Highway Temptations

More Handstands in 2014!!!!

New Years Day Run

Yesterday, New Years Day, my friend Maresa and I went for a 6.2 mile run. Originally we were going to drive over to Auburn and do the 10k Resolution Run. Actually, three of us were going to do that, but someone backed out at the last minute to go on a fun camping trip--can't say I blame them with all this warm weather. On New Years Eve Maresa sent me a text wondering, since it was going to be just the two of us, "do we still want to spend three hours in the car, spend money on gas and on the entry fee, or should we just do our own 10k here in Reno:" I voted for doing the 10k here, which she was happy about too.

We started at Maresa's house and ran up to skyline then down skyline toward Virginia Lake, did a lap around the lake and then back to Maresa's place. It was a nice run and a great way to start out the new year, especially since I want to focus more on running this year. On our lap around the lake we saw a ton of Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata), which is interesting because I haven't seen any at the pond near the condo, but there were hundreds of them here. I also saw one little pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), so cute, I love them. Both of these birds were hanging out near the shore and easy spot while running. I kind of wanted to take a little break and see if there were some more cool birds hanging out further from shore, but alas, I kept running and it felt great!

Happy New Year, everyone, may it be a wild one!!!!

Winter River Run in Spring Like Conditions

Yesterday, I went for a nice little four mile run along the Truckee River. It was a beautiful day, although too warm for the end of December. As I ran, I saw a bunch of the usual suspects, Mallards and Canada Geese, but I also saw a female common merganser (Mergus merganser) diving amongst the rocks in the river and three red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) enjoying a thermal above I-80.

Pretty much all of the plants along the route were brown and shriveled, taking their rest during the winter months. However, December has not been very wintry this year, with all this warm weather and no snow. I wonder when the winter weather will finally decide to bless us with its presence? Hopefully soon!!!

Just Another Day in the Rain!

Snow in the Santa Rosa Mountains!

Well, we did not work on weeds again yesterday. It was a fairly nasty day, it rained all morning and most of the afternoon. It even hailed on us a bit and the Santa Rosas got snow. Crazy! We can't spray when it's raining because the rain dilutes the chemical and washes it off of the plants. The plants then continue to live happy lives, growing and reproducing and our time spent spraying would have been wasted. We were going to drive out to do some weed monitoring, but Dave told us not to because apparently the roads get really bad in the rain. So, we ended up cleaning the office, working on the PDR and doing some paper work. Later in the day, however, someone tried to drive out to the wilderness area, but got stuck in the mud. The fire guys had to go rescue him--we were glad we took Dave's advice and didn't drive out.

The other day a bought a beginners acrylic paint set, just for fun. I broke it out last night and played with it for awhile. I have never really painted before, so this should be an interesting, if not comical, endeavor. I had fun mixing colors and painting simple flowers and crosses. I can't wait to play with it some more, maybe attempt a landscape or two.

My masterpiece, watch out Georgia O'keeffe!

I also bought a yoga DVD so I can get some exercise and stretching in while I'm out here. I'm such a goob though, I totally forgot that my computer doesn't have a cd drive. We bought an external one, but I didn't even think to bring it with me. Last night I got everything all ready; I had my comfy yoga pants on, I laid out my yoga pad, I had the lights nice and low and was all set to begin my new yoga routine. I pulled out my DVD and went to put it in the side of my computer--like I would on my mac--then realized "oh shit, this is not my mac, this is the pc and it has no cd drive!" Sad, sad face--I was soooooo ready to get my yoga on. Oh well, what can you do? I'll just have to bring the cd drive out with me next time. Till then yoga, till then.

Hats, Hops, and Hucks: 2011

Team Prime BID

For those of you who don't know, one of my favorite ways to stay in shape for my wild adventures is to play ultimate frisbee. Frisbee tends to be much more of an addiction for me than anything else--it is so fun! This past weekend was one of the most incredibly fun tourneys of the year, the annual Hats, Hops, and Hucks (HHH). Hats; because it's a hat tournament--you tend not to know any of the players on your team and you have to wear a hat, Hops; because there's a lot of beer involved, and Hucks; because people love to throw that disc deep.

This year, 2011, was the 20th anniversary of HHH and there was a great turnout, we brought something like 30 folks from the Reno area--almost every team had a Reno-ite on it. Our team had 3 on it and another team had 6. There was only one team I knew of who didn't have anyone from Reno on it, but there could have been more.

