. He gets an idea, he writes the script, and he does what is necessary to get the movie made, even if none of his movies quite match up to Citizen Kane. Was there a market for Rocky 4? I don't know, but the scene with Rocky training in Siberia while Drago getting juiced up in his state-of-the-art gym is cinematic gold. I feel like if Stallone didn't push so hard to get his movies made, they never would've seen the light of day.

Before today, I was thinking about this while watching Hunting Yeti, the Nimbus film series done for the Ski Channel. These guys don't really have much in the way of film equipment. In fact, I read a profile in some ski magazine (I forget which and I can't find it online), that showed pretty much their entire operation: A really nice digital video camera, 7 One Terabyte Hard Drives (two of which he travels with), A really nice Mac, and a couple of still cameras. Toss in a guy that they got to do all of their music (no licensing fees = key), and all of a sudden, they had a film company. In fact, it was even easier than that. According to this article:

At the top of one of these runs, holding the camera in my hands and planning a shot with Eric Pollard, i had an epiphany. i realized i had total control of what we were doing. Nobody was telling us what we should do or how we should do it, and we were having tons of fun. I told Pollard, “This is what I want to be doing,” and he instantly agreed.

And their film company was born. Keep in mind, I don't even like some of the stuff they do in their films. They do a lot of stuff without their poles (which always looked weird to me), and I will never understand skiing powder backwards (I thought that one of the best things about powder was the face shot). But I'm sure there are a lot of people who don't like Rocky 4 too.

Either way, like Hansel, you've got to respect that they're out there making it happen. To create something that lasts forever - that's like a Jay Z song. I love making ski movies, I love the editing, I love fitting stuff to music, and I love the skiing. I love sitting around my house in September or October rewatching all of the movies that I made in previous years. I've been getting some hints that there's a call for me to do it again.

I'm definitely in, but when I made the previous films, I was usually the one behind the camera (I never got good results when other people tried to shoot). This time, though, I want to be like Sly. I want to be the Talent too.

Anticipation

One more note on that New York Times article. I remembered this paragraph when someone on the Harvey Road Forum said that their Powder Magazine was delivered:

In fact, scholars have found that anticipation increases happiness. Considering buying an iPad? You might want to think about it as long as possible before taking one home. Likewise about a Caribbean escape: you’ll get more pleasure if you book a flight in advance than if you book it at the last minute.

I go back and forth on this all the time. Sometimes I think that the amount of time that I spend anticipating something (ski season, vacation, the weekend) would be better spent elsewhere. I feel like I build things up so much, when they actually occur, I feel let down that they weren’t as awesome as I anticipated. If I decide, 4 months in advance, that the upcoming ski season will be the best ever, I will inevitably be disappointed when the snowfall amounts are down, my favorite runs aren’t open, and work obligations are preventing me from skiing anywhere new. You hear this all the time around Late December/Early January. People ask why the mountain isn’t opening quicker. Why does Okemo have so many more trails open? Why hasn’t there been any natural snow? I don’t know if it’s the fast food culture, internet shopping, or just the hectic pace of daily life, but everything has to be perfect, and it has to be perfect now.

But there’s also another side, the one that loves to plan. Sometimes the best part of a vacation is the time I spend before the vacation finding out about where I’m going. I search the internet for trip reports, talk to people who’ve gone, and develop all sorts of options in my head. And travel isn’t the only time I do this. Earlier this year, it wasn’t enough for me to walk into a bike store and buy a mountain bike. I poured over mtbr.com. I talked with anyone remotely connected to mountain bikes. I read all sorts of buyer’s guides. In fact, I buy lottery tickets not because I think I’ll win the lottery, but because I like to spend the days before the drawing planning what I would do if I won. The happiness I get from planning is easily equal to the $1 that the ticket cost me.

So, really, I’m in agreement with the article, and I’m not going to feel bad about getting my hopes up. So what if there might be disappointment along the way? A little bump in the trail never forced me to give up skiing (in fact, eventually, it made skiing more fun). This ski season is going to be the best ever. We’re going to get a ton of snow, everything will be open by early January, and we’ll be loving life in the Tannery, raising beers to sick lines, deep pow, and good friends.

