beat

visited mike and sarah in vt this wknd. saw their new place. amazing. their land abuts camel hump state forest, a shallow fast-moving river runs through the backyard, a small beaver pond even closer. i can't imagine a more amazing experience for a child than to be able to sit inside the living room and watch beavers work on their dam. fly fishing in the backyard. who needs tv in such a place?

mike and i got out on Mt Ellen on saturday. warm temps softened-up the snow on most of the hill, patches of sheet ice scattered about. mike grabbed his snowboard for the first time in 2yrs. his comment on snowboarding, "it's just not very hard." i agree. can't wait to tele next yr. this being my 2nd time-out this yr fell about 50times riding the steep bumps, am kinda beat-up, back is tight-as. in a bizzare sheet-ice fall while trying to avoid running-over a skier who freaked on the ice, mike got brained pretty bad, still had him a bit dazed today. with that happening and considering tele fest was rollin' at the river, snowboarding with me was quite a sacrifice for him... we did discuss my first run on my "new-to-me" tele's being a traverse of the ridge that connects mt ellen to mad river, but it just didn't seem to make sense - can't wait to do it next yr! drinking beers later in the day at tele fest did of course make sense. sarah and jenn joined us there, before heading to sarah's sister's 40th b-day party. good people, good times, way too much good wine. thank goodness we had two pregnant ladies to cart us around!

even though this wknd was technically a rest wknd and i haven't touched a bike, am beat-down tired, but excited about having some rest in the legs for first time in weeks. the season is looming close, have some real good rides planned over the next 3wks. first race 4 wks from now. can't wait, it's gonna be worth the 4000mile plane ride!