Anyway, we got there around 7:30pm on Friday, registered and met up with other Reno folk. One great thing about this tournament is that food and camping is part of the registration fee, so once you're there you don't really have to worry about anything. Saturday morning we had a breakfast of eggs, pancakes and hash browns, then we hit the fields.

This year the theme was "Come and Get It", referring to food. There were three pools and they were aptly named breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was in the dinner pool and the name of my team was Prime BID, after Prime Rib--of course. On Saturday my team had a bit of a hard time gelling, we won 1 out of our 4 games. However, Saturday games just determine seeding positions and don't determine how you end up in the overall tournament. With our 3 loses, we ended up being seeded 12 out of 15 teams--not as high as we were hoping, but we were having a blast.

On Sunday we started out playing the 5th ranked team, INSIDE-OUT Burger and after a hard fought battle, we won!!! All while having an amazing dance party on the sidelines. We were super pumped! Our next game was against another bracket breaker, DISC-CUTS and Gravy, a team who was seeded 13th after Saturday, just beat their their highly ranked team and now the battle was between seeds 12 and 13, crazy! It was a super close game. We were down 1-7, but made an amazing run and came back. The result came down to a universe point, the score was 12-12 and whoever scored the 13th point got to move on to the semi-finals. We pulled it off and were in the semi-finals. It was a super close and fun game, although a bit nerve wracking.

Sideline dancing with FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI

In the semi-finals there were 3 teams from the dinner pool and 1 from the lunch pool. We ended up playing a team named SWINGlini and CLAMS, a dinner team who we played on Saturday and lost to--they were actually one of our bigger losses--but Sunday we turned things around and we ended up winning. Yay, we're in the finals!!!

Over in the other semi-final game, the teams were FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI vs. PULLed Pork, the game was really close and it came down to an universe point, which FLICK'n won. FLICK'n was in the dinner pool too, we played them on Saturday and had lost. The finals were so much fun. Both teams played really well, but in the end FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI were able to pull it out and beat us 11-17. It was pretty close until the end, when FLICK'n went on a streak and we just couldn't catch up.

Congrats to FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI, it was a great game!

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend of ultimate. Both us and FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI ended up playing a total of 8 games each!!! So much frisbee, so much fun, I wish it wasn't over. But, there's always next year and I can't wait for it!

An intense game of Ninja!

Thanks Mo for all the hard work you put in to make this tournament happen!

Special Edition: Hats, Hops and Hucks fun

What a fun weekend!!! Santa Cruz was beautiful, the weather was awesome and the play was great. The tourney was held in the foothills west of Santa Cruz and we camped on the land of some nice folks who live just minutes from the field. The tournement had three pools; pirates, superheros and wildlife, with five teams in each pool. I was in the pirate pool, on the team blockbeard.

Our team played well, but I think we could have done better. On Saturday we lost our first two games and won our second two, so we were pretty happy. Sunday was single elimination and we lost our first game. I think we were better than the team we lost against we just, didn't play as well as we could have. Oh well... that's how it goes in frisbee.

Overall the weekend was amazing.

Oh yeah...the party on Saturday night was fun, we danced our booties off.

Monsoon Season in Nevada???

It rains in Nevada, but not that often. Nevada is the driest state in the nation, averaging about 7 inches of precipitation a year. However, it has been raining everyday, not all day, but everyday for the last two weeks. We've been having afternoon thunderstorms reminiscent of the monsoon season in New Mexico and the wet season in South Florida. Though, Saturday it did rain pretty much all day. Rain like this is very unusual for this area.

Saturday I went for a run in the rain, it was really nice. It wasn't dumping, but it was raining hard enough for me to get a little wet and keep me nice and cool. I ran along the Truckee river from Idelwild park west to Mayberry Dr. While I was running I couldn't help but notice the chirping of birds and the lush greenery of the wild roses, cottonwoods, oaks, willows, amongst other green foliage. It really felt like I was in a rain forest, except that this rain forest had high desert plant species in it.

Back on Track

Since moving to the ranch I have not been going on my walk/runs. We don't have a set work schedule and a lot of the time we get to work pretty much right after we wake up, although we do tend to sleep in somewhat. Since there is no schedule I've been having a hard time figuring out when to go for my walk/run. If I don't do it right away in the morning I find that little tasks tend to fill up the time between our main tasks and results in me not going.