And I’m going to win the lottery.

Happiness is . . .

Because I am a snobby elitist, I was reading the New York Times and I stumbled across this article. The same theme always repeats itself in articles about happiness. Basically, instead of spending money on material possessions, we should be spending money on experiences. However, I also noticed this section:

Thomas DeLeire, an associate professor of public affairs, population, health and economics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, recently published research examining nine major categories of consumption. He discovered that the only category to be positively related to happiness was leisure: vacations, entertainment, sports and equipment like golf clubs and fishing poles.

Ah-ha!!! I can use this to justify my purchase of the mountain bike. I was just making an investment in my future happiness. And really, the investment has paid out substantially. I've been riding twice a week (or so) and every weekend. We're getting better and better too (despite the horrific fall that I suffered last Thursday). I don't think this quote applies to my 6th pair of skis, though. At some point, I'd imagine that the law of diminishing returns supersedes the happiness rule.

In all seriousness, though, intuitively, this seems to be the case. I always seem to remember trips that I took, events that I experienced, and adventures that I had. Were they all great times? No, but according to the article, that doesn't even matter:

One reason that paying for experiences gives us longer-lasting happiness is that we can reminisce about them, researchers say. That’s true for even the most middling of experiences. That trip to Rome during which you waited in endless lines, broke your camera and argued with your spouse will typically be airbrushed with “rosy recollection,” says Sonja Lyubomirsky, a psychology professor at the University of California, Riverside.

Professor Lyubomirsky has a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct research on the possibility of permanently increasing happiness. “Trips aren’t all perfect,” she notes, “but we remember them as perfect.”

NICE!!! And I've had that theory for a long time. In fact, some of the best stories come from trips that didn't go according to plan.

Think about it. How many of your best stories start out like this: "Well, I was sitting at home on my couch and . . ." I'd imagine pretty much none of them. Most of my stories start out like this "So there I was in [insert crazy place/crazy situation/crazy predicament] and then . . .". Stuff never happens at home. Cool stuff always happens out there. And "there" is a different place for each individual. Some people do all their cool stuff at the nightclub. Some people love the beach. Me? All my cool shit happens in the mountains.

Which leads me to my greatest epiphany ever. When we were mountain biking up at the Stables the other day (Carriage/Powerline/Pilgrim/Dam/There to Here/Dam/Rock Garden/Unkown Trail out), Ace had a message on her phone when we got out of the woods. We threw some high fives, changed into flip flops, and cracked open some beers. She called the guy back in the parking area, and she got great news from a job interview that she went on the previous day. She got an awesome new job, in the ski industry, making more than she's making now, and she gets July and August off.

It was such a great moment to celebrate. Hanging out with a bunch of friends, drinking cold beer on a hot day, trading stories and barbs. Everyone there was psyched for her new job, and she was loving it. Later, when we were talking about how great that day was, I had this epic quote:

"When you're doing cool shit, and cool shit happens to you, that's just more cool shit!"

Basically, what I was trying to say was that, when you're living your life the way you want to live it, and things fall into place for you that makes your life even better, it's the cherry on the sundae. It was already good. Now it's just better (and really, there's nothing to stop it from continuing to get better - how about some rainbow sprinkles on that bad boy?).

I kind of liked the way I put it originally, though.

I should write for the New York Times.

Epic Ride @ SMBA

Long Ride today up at the SMBA trails near Skidmore College.  We wanted to do "Dam" the long trail that goes out extremely far from the trailhead with no support or civilization in sight.  We made it, but it was a struggle.  We started off on the carriage trail, and then we rocked "Swam Pass".  I was feeling rough.  I usually make it without putting a foot down, but today, I dropped it twice.  I'm going to go ahead and blame it on my heavy pack.  I was carrying water, some Gatorade . . . Ahhh, who am I kidding?  I SUCK!!!  Anyway, here's the Video:

After Swam Pass, we cruised on Bee over to the Dam trail.  We knew going in that it was gong to be tough.  We saw a vertical rock wall, and we told each other that it might not be possible.  Fortunately, we were prepared for a long day.  We hiked/biked/hiked/biked/biked our way towards the Dam Peninsula trail.  It was tough going in some spots, but really fun in other spots.  Here's a few pics:

