Fresh flakes in Bend!

Yup, that's right! It snowed last night and into our workout this morning! Fresh snow in the end of May!

The groomers here at Mt. Bachelor did a great job tilling up the old snow last night so the trails were good and hard this morning with just a dusting of soft, fresh snow on top. We had some intervals on tap today; Welly with the U.S. Ski Team guys and me on my own. We have just two more days of training out here before we head back east on Saturday morning. Hopefully the weather will be clear enough for one more good view of Mt. Bachelor's peak before we head out.

Pictures, as always:

 

I continued my photo collection of old/sweet cars here in Bend...these three are all within a block of our rental house. The bottom one is for sale...$900 anyone? 

The drive up this morning...we hit ice and snow on the road really early. 

Seth and I are all smiles after a great ski.

Some shots taken from the video that Seth took during my L3 intervals. 

 

One more shot of my earlier intervals and Welly, happy to be done but probably also psyched with the ski conditions. 

The drive back down to town. 

More from Bend...

As promised, here are a few more pictures from our last couple of days here in Bend. The weather here is amazing. Not always sunny but when it is cloudy, it's still nice. Today we did a long classic ski that turned out great. Usually when we arrive up at Mt. Bachelor in the mornings the trail is frozen solid. Rock hard corduroy. Last night it was cloudy so this morning the trail hadn't frozen, making the classic skiing awesome!

Yesterday Welly, Seth and I went on an off-track adventure into the land behind the Mt. Bachelor Nordic Center. We followed some snowmobile trails up a ways until we found some fun terrain to scope out for a bit. While it wasn't quite the crust skiing we were all hoping for, as the sun has melted the snow surface into a bumpy mess, it was a good exercise in balance and agility!

Unfortunately the difficult conditions also helped Welly break a ski on our way back down, adding to the challenge for him. I must say though, Welly is pretty good at the one-ski scooter push and he's pretty agile in the woods that way too! 

Yesterday afternoon was Bend's 2012 Pole, Pedal, Paddle race. They start with an alpine run from the top of Bachelor down to the base where competitors switch to nordic skis for an 8km tour of the nordic trails. From there it's a 25 mile bike downhill to town where they transition again, this time for a 5 mile run. The last leg is the paddle....your choice of boat so long as it has unfixed paddles. After the paddle it's a half mile sprint on foot to the finish. Our new teammate Kris Freeman (also of the U.S. Ski Team) took the win in his first attempt.

The transition area from nordic ski to road bikes...waiting to be filled with expensive time trial bikes on race day. 

Kris holding off the competition on the paddle leg. 

Tomorrow we have our one day off during our stay here in Bend so we're trying to decide what to fill our day with. Shouldn't be hard to find something fun...there's a lot going on in this town. Maybe we'll rent a pedal-powered buggy!

Seth and I found some sweet pedal-powered rigs after watching the Pole, Pedal, Paddle. This one can hold up to six people! Four adults pedaling and two kids in the yellow seat on the front! 

Seth couldn't quite get his arms all the way around this one...

Still can't believe how many huge trees are around here!

There seem to be a lot of neat old vehicles on the roads around here. This truck is just the beginning of my photo collection of them! Check back in a few days for more!

Bend on Dwellable

Bend! Back on snow....

Two days ago Welly, Seth, and I arrived in Bend, Oregon for a two week camp of skiing up at Mt. Bachelor. We've skied twice now and skiing couldn't be better...they have a ton of snow left! We have a sweet condo rented right near downtown Bend that came complete with bikes to tour the area on. There are tons of bike and walking paths around and the weather so far has been great.

Pictures, as always.

Welly and I were noticing yesterday that there are a lot of huge trees around here. This afternoon I went for a jog through a park near our condo and discovered a HUGE willow tree. I will try to go back and get a picture soon. 

 

The trails at Mt. Bachelor are in great shape. I didn't realize just how much snow was up there until I started looking at the holes melted out around the trunks of the trees....some of them have to be in excess of 8 feet deep! Again, I didn't have my camera with me when I was noticing that, but I'll try to carry it with me one of these coming days. The snow on the trails holds up fairly well for the first half of our ski sessions and then, if the sun's out, things break down and get soft pretty fast. This morning we went up earlier to ski the frozen corduroy before it got too warm. 

 

The parking lot has huge walls of snow on all sides....

 The alpine area is still open and entirely snow covered! 

 

This afternoon Seth and I went on an exploratory bike ride and discovered these rock men in our neighbor's yard....

Capturing the nature of the area with a rock biker...

More pictures from our bike ride around town including a crazy kayak sculpture. 

Having fun and thoroughly enjoying this training camp in a new place! 

So far Bend is great...I'm really glad I came!

Check back soon for more photos! 

Bend on Dwellable

One truck, eight bikes, and four crazies.

After a few weeks galavanting around "Southern" New England, I am finally back in The Valley. Real training is full-on and my plans have been set for the majority of my summer.

Before you read about my bike trip in Virginia, here are some photos from my last few weeks away from The County including my first week and a half at home in NH: (click on any photo to view it larger in a slide show format)

This is how Mother Nature felt about me driving 8.5 hours home to NH a few weeks ago. 

Nope. Try again another day. 

Dinner on the new porch that my dad helped his yacht club members build. Beautiful. 

Baby chickens! Soooo darn cute!

I let my creative side shine for a bit while I was at home. I made an arbor and a fairy house for the gardens at Beans & Greens. 

 

My fairy house...Swiss Family Robinson style. 

My mom and I found some spring while visiting a greenhouse in southern NH.

Perfectly flat Lake Winnipesaukee. 

Last week Seth and I returned from our latest adventure on the road. A partial repeat of last year's spring trip, this year we drove south to Virginia for more biking. While last year took us all over the place (too much driving), this time around we opted for a "home base" at Massanutten Resort, a little alpine mountain nestled up on the eastern side of the Shenandoah Valley. We were joined by Seth's hometown friends, Andy and Sarah.

We spent one of the rainy days visiting Massanutten's indoor water park....lots of fun for big kids too!

My vantage point hiking my bike up a mountain...it was totally worth it though; 

the way down was immaculate single track. 

Pretty day riding south from Massanutten on quiet roads through huge (and GREEN) farms. 

Another nice ride in the Shenandoah Valley...lots of smiles!

The big red truck and all eight of our bikes!

We rode around Lancaster County Pennsylvania for an afternoon on our way back north. I'd say there's a good possibility that we ride there next year. The Amish keep beautiful farms and the roads were amazing for road biking. 

That's all for now.....check back soon for updates from my next adventure: 

BEND, Oregon! 

Yup, that's right....we're going skiing on real SNOW in MAY!