Today's Bike Ride

Soda break at Circle K.

Today's Hike

Near the start of the Wind Cave Trail.

Finally!

Speed

New high max speed on a bicycle for me. On my Surly Long Haul Trucker today. Downhill riding back from Usery Park with a stiff tailwind and pedaling fast. All I could think was "if I wipe out I'm toast!"

Cute Cat Picture

It's Peaches!

Karen's New Ride

Not really. We were just killing some time in a motorcycle dealership.

"Before" Picture

Another "before" picture. This was from our 1st season of Spring Training in 2009. It was posted on Facebook by Gary Barton who is on the right side of the picture.

Cat In The Bag

Grand Canyon

Last week we took a trip to Prescott and the Grand Canyon.

Karen on the Bright Angel Trail.

1 1/2 Mile Rest Area on the Bright Angel Trail.

Seen On Today's Hike

In Prescott.

Lizard

Seen while hiking the Wind Cave Trail in Usery Park today.

Today's Hike

We hiked in Usery Park today under cloudy skies. This is a picture of Pass Mountain taken from the Vista Trail.

Prescott

Karen coming down the trail with the Willow Lake Dam in the background.

Frog (toad?) seen on the trail.

Lots of ant hills.

Flowers and cactus.

The trails are normally empty during the week. Here we converged with 2 other groups. A rare crowd on the trail.

Prescott

We took another trip to Prescott this past week.

Karen in a narrow rock passage.

The Willow Lake Dam. The entire underside of the dam was covered with these mud nests. I think they may have originally been bird nests because of their large openings but on this day the only thing I saw flying in and out of them were wasps.

Recent rains created a lot of standing water pools. This is below Willow Lake Dam.

Reno/Lake Tahoe Trip

I'd always wanted to see Mono (pronounced "mow-no") Lake so we detoured on the way back to see it. It's 3 times the salinity of the Pacific Ocean! When you walk down to the lake the smell really hits you. It smells like low tide at the ocean. Besides the birds there are millions of Alkali Flies on the shores. The Gulls feed on them. The lake is also full of brine shrimp. A very unique place!

90% of the California Gulls in the area are hatched at Mono Lake.

The famous Tufa formations.

Karen on the boardwalk at the lake.

Reno/Lake Tahoe Trip

On the road to Mono Lake.

It was beautiful!

Reno/Lake Tahoe Trip

Karen on an alpine meadow hiking trail near the summit of the road to Incline Village on Lake Tahoe.

Crystal clear water of Lake Tahoe.

Karen on the beach near South Lake Tahoe.

Karen on a bike path near South Lake Tahoe.

One of many huge bike sculptures we saw around South Lake Tahoe.

Reno/Lake Tahoe Trip

Reno sign.

Now THAT'S a climbing wall!

The Truckee River flows right through downtown Reno.

Slow shutter speed photo of the river.

Reno/Lake Tahoe Trip

Death Valley scenery.

You can get gas in Death Valley - at a very high price!

It was only 105 degrees at the visitor center at around 11:00 am. Felt like home to us.

T-shirt at the visitor center.

Rhyolite Ghost Town on the way back to the highway.

Reno/Lake Tahoe Trip

We just got back from a trip to Reno/Lake Tahoe. On the drive there we made a side trip to Death Valley. At the turn off is a gas station/store with an alien theme.

Karen and some friends.

The store.