  
The Fish Eye Lens of my helmet cam gives a little distortion, but you get the idea.  A lot of it was pretty great.  Some of it was pretty Gnarly.  For Example after we rode the Dam, The Dam Peninsula, and then the Dam for a while, we came upon this little treat (called "The Dragon's Back"):

It's this kind of ride that makes me ask myself if I'm a panzy.  I mean, it's a brutal knife edge rock, steeply dipping, with a rooty runout between trees.  When I first started mountain biking (a mere month and a half ago), I never would have even thought about attempting it.  But today, I stood on top and I wondered:  "Can I do this????"  I eventually decided "No."

But I still wonder if I could have gotten it.  The trail today was filled with chances like that.  Times that I asked myself if it was within my ability level, and I either risked it or pussied out (like a boss). When I risked it, I made it a bunch, but I missed it a few times.  Is there a harm in risking it?  I mean, obviously there is the risk of falling on some granitic gneiss (sorry, that's the geologist in me) and breaking my neck, but will that happen?  The times I risked it today I got away scott free (except for a bruised toe where I slammed my foot into a rock).  Will I be so lucky next time?

It seems that the older I get, the more these questions come up.  When I was younger, I wouldn't question riding some rocks, or hucking a cliff while skiing, or starting my life over in a new city.  But now that I'm 30 (ugh), I think about consequences a lot more.  What if I break my neck? Or tear my ACL?  Or go broke?

What is the correct way to think about things?  Is youthful naivete just that?  A stupid thought, that could only be dreamed up by someone who doesn't know any better? Or is there something behind it?  Maybe we should be pushing ourselves.  Maybe we should be expanding our horizons.  Maybe we should be making ourselves uncomfortable.  Maybe, just maybe, the smooth, easy path is the way that everyone else goes, and the only way to truly be great is to conquer the Dragon's Back.

Recent Mountain Bike Adventures

Really hitting the Mountain Bike hard lately (which is a good thing, considering the amount of money I spent on it).  After a so-so trip to Garnet Hill two weekends ago (trails are slightly overgrown and underused), we went up to Lake Placid to see what the Whiteface area had to offer.  We were definitely not disappointed.  On Saturday, Ace and I sampled the "Flume" trails down near the Hungry Trout Restaurant.  The trails are relatively new, and very well maintained:

Really, just a great day.  Rock Garden was a little above our skill level (read: impossible), but we rode all the way up to the Whiteface Kids Kampus on the Lower Connector trail, and then all the way back down on the Upper Connector trail - really, really fun with some technical areas and some stream crossings, but just enough difficulty to make it a challenge.

The next day (Sunday) we tried a little loop right near my parents camp detailed here.  The route into Deer Pond was mixed.  The first half was a really nice, wide-ish nature trail that we had a blast on.  The next part was a series of two plank bridges over some swampland.  Some of the bridges were ridable, but a lot of them weren't.  Between the bridges were some sections with roots, stumps and rocks that tripped us up more than once.  A tough hike/bike experience.  Eventually, through, just as we were getting towards the pond, we were rewarded with a nice downhill and beautiful views of a remote lake.  We didn't really have the map linked above, so we had a little discussion about which way to go out.  Eventually, we decided on the trail that pointed us to "Old Wawbeek Road".  This turned out to be a good decision, since 95% of the trail was perfectly ridable (as opposed to about 65% of the previous trail).  And eventually, we reached the aforementioned road, which turned out to be abandoned asphalt - perfect for our somewhat weary legs.

Finally, we joined some friends for a ride yesterday (Tuesday) up at the Skidmore Stables.  We just did a quick loop of Carriage Trail-Pilgrim-Swam Pass-Here to There-Rock Garden (different Rock Garden)-Carriage Trail.  Ace and I seem to be getting better because sections of trail that we used to struggle with, we are now flying over with ease.  I think the difficult trails that we are subjecting ourselves to are making us better riders.  As hard as the Flume Rock Garden and Deer Pond trails were, we're subconsciously taking what we've learned on those trails and turning it into positive movements on our regular trails.  Kind of like skiing in a way.

