Aldwincle - Islip - Aldwincle

Almost exactly the reverse of this walk from January 23rd. About 6 miles. Led by Gordon. Sunny, though some of the route was flooded, so we took the high road. Barrie E, Barry O, Terry, Eddie, Norma, Kate and me.

A little bit of fence climbing round the submerged path

ignore anything after the 6 mile mark!

Gloomy Evening at Whitecaps Point

Last night's sunset wasn't much of a sunset at all, with dark clouds dominating the sky. It was still very much a scene worth photographing, however. The dark clouds and dark foreground rocks made for an ominous image. I thought the grasses in the foreground made for a nice touch to the overall scene. Hard to believe that we are a week into December already and there isn't a lick of ice to be found anywhere along this shoreline!

A Little Ladder

I bought this small ladder at a local thrift store without knowing what I was going to do with it. I figured you can always use a little ladder, right? The first thing I thought to do with it was to hang it on the kitchen ceiling with pots attached. Only thing wrong with that is... I have a ceiling fan in the middle of my kitchen ceiling. It wouldn't really look good in my 1940's style kitchen anyway.
Instead I put it in the library with magazines draped over the rungs. I like it for now. Anyone have another good idea on how to use it?

Wood Chips and Step Throughs

I guess my cross season started because I raced again on Saturday.
But I must say, this is the least prepared I've been for a season yet. Not that I'm ever really prepared in the way most racers are prepared.

But, most years I've at least been running regularly and doing some running intervals and riding a bit more regularly and taking a spin class here and there and even doing some weight work.
But not this year.
This year, I've been commuting a little and riding a little and I just started running once a week a few weeks ago, if you don't count running up the stairs at BART to catch the last bike accessible train as running.
And tomorrow I'll start taking that spin class down at the Y during lunch.

Last night I dreamt that I was doing that triceps curl weight lifting exercise over and over and over again.
And so here I am at 6am on Monday morning thinking about it and deciding to try and get a little more serious. Today at lunch, I'm doing a run with some intervals in it.
Yep, I'm starting today.
I've been looking forward to cross season for months, but really, doing nothing but thinking about it. I had an odd epiphany at the race on Saturday. As I was riding over to registration I saw someone warming up on a trainer, and I thought - what the hell are they doing? And then I remembered warming up.
Oh yeah, people warm up to race.

So I registered and pre-rode the course once. And then it was time for our race to start.
And then we raced.
During the second lap, my teammate Thomas, rode behind me and asked how I was doing and if I liked the course and chatted about how his wife and his kids would start coming with him to races soon. And some other stuff.

And I could only muster a uh huh every so often.
Because I was racing you know.
And then he pulled ahead and passed me and I'm not sure he ever realized I was in the middle of my race and all.

But the thing I do have dialed in, after 2 seasons of racing cross, is my mounts and dismounts and barrier running and log hopping and pedal positions and step through and bike handling and sand riding and wood chip riding and sharp turning and dry heaving.

Evening at Horseshoe Bay

Last night Roger (http://www.rogernordstromphoto.blogspot.com/) and I went down to Horseshoe Bay to shoot the sunset. I've been trying to show him some new areas along the lake that he hasn't seen yet. Horseshoe Bay can be a fun place to shoot, depending on the conditions. This evening when we were there the lake was smooth as glass, which is always nice to have when making images of the lake. At the entrance to the bay there is this nice, photogenic pile of rocks that I had fun shooting. I used my graduated neutral-density filters on the image above and the one below to help balance the exposure between the dark foreground and the brighter sky. Using the filters also helped bring out the detail in the underwater rocks in the foreground.

Edinburgh 19 - Toulouse 14

Time to work off all those deep-fried calories with a game of rugby. Edinburgh played Toulouse at Murrayfield on Saturday, turning in a gratifying win after a desperate season for Scottish rugby in the European Six Nations tournament. Toulouse is in white, which I have never understood as a colour in which to play rugby.

Photos are courtesy of my daughter, who kindly responded to my text plea for some blog fodder.




Instead of cheerleaders before the game, American style, spectators were offered a furry thing in a kilt. I imagine it must have been nicely cosy inside that costume.



The view from my daughter's seat in the stands. My son was also at the match in a different part of the stadium. By dint of some extreme waving they managed to locate each other across the pitch. Family ties, eh?

Wanganui Gorge

A couple of weeks ago I quietly got back on the bike after the hit and run assault from a little while ago. However, there hasn't been much that has inspired me to write a post until last weekend. On Sunday I finally decided to man up and do 207km down to Wanganui Gorge (behind Mullumbimby) and back. The plan was simple enough, but I still wasn't sure about my fitness. I figured I would find out today, and that whatever happened, the surroundings within the Gorge would make it a worthwhile exercise.

Martin joined me for the first 78km or so down to Mullumbimby along the Tweed Coast. This part of the ride was surprisingly uneventful. On what was the first cool morning of the year, I searched for some full-finger gloves before setting out, but as we spend the early part of the ride 'coasting', they really weren't necessary. The most exciting part of this stretch was finding a dirt track that follows the road on the ocean side for a few hundred metres through the salt bush about half way between Pottsville and Wooyung. I'm still not sure what that was supposed to prove. Mullumbimby itself was awash with boats for some canoeing event. I'm guessing they were going to paddle along the Brunswick River to Brunswick Heads, a few kilometres downstream. Maybe I should have asked someone what was going on.



The real part of the ride started at the top of the Wilsons Creek climb, where I entered another world. The stream that follows the road is actually the Wilsons River, not Wilsons Creek, but I guess not everyone was aware of that name change. This world is one of lush green rainforests, mountain views, a few hippie cottages and a laid back vibe. Every time I come here I resolve to visit more often, but the distance from home (along with the proliferation of other places to ride) keeps me away for longer than I would like. It was also nice that the council decided to fill in some of the potholes around here, but today I had other things on my mind.

I turned south and joined the dirt at the Huonville fork (yes, I've just named it), and entered a deep gorge, with mountains closing in on either side, and the occasional waterfall cascading down the sides of the gorge. The stream bubbling away below me is actually Coopers Creek, which continues south and can be rejoined from the bottom of Minyon Falls on the other side of the Nightcap Range. Today I was taking it slow through this stretch, partly a result of being out of condition, and partly in wonderment at the things I was seeing. There is a hidden campsite at the end of this road, which I may explore one day, and there was once a walking track through the forest, but that has since been closed.

I turned and headed for home, first climbing out of the gorge before descending back to Mullumbimby. Today I would face yet another northerly wind on the way home, once again in total defiance of the prevailing wind direction for this time of year. This is becoming an unwelcome habit. It was after leaving Mullumbimby that the difficulty started. I had planned to climb over Mt Jerusalem National Park on the ride home, but first I had to get there against the wind, and somehow conserve enough energy for the climb. I managed the first part of that equation, but struggled on the climb like never before (and hopefully never again).
The good news was that at the bottom of this climb I could easily reach the village of Uki, where I gorged on sweet things to replenish some energy stocks for the last 55km. I still had to climb over Tomewin on the way home, but now I had replenished my energy and had realised the need to pace myself over the last quarter of the ride. Consequently, Tomewin posed few problems -- except that the temperature had dropped to 13 degrees C at the summit. I was glad I had brought the jacket for the descent home, to end yet another memorable day. It's clear that my fitness still needs some work, but that is slowly returning.