Today was a biking day. Ann and I are staying in South Lake Tahoe for 3 days on our way back home to California. Yesterday we went on a four mile run in the morning and then went on a bike ride in the afternoon. Although we were able to get in 30 miles, it was a bit complicated finding a place to bike away from the heavy traffic here. We finally found the Pioneer Trail road which was nice to bike on but only 10 miles each way.

So this morning we got up early to beat the heat and drover over to Markleeville, the place where I had recently rode the Death Ride. We parked the car and headed on our bikes to the first pass on the Death Ride, Monitor Pass. Monitor is about a 3,000 foot climb and at times rather steep, but Ann did a great job making the climb. From Markleville, to and up Montior and back it wwas 33.1 miles and 3,360 feet of climbing.

After biking back to Markleevile we then biked out to the Grover Hot Springs campground so I could show Ann where we camped for the Death Ride. After that we enjoyed a sandwich at a nice deli in Markleeville.

I had always wanted to climb up to the Pacific Grade summit from the Ebbitts Pass side. I had made the ride up from Bear Valley but only to look down on the climb on the other side. So we drove up to the top of Ebbitts Pass.

At the top of the pass I got out and rode down the hill and then up to the Pacific Grade Summit. Ann followed in the van about a half hour after I left, but I had miscalculated the distance so I arrived only 5 minutes after she started to drive. I biked back down for a ways and stopped near some road construction guys. They asked if I biked these roads often and I said I had in June and again in July. One of the fellows asked hom much my bike weighed and I said 16.5 lbs. He then wanted to know if having a seat with a more padding might not weight that much more. It was kind of funny. I said you get use to the hard seat. This all added another 10.3 miles and 1,100 feet of climbing. I had not problem climbing up to the Pacific Grade with my double crankshaft.

Right near the Pacific Grade is the beautiful Mosquito Lake where we took these photos.

After the ride we drove back to the place we were staying in South Lake Tahoe. Tomorrow we are planning on doing a long 12 mile run, then will have to head back home. Vacations need to end some time.

Categories: Cycling
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Ann and I met John in the lobby of the hotel at 5 am to drive to the start of the race. I don’t recall a 10K that started so early, but this one started at 6 am so we had to leave around 5. Actually we could have left a bit later because it was only about 15 minute drive. Ann and I did a little jogging around to warm up, as did John. My plan for this race was to run with Ann and try to pace here. I am not in that good of running shape since I have been mostly focussed on cycling.

Soon after 6 am they started the race. We all had timing chips on our shoes so I was not too worried about moving up to the front of the field but some slower runners did that which forced us to try to weave our way around them the first couple of miles.

We had a very good pace for the first three miles due to the eleveation drop, with the 2nd mile at a 8:15 pace, which may have been too fast for Ann who normally runs this race distance closer to a 9:00 minute pace. But she held on very well and we finished the race with a final time of 56:13, which was good enough for Ann to place 8th in her age group. John finished with another sub 40 minute 10K, so he did very well. We all thought the last two miles were hard becasue they were flat or maybe a bit uphill, which seemd hard after running down for the first three.

Categories: Running
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John and Amy arrived yesterday (Sunday) before noon. They had flown from Atlanta to Las Vegas and stayed there due to the late arrival. We had dropped off the Tahoe at their hotel in Las Vegas so they could drive it up to Zion and meet us. Ann and I had already watched a stage of the Tour de France and went on a nice bike ride up to the end of Zion park before the arrived.

We all piled into the Honda van and headed up to the visitor center where we caught the shuttle bus to take us up to the park. We had decided to do a hike to the Emerald Polls. There are three pools, a lower, middle and upper one. It seemed like a difficult enough hike with 5 year olds. Kyle and Natalie did a good job hiking but up toward the upper pool Natalie did need some help do the high rocks you had to climb over in the trail. It was very beautiful looking down over the canyon floor as we climbed higher and higher. I had taken my GPS to try and get some data but the steep canyon walls blocked the signal so it was more or less useless there.

After hiking back down we went to the Zion Lodge and got a treat. Kyle and Natalie had an ice cream but I was more interested in just a drink due to the weather that was getting warming by the minute. After taking the shuttle bus back to the Visitor Center we drove back to the hotel. Everyone elses headed to the pool but I jumped on Ann’s bike and rode it to the local bike shop to get the rear derailer adjusted. The shop there did an excellent job and only was going to charge me $8.30 so I gave hima $10 bill and told him to keep the changed.

When I go back, I put on my suit and headed the pool. There were a lot more people there than yesterday so I guess all the torrists had now arrived.

That evening we headed across the street to the Bit and Spur for a nice Mexican dish. We had to wait awhile before we were served so I was very hungry by then and am sure others felt the same.

After dinner we walked back to the hotel and John and Amy put the grandkids to bed (they were in the room across from ours) and then came over to watch a stage of the Tour de France on my computer.

The next morning we had to leave early because we needed to get to Salt Lake and pickup our Deseret News 10K race packets before 6 pm. We made a stop in Cedar City to visit Don and Jojo at their home then we all went to IHop for breakfast. After a nice meal we headed up to our place in Orem where we had a couple hours before we needed to leave. Ann stayed behind to come up later with Greg who was still in class. I drove everyone else in the min-van to first check in the Embasy Suite hotel, then over to the expo to pickup our race packets. I had no problem to pickup Ann’s packet for her. It was a very small race expo and we able to see all the booths in about 4 minutes.

I dropped off John and family at the Gateway center downtown while I headed up to the University of Utah to scout out the location for the start of the race so I would not need to find it in the dark. I then went back and joined John and family for dinner. I was real tired by then and went back to the hotel to sleep while Ann and Greg went out to dinner.

Categories: Hiking
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We just finished spending a couple days near Zion National Park. On Friday we left our home in Gilroy and drove most of the way to Las Vegas, staying at Buffalo Bills for the night. We wanted to get to Zion early enough on Saturday so we could do something there before dark. It took us longer than expected but still arrived there before noon.

Ann and I decided to go on a bike ride so we drove the car back to Virgin and parked there while we rode up Kolob Canyon. It was a beautiful ride, but the weather was hot, in the mid 90’s. It is a steep climb but we still made it up more than half way to the top before we decided to head back down.

Here is the graph of the climb.

The ride up and back ended up being close to 32 miles, with nearly 2,500 feet of climbing. A good ride for such a hot day.

After returning to the hotel, we went of a refreshing dip in the pool. Ann did some laps and I just kind of cooled off. We tried to go into the hot tup but it was too hot for that so we went back to the pool.

We really enjoyed dinner that evening and ate at a neat, but expensive restaurant. The food was very tasty and a nice reward for riding in such heat. The

The next morning we got up and watched a stage of the Tour de France on my computer. I had installed a device called a Slingbox on our home Tivo system so I could control and watch it over the internet. After zipping through that stage we decided we still had time before John and Amy arrived so we jumped on the bikes and headed into Zion National Park, up to the end of the canyon.

It was cooler weather than the prior day and a lot of fun. Coming back down the canyon we were going so fast that we caught the bus that carries the tourists into the canyon (they don’t allow you to drive your car) so we had to slow down and follow it to the mouth of the canyon.

Categories: Cycling, Vacation
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