In fact, I'll have to remember that this winter.  A great way to get better is to try new trails at new mountains.  Or new trails at old mountains.  Or new lines on old trails.  Even if it's a struggle while you're doing it, subconsciously, you're learning what works and what doesn't.  So eventually, when you get back to the trails you're used to, you'll be rocking them like never before . . .

Gore Update

Once again, Harvey44 is killing it over on his blog, so if you want an update on the happenings at Gore Mountain this summer, click here.

Trip Report (MTB): Kingdom Trails in East Burke, VT

After riding my road bike all last summer, I felt I needed to blow a ton of money on a mountain bike.  So I did.  Ace, not wanting to be upstaged, followed by blowing a ton of money on a mountain bike for herself.  We've been on about 8 rides so far, but this past Sunday at the Kingdom Trails was most definitely the best.

The closest place for us to ride is "The Stables" up near Skidmore College in Saratoga.  It's pretty sweet, but I think "challenging" would be an appropriate word.  Lots of roots, rocks, and technical climbs.  This means that we are spending a lot more time than we would like off of our bikes.  After a couple of afternoons there, we tried to branch out a little.

We tried Moreau State Park off of exit 17, but we didn't really know where we were going or what trails were good, so we kind of did a uphill hike with our bikes, followed by a hairy, technical descent.  We found some nice trails later in the day, but we were pretty spent from negotiating the rocky uphills and steep downhills earlier.  Next, on the way back from Buffalo (where we spent the July 4th weekend), we tried the Finger Lakes Trail at Letchworth State Park.  That was some fun riding.  Nice singletrack, fast and flowy, with a couple of technical stream crossings (some we made, and some we didn't).  Definitely a nice place, but the terrain is slightly limited.  There's only one trail, and it's an out and back route (meaning we rode the same trail twice).

The Kingdom Trails are a world apart.  There were so many options, we didn't know where to start.  There's a big ridge (Darling Hill) in the center, so we rode the East Darling Hill Road up to the top to decide where to begin.  We wanted to warm up a little, so we rode Loop (a green).  We had two options from there, the green Cupcake or the black diamond Poundcake.  I wanted to see what the diamond was like, so we rolled down Poundcake.  The trail was beautiful, and I almost made the whole thing, but I got tripped up at this beautiful stream crossing towards the end:

We found ourselves back on Loop, and from there, we rode River Run along the West Branch of the Passumpsic River.  Once again, it was beautiful.  Perfect singletrack, and awesome scenery:

We did a quick jaunt on Webs, which was our favorite trail of the day.  It was fast, sweet singletrack through a nice hardwood forest:

After another nice section of singletrack along the river, we took Westbranch to Hog Back to Violet's Outback back to the Road.  We rode along the road until we reached the Wildflower Inn, where we saw some goats before dropping back onto Bemis:

After a Chicken Burrito, a Gatorade, and a water refill, we took off on Loop again to find some challenging singletrack.  We found it on Tap & Die:

It was really fun.  Fast, nice banked turns, a couple of challenging sections, but mostly just plain sweet.  After that, we did another run on Webs to Violet's Outback, a loop on Old Webs (where we fueled up on cookies at the top), and a nice section of singletrack on Border.  I was pretty beat by that point, so we just took VAST back to town (with a quick singletrack sidetrip on Culvert Cut).  After a nice rinse in the river and an ice cream cone, we started the long trip back home.  We stopped at the Inn at Long Trail near Killington for a Burger, a Reuben, and a couple of pints of Guinness.  A perfect end to my first "epic" mountain bike day.

What you missed (In Pictures) . . .

Sorry I haven't been keeping up on the blog (I've kind of toned down my internet presence a lot), but here are some shots from March 1st (wow, it has been a long time) through now.

Trip to Whiteface in Late March (first time on the Slides):

Early April Road Bike Ride:

Gore Mountain Adirondack Adventure Festival (or something):

Tulip Festival in Albany:

Late Spring Lake Trip:

World Cup Party at Wolff's Biergarten in Albany:

Mountain Biking at the Skidmore Stables:

Saratoga Beer Festival:

July 4th in Buffalo:

Trip Report from the Weekend.

