Summer 2013 - Outward Bound for Zack and Bicycle Tour Colorado for Jerry

It's hard to believe that summer is upon us!  Zack finished school on Monday and now has 10 weeks of summer bliss to look forward to.  Unfortunately for me the work schedule will continue on the same as it does every other month.  However with Zack out of school we will be doing some things like spending more time in the mountains.  As a matter of fact, I am writing this blog entry from there as we left home early this evening and are now hanging out in our condo in Silverthorne.

With the summer season comes plans for summer vacations.  Unlike last year we do not have any international travel planned for the summer of 2013.  I considered taking a trip to Ireland for a week, but the economics of it given all that we had done to the house in 2012 just didn't make sense.  So instead we are staying close to home and pursuing a different sort of vacation.  In fact, Zack and I will be taking separate trips!

Zack's trip is an Outward Bound Expedition.  For those of you who might not know of Outward Bound, it is an organization that is dedicated to providing young people and adults experiential trips into the wilderness.  They describe their purpose in this way on their website.  "Outward Bound is the premier provider of experience-based outdoor leadership programs for youth and adults. Outward Bound courses change lives and give you the tools to see further, climb higher and know your way."

Both Zack and I are hoping that he will gain some valuable life experience and internal confidence from taking part in one of their expeditions.  We discussed a lot of different options as to what kind of course he would take, as there are options for backpacking, mountaineering, canoeing, etc.  After our discussions we decided that he would take part in a backpacking expedition that was specifically for kids who have suffered some in-depth loss in their life.  Both Zack and I felt, along with the Outward Bound counselors that this kind of course would give him the best opportunity to grow in specific areas that deal with all the trauma the he experienced with Patty's illness and death.

The expedition he will taking part in is in the middle of July and will take place in Collegiate Peaks area of Colorado.  It will be a great experience for him.  He has experienced a good amount of camping in his life so that won't be a shock to him.  Additionally, in past summers we have done a lot of hiking in the Colorado high country, so that shouldn't be much of a challenge.  What will challenge him is doing both at once and sharing the experience with a group of other kids.  He won't be able to put off doing things and will be part of a team seeking to accomplish a series of goals.  It really should be a great experience for him that will hopefully help him grow and come to terms with all that he has experienced in life and all that he has lost.

As for me, I have big challenge ahead of me.  I will be riding in the 2013 edition of Bicycle Tour Colorado.  This year the Tour will be a 483 mile loop starting in Canyon City.  A total of seven days will be spent biking through the beautiful Colorado scenery.  The first day takes us 86 miles from Canon City to Buena Vista.  Day 2 goes from Buena Vista to Carbondale covering a distance of 91 miles.  From Carbondale we will travel 58 miles to Paonia on Day 3.  The next day we will have a choice of routes to reach Crest Butte.  We can travel 47 miles, including 26 miles on dirt over Keebler Pass or do 111 miles and stay on paved roads.  After the tough ride to Crested Butte we get a day off to enjoy that beautiful town before taking on a 99 mile ride on Day 6 of the tour to Salida.  The last day takes us on a short 55 miles jaunt from Salida back to Canyon City.

(Bicycle Tour Colorado Route for this years ride.)

It should be a great ride if my body will cooperate and stop hurting!  Surprisingly as I have been ramping up my biking throughout the last month my back has responded very well.  For reasons unknown to me however, my right elbow and wrist have been killing me.  Unfortunately, this makes some of the motions I go through while riding my bike very painful.  Based upon the symptoms it seems like it is the proverbial "tennis elbow", though I don't play tennis.  My doctor has me on steroids to help resolve the situation.  Worst case, each morning with my breakfast of energy bars I will eating a bunch of Advil to shed the pain.

The tour takes place from June 22 - June 29, so hopefully the weather will be good and we will not yet be into the really hot days of July.  My prior experience riding the BTC in 2008 was fantastic and I am looking forward to the experience this year.  I will be doing the ride with my college roommate Allen.  Even though we only see each other at most once a year, we still have the same easy go lucky friendship we had in college.  So I am sure we will have a good time!

