and i am so very happy!

As of Saturday evening, the Utah MS150 ride had earned $1,060,000 to help fight MS and support those with MS.

I ended up riding 100 miles on day one and the remainder on day two. Let me just say, that i really should have put slicks on for the 100 miles. I have a touring bike and the tires are wider and more nobbly than a regular road bike which gives you more resistance and i was definitely feeling that at the end of day one. Luckily, i hooked up with my friend Carol’s team, which i have ridden with a couple of times, and got to do some drafting. Thank you Janet and Beth for pulling the last 15 miles!

Sunday had an open start, so i headed out at 7:15 and hooked up with two other brighton team members, Zita and Jay, to do the last loop. The volunteers on both days were fantastic. The route was beautiful and the people were great. How cool to be riding along with someone who was grateful to be the 6th top fund raiser last year. His wife has MS and both he and his son were riding the 150. She was hoping to join them for a few miles at the end.

Sunday, when we got back to camp at 10:00, sop was waiting for me (he had not been able to come up with me because we had Dogie) with beer and sandwiches. I finished breaking down my camp and we headed out to a reservoir on the bike route to hang out for a while. Perfect wrap-up to a fantastic weekend!

Oh, yes, pictures:

Team Brighton - Lifts for Life

Joanne and J

on the route

Carol and Hugh

Blakemore riders (saved my butt)

even hand-huts deserve a name

the only blurry picture i ended up with!

we headed to the trail head of the hike we wanted to do on the following day. This is an area of many old uranium mines through the bentonite hills. We set up camp and hiked out to find the trail so that we wouldn’t have to search too much in the morning. For those of you unfamiliar with hiking in this area, very few ‘trails’ are marked. Guide books read, “if you look to the southwest, you will see an arch in the wingate escarmpent. Look further west and notice where the chinle formation forms a ‘v’ - this is where the trail starts.” We wanted to make sure we weren’t hunting in the heat of day, and we also wanted to wander in the desert twilight.

and finally news from the desert trip:

written with one foot out the window

One of the first hikes we wanted to do was off the Burr Trail. I needed to get a 12-mile run in, and so we camped at our Cottonwood Tree spot and then SOP hit the road in the truck and i hit the road with my feet, meeting at the turnoff for Lampstand, a.k.a. Ginstand.

The fields around lampstand had been chained this year. I believe it is done to clear out the Juniper, also known as Cedar in these parts, and allow some more grasses to grow for grazing.

freshly chained

One of the cool things we saw this day was a rattlesnake - a RED rattlesnake! I saw him, he saw us, he rattled and shimmied, we shot (photos).

bad photo, cool snake

flowers in the desert tend to be fascinating things. Last year, Grape Holly, Buffaloberry, Orange Globe Mallow, Blue Flox, Sand Verbena - you name it - it was in bloom!

This year, with a dry winter behind them, few plants had the energy to put out a lot of blossoms. Here are a few that were putting forth some extra effort:

apache plume

salt lover

desert evening primrose

all too soon, the vacation was over… but first it had to start.

on the road

30 minutes to metro utah

and just what is metro utah, id like to know. Evidently it is Levan (utah’s navel), i had no idea…

Love that orange!

one of our return spots to camp.

This log is under a huge cottonwood tree by The Gulch. This is where we nearly got blown away last year, and yet we go back. We saw a huge black widow here this year!

just a little cold

not a lot of digital shots this year (although quite a few more to come). I did shoot 4 rolls of slide film, however and so i hope to scan those after the marathon.

The Marathon. Is Saturday. I am. So nervous.

In other news, i pulled out my holga this week.