Last week I decided that I was going to reinstate my walk/runs and that I would do them first thing in the morning that way I won't get too busy doing other things. In the short time since I have reinstated them I have noticed that I just plain feel better, also they help get my day off to an energetic start and I've really been missing them. I'm going to to make sure I have some time in the mornings to get them in.

With the decision to reinstate the walk/runs I have decided to do the walk/runs every other day instead of everyday. I decided this because we do a lot of physical work here at the ranch and I don't want to burn myself out. Plus, we walk a lot here everyday. We either go on a hike or walk the fields when we're irrigating and walking around the ranch for our different tasks all adds up to a lot of walking.

In addition to the walk/runs Dan and I have signed up for the Reno ultimate summer league. I can't wait to start playing more disc. I've been missing it too since we've been at the ranch. We're not going to be able to make all the games, but we're going to try to get to as many as possible. Soooooooooooo excited!

A hike along Thomas Creek

We have been in Reno for the last 3 and 1/2 days. On Sunday we went for a nice hike along Thomas Creek. It's nice to hike in a forested area, there are no forests in the Pine Forest Mountain Range. The shade from the trees was a really nice treat, Sunday was pretty hot. It felt nice to get out and hike in the Sierras. I have missed the Sierras so much and I haven't really been in them since we have been back. I can't wait to play in them some more, especially once the snow melts. There is still quite a bit of snow up there. We tried to hike in the Tahoe Meadows area, but there was still too much snow (Dan was wearing his keens 8^).

Here are some pics of our hike:

squaw carpet (Ceanothus prostratus)

It's hard to see, but on the trunk to the right there is a red-breasted sapsucker

Dan, Dusty and Bodie relaxing in the shade

The meadow where we took a break, there will be a bunch of wild irises here in the near future

The family hiking

River crossing and wild rose break

Dwarf Waterleaf (Hydrophyllum capitatum)

Rocky cliff behind some aspen who haven't leafed out yet

Whoot, whoot... snow plant (Sarcodes sanguinea), I love getting to see these guys, so pretty and bright

Ultimate Fun

Sorry my post is late, we drove back from Reno this morning. I would of written something yesterday, but in a moment you'll see why I didn't.

Yesterday was a great day. I love days that are simply great. Days can be great for a variety of reasons; the people, the weather, the camaraderie, the work, the passion, the effort, what you see, what you do etc, etc... Yesterday was great for all those reasons and more, the University of Nevada, Reno's (UNR) ultimate frisbee team put on a co-ed hat tournament. For those of you who don't play ultimate, a hat tournament is a tournament where the names of the players are thrown into a hat and teams are selected at random, you don't go with a team as you do in typical ultimate tourneys. The hat tourney yesterday was to raise money for the women's UNR ultimate team. This is the first year the UNR women have been able to field a full team, which is awesome. In years past the few women on the UNR team would have to play on the men's team. You see in college ultimate you only play open or women, no co-ed. Open is typically all men, you can play women too, but your women will most likely play against male players, not always a bad thing...but men do tend to have a bit of a height advantage.

Yesterday we were able to field 4 teams with 8-9 people per team, only 1-2 subs per team, which meant everyone was running a lot. Since we have been living at the ranch, we haven't been running at all and we certainly haven't been playing much frisbee. I could definitely feel the effects of not playing. My legs felt stiff and heavy, I felt like I was running in one of those dreams where you are being chased but you just can't get your legs to move as fast as you know they should be able to. Although my body wasn't up to par, I must say it felt great to run all day, even though at times I thought I might collapse. It was wonderful to see so many people out to support the UNR women and the spirit was great. There were folks of all ages, sizes and sexes and everyone appeared to be having a great time. Beyond the great play, UNR gave some funding to buy sandwiches for lunch, super yummy and then also bought us a ton of pizza, salad and chicken wings for dinner, it was grrrrrrrreat. In addition, local merchants around town donated items to be raffled off and for some reason not many people bought raffle tickets. The few of us who did ended up winning multiple prizes, a nice surprise since I never seem to win at raffles. At this raffle though, I won two tickets to an Aces game (the brand new minor league baseball team in Reno), $10.00 gift certificate to bicycle bananas, a free large pizza from Eclipse Pizza and some cool Fiveultimate wrist bands. So with a full day of frisbee and the pizza party going until 11:00 pm I was unable to get the blog updated in time to post by 9:00am this morning.