Zack's school came to an end on Monday, with the 8th grade class picnic at Elitch Gardens Amusement Park in Denver.  I can't believe that he is on the verge of going to high school!  It seems so strange to me as I still think of him as my "little Zackie".  He is anything but these days as he is only about 2 inches shorter than I am and is becoming built like a brick wall.  You always hear people say it but you never believe it, our kids do grow up so fast!  Though I miss those days when he was a little kid, I am so proud to see my son growing up and becoming a young man!

The First Bike Ride of the Season

So today was my first major bicycle ride of the season. I always say bicycle because I don’t want anyone thinking I ride a motorcycle. I suppose I understand why people like motorcycles, but in my life I have seen 2 people killed in motorcycle crashes and hence I just can’t get into motorcycles. Yeah – I know people can get killed riding bicycles, but bicycle riding just seems less dangerous to me. Anyway, I digress as writing about motorcycles is certainly not the purpose of today’s post. I had all the great intentions in the world of getting up at 6:30AM and hitting the road then. It just didn’t happen. I am still taking antibiotics every 6 hours and because of when I took them last night (around 2AM) I didn’t end up getting out of bed until 8AM. So after I finally got up, I scurried around getting all my biking gear together. I had most it already pulled together but I couldn’t find my biking gloves. I looked for about 20 minutes before finally giving up. Nancy was making some breakfast for Zack this morning so I didn’t have to worry about that. Every other weekend or so, Nancy will make something special for Zack. This morning it was cinnamon rolls. So while he was eating I was gearing up and getting ready to go. I had Zack take a send off picture of me for my first official ride of the year.

(Heading out for the bike trail.)

I left the house around 9:20 or so. I headed out to the C470 bike trail and picked it up right near our local bookstore – the Park Meadows B&N. From there I headed west following C470. Whoever had the idea to build the C470 bike trail when they built that highway was a genius. I just wish they had kept it up when the built the E470 loop on the eastern side of Denver. Oh well. The C470 trail very closely follows the highway until shortly past the Broadway exit. At this point, it joins up with the Highline Canal trail for about 4 miles. the trail winds through a large wooded area that is very pretty and quiet. Unfortunately in the last year much of this wooded area around Lucent Blvd has started to be developed. The new Ralph Schomp car dealership is now located in this area. The trail rejoins the highway about ½ mile to the east of Sante Fe Boulevard. The crossing at Sante Fe is probably one of the worst on the entire trail. You have to cross a 6 lane highway. Yes – there is a pedestrian crossing light there but it still sucks. From there you head into Chatfield State Park. My ride then departed from the C470 trail and switched over to the South Platte Greenway trail. This trail runs from Chatfield the whole way into downtown Denver. It keeps going through Denver and heads north while continuing to follow the South Platte. The trail eventually ends somewhere near 120th Ave way north of Denver. I have never ridden the trail that far. I have only ever gone as far as the where the trail crosses I-70. My ride on the South Platte trail was uneventful but fast. The trail is relatively level and I can build up a huge amount of speed. At one section of the trail near Mineral Avenue I always gear down into one of my highest gears and just let my legs crank. Today I managed to get my bike up to almost 23 miles per hour – which for the first ride of the season was pretty good. The trail is in relatively good shape for this time of the year. However, as the snow starts to melt in the mountains the South Platte normal flows much stronger and fuller. By later in April and May there will be sections of the trail that are flooded. I didn’t even stop to relax once I reached Confluence Park. I just rode on and got to Union Station as quickly as I could. Luckily I had timed it just right and shortly after I arrived I managed to catch a light rail train home. The ride from Union Station to home costs $3.50 and normal takes about 40 minutes or so. I load my bike up onto the train and normally stand at the back of the car for the trip home. Today’s ride was a very liberating experience for me. It was the first time I had been on my bike for a really long ride since Patty died. I had just completed the Bicycle Tour Colorado last year before she got really sick. As a result, I just never managed to get back on my bike last year before the weather turned. It was just such a wonderful feeling being out in the wind and enjoying the feeling of riding hard. So here are the numbers on today’s ride: Total miles: 27.91 miles Total time: 2:01 Calories Expended: 1305 Average Speed: 13.5 mph Average Heart Rate: 138 bpm I always get off the light rail at the Dry Creek Station and then I have another 1.5 miles to ride home. That ride is always a little tough as my muscles stiffen up after the time on the train. When I arrived home I was starving as I hadn’t eaten all day. So I stuffed myself with some food and then got a shower. Zack had a great time while I was gone as he was outside with some of the girls on the street. He had spent pretty much the entire time outside playing and jumping on the trampoline. Once I was done with my shower, I told Zack that he needed to do his reading for the day. While he did that I sat down on the couch and then promptly feel asleep for an hour and a half. It felt good, but it sure wasted my afternoon! After I woke up, I began addressing the dinner situation. Zack has wanted to use his “Rachel Ray’s 30 Minute Meals for Kids” cookbook and so we decided today was the day. He spent awhile looking through the recipes until he decided upon a watermelon soda for starters, quesadilla pizzas for the main course and cookie and ice cream fill-your-handwiches for desert. To allow us to make this for dinner we had to head to the store. We went to Safeway first but with the remodeling taking place there we couldn’t find a couple of things so we were off to King Soopers next. We eventually found everything that we needed and headed home to allow Chef Zack begin his creations. Of course he needed a little bit of help, but he did do a lot of the work himself. He was proud of his creations and to be honest they tasted pretty good.

