mt rose meadows to chimney beach downhill

taking a breather at the mid-point mark on marlette peak

definetly looking a little worse for wear. it's been warm out folks!

i'm not complaining though, can't help but love these hot summer days.

the plan was to give ourselves an early start and try to avoid the late afternoon heat but our intentions were waylaid by a shady front porch, cool morning air and a latte in had...that latte machine is really getting the best of us these days.

we finally made it off the porch and up to the trailhead only to discover that denver's bike had a flat and we didn't have the correct repair pieces.

back down the hill to the house for the needed piece

back up the hill to the trailhead, so much for beating the heat.

it was one of the harder trails we've done on our mountain bikes, due to mileage and elevation gain, but the views were incredible and that portion of the tahoe rim trail is my favorite so far.

28.

sheesh, that guy i married is 28-years-old.

starting to feel like time is against us, so much to do and so little time.

 i feel like we're racing the clock, which is a stupid race because we're sure to lose.

we've been wanting to bring our mountain bikes to santa cruz for a while now, having heard so much about the singeltrack in the area, and were certainly not disappointed.

it is a pretty incredible experience to go zipping along through the redwoods, the trails are incredibly smooth and fast.

there was a woodies on the wharf event happening over the weekend.

although by the time we finally made it downtown (traffic was a bit of a cluster cuss) it was woodies in a parking lot for us.

i'm not usually that into old cars, but there is just something extra special about these iconic surf-era cars.

we ended our weekend getaway with a stop in san francisco to pick-up a range spotted on craigslist. made us feel somewhat justified for taking four days off of house work. it's hard to leave guilt-free these days with such a mega-project on our hands.

the range is bright shiny and beautiful, can't wait to get the sucker in our new kitchen.

river rock

nothing says summer more loudly to me

 then frying to a crisp under the hot sun on some dusty trail or rock wall

and then recovering good humor with a refreshing float down the truckee river.
so glad those summer days are finally happening.

 

birthday weekend

denver's birthday is this weekend

we're planning on celebrating the best way possible...in his book anyways,

surfboards and bikes included.

melody joy

It's amazing how one can spend days chattering about the weather, recent trips, this trail or that climb, all the while avoiding the one thing that weighs the heaviest. The one thing that takes up every thought and makes any other prayer seem trivial. Sadly, not talking about that bad stuff doesn't make it any less real.

My brother and his wife's world was rocked last week when their daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Yesterday it was rocked once again when more cancer was found upgrading Melody from a stage II to a higher risk stage IV. 

 I can't help but remember my brother's closing statement to an email that he had written just a few weeks before Melody was diagnosed:

thankful God has given me Karen and Melody to walk the road with... May He return soon.

 

  

Praying that the three of them will be able to continue to walk together.

  

Costa Rica, IV

Notice how I just did that just now? Squeezed in a few more Costa Rica pictures without any apologies or preamble...and you thought you were in the clear.

The last few days of our trip were spent in the tropical highlands and on the Caribbean side of the country. The highlands were a welcome break from the constant high temperatures. It was such a surprise to find ourselves surrounded by cabbage plants and wishing we had packed some warmer clothes.

The Caribbean side was dirty spicy and fun. The surfing was out of our league so we just snorkeled, checked out the tide pools and watched the skilled surfers. We had almost given up home on ever spotting a toucan in the wild when we finally saw the two, pictured above, hanging on the bars of our seedy hotel room window.

tyrolean downhill

pretty stoked to have ol Brian back in town for the weekend
it's always fun trying to catch up with him on our bikes