20080126 Harstene Kayak at EveryTrail

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another great day of paddling. This time Aaron and I got around Hartstene Island in the South Sound. We are running out of Islands in the Puget Sound

Lord Cromwell

20080120Vashon Kayak at EveryTrail

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This is a pic from our Sunday paddle. Notice the open water as we were heading down the east side of Vashon running with the wind. On the way back up the west side, we fought a strong head wind all the way and pretty much stayed on the shoreline. also notice the line gap on the NW corner. This is were the wave got huge in a nice tidal rip and it must have lost the signal.

What a great weekend. aaron, Hayes and I went to roll practice on Friday night with the guys for the Outdoor adventure center. I forgot my nose plugs but was finally able to get it done. Next time I am going to bring the sea kayak and work with it. Aaron lost his roll and was doing underwater helocopters. And Matt Hayes was a fish going over and over in circles around us.

I you ever have an inclination to improve your kayak skills, the are in the Juanita pool every Friday night from 9:00-10:30. After that I drove down to the Cap Forest FA trailhead and slept in my car. It was a great race. I have never seen so many people there and the tent/fire/food setup was way nicer than it has ever been. It is bordering on becoming a normal race and losing its FA quality.

Because there was so much snow at the top, they excluded the top half of the loop and added a Lost valley loop. Lost valley is a great place with lots of mud. This made the course a bit longer but lopped off a bunch of elevation. still it was a great course and it was a nice change to run Lost valley. I only did one loop becasue my knee is having serious problems. But I did go Mtn bike riding with Matt Hayes and Robin Smith afterwards in the mud and rain.

Needless to say, When I woke up on sunday i could barely move my knee. something is seriously wrong and i am hopefull that when i see the Dr tomorrow, he will fix it. the goos news is that my knee go a good long rest on Sunday as we paddled around Vashon Island. RVG, Aaron, and Frenchie all headed out clockwise with the wind. We portaged and thereby didn't go around Mury isl. But on our way back up to the N side of the Isl, the wind that helped us down punished us unmercifully. 28.5 miles and 6 hours later, we returned to the launch and sat down for some great mex food.

My plan had me riding long and hard today but at this point I am sure that anything short of resting my knee will only cause more problems. so we are just hanging out enjoying the sun.

Lord Cromwell

Some final 2007 pics. When i was out setting the course for the race on the olympic peninsula, I ran into this fellow. Never seen a bear in the wild before. He wasn't too happy to see me and made quick tracks for the brush

More pics from 2007. Just like halloween, we don't merely go to the tree stand, we go to the source. We usually head out to the olympic peninsula for our Christmas tree. The trees are kinda tall, thin and scrauny but it is a good day with the family. My oldest daughter really hates these family events. She tries to just sit by herself in the back of the car with her mp3 player. Next year I am going to lay down the no electronics rule.

Christmas tree

I haven't been posting much lately because my online speed has been unbelievable bad. I assumed that it was the dialup until it just stopped working for the most part. I called the ISP and they said all was fine. I called the phone company because there was this static sound but they said it was fine. I even took the computer to some shady computer shop. I knew before I even called that this was a bad idea. They charged me $80 bucks and told me that all I need to do was pay them $150 and they would remove my Mcaffee and put in a "better" anti virus scanner.

I was at my wits end and pissed. So I called the phone company again a waded through their stupid phone tree. The guy came out again today. He found a short on the poled and fixed it. Go figure. Stupid technology. I like the old days when I could pull the engine in my car take it apart put it back together and it would work better. Now its just money down a rathole.

PS: I looked into cable and DSL. for at least $50 a month i could upgrade but I would lose my email address. And for what, faster email?

Lord Cromwell
The frontier of loss is not visable until it has passed.

Here is a picture from last halloween. Knowing me, most of you would probably assume that I really don't have a life beyond training and racing. But I do. normal people get their pumpkins at the supermarket. We go to the source. This is a great family business in the puyallup valley. Our family only has one rule, whichever one you pick, you have to carry it to the car.