Spring Break, Part III - A Rockin' Adventure

Grand Junction, situated next to Fruita, is a wonderful place to mountain bike. Of course we had to spend some time taking in the sights and riding on some rocks.

When we go to places like the Colorado Monument I think about what it must have felt like for the pioneers when they came west and encountered such beauty, a beauty so different from that of their home state.



On Saturday we had aimed to be at the Monument to take in the sunrise. We missed that, but still arrived before any other cyclists.

That meant that the kids had the bike park all to themselves. They played a bit and then did some of the trails. We finished up at another part of the Monument for some very different kind of riding.



On our way back to Denver we made a stop at Rifle Falls. It was beautiful as ever, but so different from when it is green.

Interestingly, Ethan was off on his own, very different, primitive style camping trip just about 30 minutes away from where we were. I'lll share that with you soon.

Mile High Urban CX Chaos 2012

We braved the cold weather (about 25 degrees)so that Ellie could take part in the first ever urban cyclocross race. It was pretty cool.

The sponsor built a fun pump track area with ground up asphalt, wood chips and dirt mounds. They included a bit of deep sand as well.

They also included an adaptive (handlecycle) category for the paraplegics and quadriplegics. It was the first of its kind. I am so impressed! I hope this will start a trend.

The venue was interesting, too.

Ellie won her category.

Of Bears, Broken Bikes and Booty

On Sunday Ellie did the King of the Rockies race, the final race in the Epic Singletrack series up at Winter Park. We could have driven up on Sunday morning, but I wanted to go camping at least one more time before the cold weather set in.

It was a perfect night. The skies were clear and the stars glimmered happily in the indigo sky. The moon at half fun glowed brightly. It was a perfect temperature with out any bothersome wind.

While there was still sunlight, the kids explore the woods and waded in the quiet stream that ran near the road. Ellie's bike, which had been perfectly fine a few days before, was experiencing trouble as there was something wrong with the rear derailer and the wheel could not turn freely. If we had been around any of the biking dads, or if it had been earlier in the day, I would have asked someone else to fix it. However, there was no help available and I was not sure anyone would be available to help the next morning before the race. Being the resourceful and stubborn person that I am, I was not going to be stymied. We had bothered to go camping and paid the race fee, so I set about fixing the bike. Thankfully I was able to devine the fact that the shifters were in unusual positions and that it was the source of the problem. I cleaned the gears and fixed the gear issue. After a light lubing, it was good to go. I was proud of myself for figuring it out.

After getting set up we had a dinner of beef fajitas. We followed that with a camp fire, roasted marshmallows and s'mores.

I imagine that Ellie might have been a bit nervous as she was not feeling all that well. She became ill about a week and a half ago, and was not feeling better. Her arm felt a bit numb and weird from the go kart fiasco. However, she prevailed. Her team was counting on her to win points to help them maintain their placement at the top junior team in the series. So she pluck up her gumption and raced without complaint.

She got her usual good start, but it was not a very good race for her. At nearly 26 miles, it was a grueling race.

She won anyway, but was not at all happy with her performance. She also won her overall category, Beginning Women under 15. She won a nice stein, a special custom jersey and two more first place medals.

We had a new team member with us this weekend who was racing for the very first time. It was very exciting to see how well Seth did in his race, coming in third. I think many others would have waited for an easier race to jump in.

Green Mountain Composite won the overall best junior team. The kids received medals and special hoodies.

We capped of the fun of the weekend by stopping by a crazy little sweet shop in Empire where the malts are huge and the local hippies gleefully sing their tunes and strum their guitars.

Bye, Bye Ariana & Honey Glazed Salmon with Brown Butter Lime Garlic Sauce

Today Ellie's friend, Ariana, moved to college. They've been friends since 2008.
Here's a peak at their friendship:

2008

2009

This summer.

Last night.

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This evening we had Kohlton, Mark (his father) and Martine (Mark's girlfriend) over for dinner. We had a great time. This was a wonderful, easy meal.


Pan Seared Honey Glazed Salmon with Browned Butter Lime Sauce
Yields 4 servings
via: Cooking Classy Blog

4 (6 oz) salmon fillets, rested at room temperature 20 minutes
8 tsp flour, divided
2 Tbsp honey, divided
zest of 1 - 2 limes (I like it with a generous amount so in my opinion 2)
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 recipe Browned Butter Lime Sauce, recipe follows

Working in batches of two salmon fillets at a time (or using two skillets, because you don't want to overcrowd the salmon when cooking it on the stove-top so it cooks more evenly), place salmon fillets on a cutting board or plate and sprinkle 1 tsp flour over each side of the salmon fillets and spread flour to evenly coat. Evenly drizzle 3/4 tsp honey over each side of the flour coated salmon fillets.* Drizzle 1 Tbsp olive oil into a 10 inch non-stick skillet, swirl pan to evenly coat bottom and heat over medium heat. Once oil it hot, carefully place salmon ) in pan and cook over medium heat, 3-5 minutes per side until salmon has cooked through and bottom has nicely browned. Plate salmon immediately, drizzle each fillet with 1 1/2 - 2 Tbsp Browned Butter Lime Sauce and sprinkle with lime zest. Serve warm.


*note that once you remove the salmon from the plate some of the flour and honey coating will stick to the plate so I'd recommend just scraping it up with a spatula and adding it to the salmon once it's in the pan, alternately you could just coat one side with the flour and honey then after adding it to the pan you can coat the top side with flour and honey. Either way works I'd just say don't waste any of that delicious coating.