Ahhhhhhhh, to great days. May you have many!!!

P.S. I took my camera, but of course... forgot to take any pictures :^( sorry for that.

Snow Creek

The other day Dan and I went up along Snow Creek to shut a gate. We decided to do some hiking and make a day of it. Snow Creek is a tributary of Leonard Creek that originates on the south flank of Duffer Peak and runs southeast toward Leonard Creek, Leonard Creek then runs south and empties into the Quinn River drainage. The day was gorgeous and the terrain steep. Along the North Fork of Snow Creek, there are some amazing, jagged cliffs. The cliffs are where we planned to hike to. At times I felt really out of shape and didn't think I was going to make it. The views were well worth the pain though and in the end my body and spirits felt great. On the way back home we decided it would be easier for us to go over a nameless mountain, between the cliffs and where we started, instead of going around it. We were very glad we choose that route, the hike up wasn't as steep as it first appeared and the hike down was quick and fun, of course the views from the top weren't too shabby either.

Here are some pictures from our day at Snow Creek:

Snow Creek


Dusty and Dan having lunch along Snow Creek


Snow Creek waterfall


Getting into the cliffs of Snow Creek


Ice crystals along Snow Creek


Shadows


Dan and Coco hiking up to the cliffs


Some of the cliffs


More cliffs


The top of the cliff ridge we hiked to


Dan in his element


View of the backside of the cliffs


View from the top of the mountain we climbed over on our way home


Dan, Coco and Dusty headed down the mountain

What is the Primal Blueprint

I have had many ideas on how to accomplish my desire to get closer to nature and to my true spirit. I have thoughts on movement, art, literature, nature studies and my lifestyle in general. One thing I have been thinking a lot about is my diet and what I put into my body. I want to start eating more whole, natural foods that have undergone little to no processing. While looking through different blogs I stumbled across Mark Sisson's Primal Blueprint, a lifestyle guide that encompasses many of the ideas I have had regarding my rewilding journey. I mentioned the primal blueprint in a previous blog and I now want to share it with you in a bit more detail.


The blueprint has 10 basic steps:

1. Eat lots of animals, insects and plants - I personally haven't gotten into eating insects yet, but maybe one day.
2. Move around a lot at a slow pace - this is one of my favorite steps and is along the same lines as my daily walk/runs.
   
3. Lift heavy things occasionally.
   
4. Run really fast every once in a while.
   
5. Get lots of sleep - who can argue with that?
6. Play - I love to play, lately I've been playing ultimate frisbee (which Mark is a fan of...yay!), gymnastics and aerial silks.
7. Get some sunlight everyday.
8. Avoid trauma - although I don't think he intends this to mean play it safe, he is an advocate for play which has some inherent dangers in it.
   
9. Avoid poisonous things.
10. Use your mind - what...you want me to think?

Overall, I think it is a good list to help jump start my journey. If you start reading Mark's blog, The Daily Apple, you will find that he discusses eating habits a lot. You will also find that he is very anti grain, anti most carbohydrates and anti dairy products. I am not anti carbohydrates, however you will find that many carbohydrates such pasta and bread have gone through a lot of processing therefore they are foods that I am starting to avoid. However, from reading Mark's blog I find that he is also anti potatoes and the more starchy veggies, which I don't necessarily have a problem with. Also, I love dairy...even though it tends to be overprocessed, it will be a hard one for me to give up if I decide to do so.

At this point I am unable to start much of a garden, living in a small condo, and since I have to make due in the modern world, I do buy most of my food from the grocery. At the grocery I do try to buy organic, local produce and meats when I can. Hopefully soon I'll have a place where I can start a garden and greenhouse.

My Daily Walk/Run & Birds I've Been Seeing

To help me in my rewilding journey I have been going on daily walk/runs. These walk/runs are anywhere between 1/4 of a mile to about 4 miles long depending on the day and how I feel. I do the walk/runs in or around my neighborhood and I like to do them right away in the morning. There are several reasons I like doing these treks early in the morning. It gets my body moving right away which wakes me up and revitalizes me for the day. Also, it is a good time to see the world, it's quiet, the air is crisp, there are a lot of birds out, and the best part...there are not a lot of people, cars or man made noises. I like to think of this time as my "gathering" time, I gather my thoughts, ideas and emotions and what's more, I like to imagine that I'm gathering the herbs and plants that I would be using for the day's meals, like people had to do many years ago.