Right now, Gore is skiing to full potential.  Whenever people ask me about the mountain, I tell them to visit during March (because the glades will most likely be open, the crowds will be manageable, and the steeps will be nicely bumped).  Well, March has arrived, and the mountain is skiing great.  I'll recount the weekend I had, but pictures and words don't really do it justice.  You really have to get out there and experience it for yourself.  And now is just the time to do it.

Friday, we pulled up to the mountain around 8:45 to find all of the lifts closed.  So we hung around the bottom, took our time booting up, and rode the double chair when it opened around 10:00.  We had taken the day off work hoping for a sweet sweet powder day, and Otter Slide Glades was not what we had in mind.  The snow was heavy, grabby, and cementacious.  It was reallly tough to power through, even with my 97mm waisted Karhu Jak Tele Skis.  When we got back on the trail, the conditions weren't much better.  NCP, followed by a groom and a freeze, meant that the lower mountain trails were all iced over hardpack.  Not ideal.  Luckily, though, when we reached the bottom, they had opened the Gondola.

Once we reached the top, there was a definite change in mood.  Everyone looked around and saw snow covered trees, powder filled lines, and happy people.  What had been a wintry mix at the bottom was all snow at the top of the mountain.  Anything above the Adirondack Triple was golden.  Since they had not dropped the rope on the top yet, we were part of a huge group of people on Fairview.  Everyone was hooting and hollering as they dropped deep, deep cut up pow.  To avoid the crowd, I ducked off to Powerline.  Here's a couple of pics:

 

Probably about knee to thigh deep, slightly heavy, super fun powder.  Finally, some real positive, really enjoyable skiing.  I dropped into Twister Glades on the way down (just to see what it was like), and it was good on top, but quickly turned into that cementy stuff at the bottom.  I bailed to Echo, and took another one up the Gondola.  

At the top, they hadn't dropped the rope to Pine Knot/Uncas, and there were about 20-30 people waiting for it.  We decided to wait at The Cave rope instead.  With nobody else there, the rope was soon dropped and we got 3rd tracks in epic Cave Glade Pow.  More pics:

 

Not as deep in the Cave, but still awesome, we moved on to have an awesome day skiing all over the top of the mountain.  Chati Glades, Straightbrook Glades, Mineshaft, Darby Woods, and a few unmentionables were awesome.  We skied straight through lunch, and came in around 3:00 (totally spent) to a nearly empty base lodge with huge smiles on our faces.

The next day I had to teach, but I must have hit the lottery because it was a Tele Trees and Steeps class.  We spent the day on a mountain tour, hitting almost all of the glades and skiing the mountain from the far reaches of the Chati Glades to the Pipeline/Eagle's Nest trail to Burnt Ridge.  A lot of learning and A TON of skiing.  We came in at 3:45 to a well deserved beer in the raucus Tannery Bar.

After an exhausting night, we got a late start on Sunday, but the day was totally worth it.  More snow had fallen Saturday night into Sunday so all of the trees were filled back in.  This was especially nice on the lower mountain glades (which didn't get a lot of snow from the Thursday storm).  Feeling crazy, we decided to roll the dice on the Cirque Glades.  Ace had never skied them before, and wanted to give them a shot.  Here's some pics:

 

 

Beautiful soft spring-like snow, warm temperatures, and sunny skies.  Almost total solitude, too.  It's amazing how on 3 of the most crowded days of the year, I rarely saw another group of skiers until I got back to the lift.  I don't think it was any real skill on my part either.  I just think that a lot of people don't ski the woods.  And that's perfectly fine with me.

We spent the rest of the day skiing around, but almost all on the Dark Side/Burnt Ridge portion of the mountain.  The snow on the Dark Side was particularly Sweet.  It has remained cold through the entirety of these last few days, so it's still light and fluffy.  Lower Darby was great (soft powdery bumps with nice lines), and the BBA/Hot Damn/Thumper Trio was the best skiing of the day.  

Overall, it was a fantastic weekend.  I don't know if I've ever had a more enjoyable 3 days of skiing back to back to back like that.  It just goes to show, if you can somehow find a way to get yourself to the mountain, sometimes everything comes together and life becomes that much better.