(Chef Zack working on our watermelon soda.)

(Bobbie Flay - you better watch out. Zackie Kromer is going to be the next big thing chef!)

Though Nancy wasn’t interested in eating what we had she sat at the table with us while we ate. Of course we had some excellent Mozart music playing in the background by which to enjoy our dinner and dessert. We are now winding down for the day. I am just finishing writing this at 8:45PM but I won’t get it posted for a few yet as I have to upload the pictures from the day. (If I didn’t add pictures to this blog almost every day it would take so much less time. Oh well – the pictures make it interesting in my mind.) We really hope everyone had a great weekend and is looking forward to a good week. Thanks and peace to all!

The Stupidest Thing I Have Done in 2009

I like to call myself the “stupidest man in the world”. By calling myself the stupidest man in the world it allows me to easily exceed anyone’s expectations of me – kind of nifty huh? Every once in a while I truly do something that makes me the “stupidest man in the world”. What I have done this time is that I have entered a bicycle touring event called “Death Ride 2009”. Just by entering a ride called that I truly do think I have demonstrated a high level of stupidity. Any ride with a name like that cannot be easy. All joking aside, this ride is going to be a very serious ride and will be the centerpiece of my athletic accomplishments for the 2009. The ride is 129 mile bicycle ride in ONE DAY. It covers 5 mountain passes and has an overall elevation gain of 15,000 feet. Needless to say it is going to be hard. The ride takes place in California and starts in Markleeville. I’ll be doing the ride with an old friend of mine who I found on Facebook – Max Holtom. I have until July 11th to train for this brutal ride. For anyone interested the details of this ride can be found at the Death Ride website -http://www.deathride.com/ Though it is only the end of January I realize that I am going to have to start to train for this ride soon. I will really need to concentrate on my hill riding. During my last big bicycle tour – Bicycle Tour Colorado 2008, I found that I had an exceeding hard time with some of the hill climbs. I had done a huge amount of riding in preparation for that tour, but I hadn’t spent enough time concentrating on hills. I will not make that mistake again. I plan to do a lot of training in Summit County, Colorado where our “mountain house” is located. Summit County is the winter and summer playground of Colorado and has an average elevation of 9000+ feet. There are many good bike paths throughout the county that will allow me to do some serious hill climbing. The Vail Pass bike path is one example of these bike paths. This path follows I-70 from Frisco the whole way over Vail Pass and into the Vail Valley. From Frisco to Vail this is about a 25 mile one way trip with some significant elevation gain (about 3000 feet) as you climb over Vail Pass. Unfortunately Zack is not up to this level of bicycling so I am going to have to work hard to develop a schedule by which I can do my riding and have some one watching him. I do hope in the coming years he will be interested and able to do rides like this with me. But for now this kind of riding is above him. He is a great hiker now I just have to see if he has the desire to do this kind of biking.

(The above picture is of me during Bicycle Tour Colorado 2008)

Though I have classified this as one of the stupidest things I have done, I will readily admit that I am really looking forward to it. I am estimating that it will take me 8 – 10 hours of hard riding to complete this tour. I know at the end of it I will have blisters on my butt and I will be exhausted. Regardless of how hard it is and how tired I will be, the feeling of accomplishment I will have when I reach that finish line will be immense! So it may be stupid and it may hurt, but all I can say is – bring it on!!! Peace to all!