Browned Butter Lime Sauce

Ingredients:
6 Tbsp salted butter, diced
3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Place butter in a small (light colored) saucepan. Cook over medium heat, swirling pan occasionally, until butter is fragrant and has turned a tan shade (for a step by step tutorial on how to brown butter see link here, although I would recommend not to stir constantly rather swirl pan occasionally). Remove from heat and add browned butter along with lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper to a blender. Blend on low speed for 30 seconds to 1 minute until well blended. Pour sauce into a small glass dish (note: whisk butter mixture with a fork before pouring onto salmon as it will separate, rewarm if needed).
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Race Rendezvous & The Thrill of Seeing a Design from Digital to "Real Life"!

Last week Ellie was sick. Coach Kathy received the team kits that Ellie and I designed on Thursday. I was very hopeful that Ellie would feel well enough to race. I wanted to see the new team kits. Thankfully, though she was not 100% all better, she was good enough to race. So up we went. I was feeling excited, almost giddy.

They boys seemed to like the design and it was very visible from way across the course. Main goal of design - achieved!

Don't they look so cute?

This one is funny because she almost fell off of the log. There are many more kids on the team. This simply represents who was racing on Saturday.

Afterwards they hung out together waiting for awards.

Although Ellie's speed was slow, she still won her category.

I love to see her return with a smile on her face.

The races up at Winter Park are also beautiful.

Ellie is sporting a rather interesting look these days. Scott thinks these pants make her look like a pirate. Maris and Matthew like them. Ellie is certainly her own person.

On other fronts, my oven is broken. Between trying to cook Paleo meals, having a broken grill and broken oven, cooking is kind of a drag. I'm indulging in music instead. Here are some I've recently discovered:






And I rather like this for my boy:

Teaser // Mission Workshop presents Julien Colombier from Mission Workshop on Vimeo.

Colorado Freeride Festival 2012

Ellie and I had a totally fun, rockin' weekend at the Colorado Freeride Festival up in Winter Park. We spent the weekend with some friends from the team.

Ellie and Maris put together a couple of fun costumes. Ellie has her game face on here so that you can see her mustache.

The most anticipated event of the weekend, for us at least, was the Intergalactic Pond Crossing Championship. It is really a lot of fun. Riders have to wear a life jacket to help them float in the event that he/she fell in. Out of 46 riders, only about 7 or 8 made it across. Ellie and Maris were two of them.

You begin going down a short, rather steep wooden track. The trick here is concentration and focus.

Many of the riders used their legs for balance. It made for some funny crossings.

By the time Ellie was half way across the pond the crowd started chanting, "Go Viking! Viking! Viking!" She made it look so easy and effortless. Each rider gets two tries. Ellie made it across both time, the second time was a bit less tidy.

Ellie won the women's category. She got a super cool trophy and $80. A female mountain biker that owns a boutique in town said, "That was so bad ass! Come into my store and I'll hook you up with about $50 merchandise." That was exciting, too.

Saturday's feature was the Epic Singletrack Cross Country race that began in Fraiser and ended in Winter Park. It was a fun, but somewhat rough ride. She hit a rock and flew over her handlebars. Perhaps we should have named her Endo Girl since that seems to be her favorite cycling trick.

She managed to get up, straighten her handlebars and seat then continued the race, coming in ahead of all of the women in her category, regardless of the age class.

Our friends were staying in the beautiful Vintage Hotel where we spent a lot of time when it was raining. We enjoyed watching the Olympics each night. They invited Ellie to sleep in the room so that she did not have to camp out in the rain. They invited me as well, but I opted for the woods.

Being able to ride the cabriolet was a bonus.

The kids spent a lot of time in the hot tub.

On Sunday we took in the Slopestyle Finals. It is exciting and scary. My mom brain looks at the course and imagines all of the places that the rider could crash or hit his/her head. At this point Ellie seems to like watching it, but is not interested in doing it. That is just fine with me.

Here's what the race venue looked like from the bottom of the mountain. The course was specially designed and constructed for this competition.

This is a whale tail. It might be the most scary of them all, at least for me. This kids seemed to love it. One rider made it into the scoop, but something went wrong. He tossed down his bike in anger and then had to climb down. This competition was being televised, so imagine he had lot of emotion around that, too.

All of these riders had to qualify to do the competition. Some of these guys came from places like Germany, England and Canada to compete.

The men are all so different. One excellent rider is 37 years old and 6'8" tall. Another is in his early 20's, about 5'4" and built like a bulldog. One rider hit the berm wrong. The seat got stuck in his bottom. It took two guys to pull it out. It was both a bit humorous and not, all a the same time. I imagine his bottom will be sore for a while.

The whole event was very interesting people watching. Most of the vendors had a certain look. Most of them were very hip, often either sporting artistic tattoos and grungy hip mountain biker or the sort of techy hipster. After talking to some of them I learned that many of them work for an advertising agency that "rents" out groups of folks to work such events. The company have many different "looks" to choose from. The photographers were the same way, but tended to be less polished looking. I loved watching them use the boom cranes to get great shots and see where they stand to get the others. I'd like to do that kind of thing after I retire. Somehow, I don't think I will have the look that they will be looking for. I can't imagine there is a lot of need for the funky, retired English teacher look, unless you are going to an education or library conference.

Here's a video that highlights the slopestyle contest.