I would like to relate some of the wildlife I've seen on my daily treks. I'm lucky, at my condo complex there is a small pond that I can walk around and a park near by that has a long canal trail, both create decent habitat for critters, especially birds. So far on my treks I have mainly been seeing birds, the following is a list of the birds I've seen during the month of January.

Birds:

* Mallards: Anas fuligula - I always see a lot of mallards and they are definitely out and about now.

* Canadian Geese: Branta canadensis - There are a lot of these guys around this time of year and their scat too...watch where you step.

* American Coots: Fulica americana - There are around a lot also, they like to chase us because they think we have food for them. They don't even get detoured when the dogs start barking at them.

* Gadwalls: Anas strepera - I've been seeing a few of these around, but not too many.

* Ruddy Ducks: Oxyura jamaicensis - There are definitely a handful of these guys around they are so cute and little.

* American Wigeons: Anas americana - I have seen a handful of these, every now and then, on the pond at our complex.

* Hooded Mergansers: Lophodytes cucullatus - I've only seen a couple of these, but if you look closely they are here, diving for fish.

* Pied-billed Grebes: Podiceps nigricollis - I've only seen one of these lately, it was hanging out in the pond, diving, swimming awhile under water then surfacing again. They are so fun to watch and they're so tiny.

*Mountain Chickadees: Parus gambeli - I actually saw these birds when Dan and I were snowshoeing up in Tahoe Meadows. They started dive bombing us which we thought was strange. However, we ran into some hikers later who told us that they are very tame and will come and eat out of your hands which is what they were trying to do with us. I find that fairly sad, although it must be a neat experience to have a "wild" bird land in the palm of your hand.

* Northern Flickers: Colaptes auratus - I've been seeing at least one of these a day, they are so pretty with their bright orange shafts. I might be seeing the same one every day, but it has been in different locations, so I think there is more than one.

* Downy Woodpecker: Picoides pubescens - I actually saw this bird while sitting on my couch, I just happened to look out the window and it was hunting for a meal on the tree outside my window.

* Red-tailed Hawks: Buteo jamaicensis - I hear them a lot as I'm walking and we usually have a couple circling the hills behind my complex, looking for a meal.

* Swainson's Hawk: Buteo swainsoni - There are few of these who hang out in the large cottonwoods around town.

* American Robins: Turdus migratorius - I love how bright their red breasts appear in the winter time.

* Scrub Jays: Aphelocoma coerulescens - There are a few of these haniging out in the trees around our neighborhood.

* House Sparrows: Passer domesticus - I see many of these little birds in the bushes all around town.

* Black-Crowned Night-Heron: Nycticorax nycticorax - There is one who hangs out on the banks of the pond, you can also see it sitting in some of the trees around the lake.



There are also some smaller sparrows, finches and black birds I've been seeing, but I need to get better at identifying them before I add them here.

New Blog

I'm Changing my blog so it encompasses all the aspects of my life not just my bicycling experiences. As stated in the last post I want to work on the rewilding of myself. What does that mean exactly? Well, that is something I hope to learn along the way, but for now, at the beginning of my journey, I'm looking at it as getting closer to natural world and farther away from the over processed nightmare of modern living. I currently live in an apartment in the city, so I will have to get creative with my rewilding and learn how to make it compatible with life in the city.

I believe the best way for me to become more wild is through nature and movement. Studying nature will help me learn my proper place in the world is and help me appreciate the simple, beautiful pleasures the world has to offer. The movement of my body will allow me to get in touch with myself, how my body works and help me physically create my place in the world.

Some of the activities I have already started to help me get wild are relearning local native flora and fauna, studying herbology, practicing gymnastics, daily walk/runs, in-depth, descriptive journaling (this will take some practice), following the Primal Blueprint, and learning the aerial silks. Also, I try to partake in environmentally friendly practices like buying organic, local goods when I can and my budget allows, using reusable shopping bags, recycling - but trying not to buy cans and plastic bottles in the first place, driving as little as possible or when I do drive do it efficiently, and mainly just be more aware of my consumption.

Some of the activities that I would like to start incorporating into my life are yoga, reading about wild peoples, meditating, receiving and learning how to give massages, and learning some sort of new dance form perhaps belly dancing or capoeira. I also would like to take some art classes like nature drawing or something along those lines or pottery using local resources. If you have suggestions I would love to hear them.