Email to Ben, May 27 2011
I would be happy living in Australia too! I was while I was there and I would be if the opportunity came again.
How's things? Probably still riding like a maniac given the lack of snow on the Mt Buller snowcams :-)
We are easing into summer here. The last 4 weeks have been unusually rainy and cool. A very pleasant stretch of weather to push back the fire season since our winter was one of the driest on record down here in the Frontrange. The rains have brought the creeks to life and the grasses and trees are much happier. And with the never-ending storms of the past month, the mountain snowpack has reached close to record levels, well over 200% of normal.
It was the second Friday at our reduced work schedule and so the second Friday in a row with an awesome ride under the belt. I vowed to do a new route every Friday for the summer - we'll see if I can meet that goal! Both Fridays have now been devoted to mountain biking. Last week I strung together a series of trails and dirt roads west of Boulder that I've been eyeing for years. Turned out to be a great 38 mile loop with good climbs, sweet single track, and swooping road descents. Today I hooked up with Dan for another great mixed loop down near Morrison (south of Red Rocks). This one begins with a kick in the pants 3mile, 1600 ft climb up a goat track to reach a plateau with sweeping views of the snowy peaks. From there its a mix of paved and dirt roads and an unreal 8 mile descent on smooth single track through beautiful Ponderosa pine forests. So nice!! Life is good.
The girls wrapped up school yesterday and now descend into the 10 week void of 'summer vacation'. Leah is going to be busy with an acting camp for June, off to a 2-week overnight camp near Mt Evans in July. Kelly is off to Costa Rica for 10 days next week to work on a turtle ecology project, then comes back to work at the daycare center and to work on a paid science internship at NCAR for 6 weeks (oops: that fell through :-( ). Rachel is off on a 5-day backpack near Moab right now and is taking off for a 16-day hike in the Sierra Nevada's of California in July. Nothing but local trips (lots of riding!) planned for me this summer accept for our usual week long rafting trip before school starts again in August.
That's all from here. It would be good if Melb and Boulder weren't so far apart.
Hugs and hellos to the girls!
Bruce
How's things? Probably still riding like a maniac given the lack of snow on the Mt Buller snowcams :-)
We are easing into summer here. The last 4 weeks have been unusually rainy and cool. A very pleasant stretch of weather to push back the fire season since our winter was one of the driest on record down here in the Frontrange. The rains have brought the creeks to life and the grasses and trees are much happier. And with the never-ending storms of the past month, the mountain snowpack has reached close to record levels, well over 200% of normal.
It was the second Friday at our reduced work schedule and so the second Friday in a row with an awesome ride under the belt. I vowed to do a new route every Friday for the summer - we'll see if I can meet that goal! Both Fridays have now been devoted to mountain biking. Last week I strung together a series of trails and dirt roads west of Boulder that I've been eyeing for years. Turned out to be a great 38 mile loop with good climbs, sweet single track, and swooping road descents. Today I hooked up with Dan for another great mixed loop down near Morrison (south of Red Rocks). This one begins with a kick in the pants 3mile, 1600 ft climb up a goat track to reach a plateau with sweeping views of the snowy peaks. From there its a mix of paved and dirt roads and an unreal 8 mile descent on smooth single track through beautiful Ponderosa pine forests. So nice!! Life is good.
The girls wrapped up school yesterday and now descend into the 10 week void of 'summer vacation'. Leah is going to be busy with an acting camp for June, off to a 2-week overnight camp near Mt Evans in July. Kelly is off to Costa Rica for 10 days next week to work on a turtle ecology project, then comes back to work at the daycare center and to work on a paid science internship at NCAR for 6 weeks (oops: that fell through :-( ). Rachel is off on a 5-day backpack near Moab right now and is taking off for a 16-day hike in the Sierra Nevada's of California in July. Nothing but local trips (lots of riding!) planned for me this summer accept for our usual week long rafting trip before school starts again in August.
That's all from here. It would be good if Melb and Boulder weren't so far apart.
Hugs and hellos to the girls!
Bruce
