Russian River Falls Trail-Mountain Bike Ride 7/25/10

On Sunday, some of my triathlon training friends and I went up to Russian River Falls Trail to do a 27 mile loop on our mountain bikes.  However the wind and the rain that were pounding the car on the way up deterred us from doing the whole bike, so we did part of it.  We went to Russian river falls, and then up the trail a few more miles before we turned around due to the tall grass, almost zero trail visibility, and the while the rain was not falling it had been there and made the grass all wet which in turn made us all wet because we were brushing up against it!  What a great experience though!!!  I would never have tried mountain biking on a trail like that if it were not for the group I was with, and that is why I like it so much.  They push me to do things that I might not ever do otherwise.  (first 5 photos courtesy of Tony Oliver, because I stupidly left my camera in the car!)

Janette and Gretchen

Regina, Me, Lizzie, Alice, and Cassie

Angie, Gretchen, Scott, Regina, Me, and Lizzie...and part of Janette on the left :)

Headed back down

A bear has left his mark on this tree!

Cassie, Angie (our fearless leader), and Tony

                                       Russian River overflow parking lot looking up at the mountian :)

Adventure Trip #5 to Hope, AK

On Friday my friend Farrah and I decided that we were going to brave the grey clouds and go for a bike ride anyway.....since it has been raining and grey for most of June and July!  We had wanted to go to Hope because we are going camping there later this week and we wanted to check on availability on the camp sites for the day we are going.  We got there and took the bikes off the rack, biked around the campground and then about 1/2 a mile down one of the hiking trails.  The trail started out nice but did not work out very well for the bike carts that Farrah and I had on our bikes for the little ones :).  The kids had fun climbing trees and eating a little snack before we headed to the town of Hope and got some really good icecream!  Then we went to the Seward Hwy and walked down the bike path a ways to let the kids burn off some energy before we started for home.  We had a really enjoyable afternoon and it was nice to escape the rain that was falling in Soldotna!

Mason was not happy about being in the picture....He was not really happy at all that day :(

I got everyone else to smile though! 

He was a little hungry....

Gull Rock Trail...10 mile round trip hike

We plan to hike at least some of it on Thursday when we come to camp.

New Seward hyw bridge....Old Seward Hwy bridge!

Swim Meet #2

Today the kids and I spent 8 hours at the pool.  Luckily my friend Liz took Mason and Heidi for 2 1/2 of those hours, but still it was an extremely stressful day.  At about 10:45 the fire alarm went off.  We all filed outside.....swimmers were stopped mid race.....and we had to stand outside for 20 minutes while we waited for the firemen to "clear" the school building.  What was bad was that they had to get the fire truck out of the parade that was in progress to come over to the school!  I knew the guy who was driving as well as his kids who were riding with him!  We were finally let back into the school and the swimmers began to warm  up and the racing continued on again.  Emma had a wonderful meet and placed first in one of her races (She was the only swimmer....but I am still proud:) )!!!!  The cool thing is that you get a little rubber duck if you finish first in your race, so she was able to get one of those as well!  Heidi and Mason were tired cranky and did not want to sit still at this point and while I was getting Mason a drink the fire alarm went off for the second time!!!  Imagine my horror when a little boy comes up to me and said " that little girl is the one who did it," as he points to Heidi!  My heart sunk into my stomach I was so embarrassed.  My friend had brought a playpen and I stuck both kids in it and told them to play quietly.  I think they took one look at my face and knew I was going to explode if they messed around, so they were pretty good the rest of the time.
Anyway here is a few pictures of our excitement as well as a video of one of Emma's races.

Lake Swimming

My friends came over and had tea this afternoon, and then later in the evening we did another lake swim. This time we were not able to get in the lake until after 10:30pm and we were in until 11:15!  I also took Emma and Madison, who were spent the next day, but had lots of fun with us as well.  I fully intend to go again this evening....and hopefully as much as possible until I leave in mid August.  Right now the temp. of the lake is in the low 50's and I am starting to see the heat rising from the lake, which is a bad sign for me! :) 

I love swimming in the lake because it has such a calming effect on me, and I love the peacefulness of it.  Some people might say it is a little crazy due to the temperatures but they don't bother me much.  I find it a great time of reflection and rejuvenation! I don't know if my friends feel the same, but they do keep coming with me every so often, so it cannot be too bad. :)

Mushroom mixture in phyllo dough! Was simply divine!

Jen, Liz, Farrah, and me :)  Pre swim!

Our (camp) Lake

Emma and Madison testing the waters!

Emma a little cold after the swim.  Madison was shivering before she got in....poor thing!

Singing Camp Songs in the Rain

I let Emma and Madison go outside at 9:30pm tonight to join their friends, even though they had already been sent upstairs for bedtime.  They had done well with the cleaning earlier that day and I felt that every now and then it is ok for them to stay up and have fun, since it is summer afterall!  When they went outside, all the kids were singing, and Emma and Madison joined in.  I sat and listend and then decided to grab the camera so I was able to capture the last song that they were singing.  They have all just been to camp the last couple of weeks and so they were belting out the camp songs that they had learned!  I hope you enjoy the song as much as I did!

Hammerman Triathlon

Today Crystal and I went to Anchorage, leaving here at 5:30am, to participate in the Xterra Hammerman Triathlon.  Being and xterra race the mountain biking was a treacherous 13 mile bike with lots of grueling hills and single track!  The run was 4 miles, which was Crystal's protion, and was also that way with huge hills that you almost have to climb on all fours to get to the top!  I did the swim portion, which was 1/2 a mile of lake swimming.  I had a wonderful time, and enjoy doing this tri with a team because I am not comfortable at all with doing the mountain biking portion!  The Triathlon had about 200 participants and 13 teams, and our team was 9th.  The first teams that took off were top athletes at what they do, and they were some of the first people to get through the whole corse, so even though we were 9th we were all happy with our times, and our placing!

Little Cambell Lake is where we started the race.  As you see above this is the swim corse, out and back!

                                                    Gathering for final race instructions

                           They had us swim into a group and then we did a mass start in the water!

                  Elijah, Crystal's youngest, was our team cheerer! Although he slept most of the race! :)

                                   

                                               Crystal waiting for Regina, our biker, to get back

                                                                 Here comes Regina!!!

Crystal at the finish line!

Our team, Soldotna Sole Survivors

Regina, Me, and Crystal

This is some of my tri training buddies!  The first picture is Tony coming in from his bike, and the other is Cassie in Transition from bike to run.

This is our fearless leader Angie, right after she finished the race, and the other is Gretchen, Janette, and Sandy waiting to start the race.

This is half of this years Triathlon Training group....the other half either left early or did not do this race.

Tobin, Ricky, Will, Me, Tony

Sandy, Angie, Janette, and Gretchen