This summer has been awesomely beautiful, permitting a delightful ability to ride my bike, go backpacking, or just sit outside enjoying the sun. It’s been truly marvelous. Since my last post, I’ve been able to do the STP in one day, backpack Eagle Creek, and then do the Seattle Century. I’ve had time to spend with family, and get some reading in, as well as listening to music. It’s also been a time when I am able to do other sundry projects, such as write test questions for PAACS, and study French in preparation for our trip to Cameroon. I prefer to learn German and find that I am understanding German speech much more, especially on news channels, where the language is more clearly spoken, and less idiomatic than you would find in movies.
We are also blessed with our fourth grandchild, Liam Isaac. He was born on 22JUL09, healthy and cute. His photo is above. The other children seem to appreciate their new brother, as well as Oma.
Sammy had a birthday two days later…
He loved the cake, but would not eat my favorite food…
… sauerkraut mit Wurst und Senf. Yum. I always shop for German-made sauerkraut, as the stuff made over here tastes terrible. It might explain why so many Amerikans don’t like sauerkraut.
I brought my Lungi on the Eagle Creek backpack trip and found out that it is perfect for wearing around camp in the evening. Yet, when I sent Hannes und Herbert Lungis, they developed a wonderful new use for them, that I must show you…
I love Herbert!!!!! There is something about him that tells me that we are of the same blood.
Before sending out this Blog today, I was able to do the Sunrise ride. I’ve blogged this before, but it has now become just another fun ride, though probably the most beautiful ride in the world. Photos fail. It is 10 miles (16 km) of 6-12% grade uphill, unrelenting, averaging about 8% for a total 3000 ft elevation gain. In truthfulness, the last time I did it, I stopped several times to rest, but not this time. This time, I couldn’t keep up the speed of Russ A., but he stopped to clean rocks off the road. Luc A. started about 5-10 miles before our start, and he arrived on top at about the same time as us. He is totally awesome power on a bike. Jonny just ordered a new bike but couldn’t pick it up, so rode my Touring bike, which is too heavy of a bike to just be running up to Sunrise. At the same time, the RAMROD was occurring (Ride Around Mt. Rainier in One Day), a 150 mile 10,000-foot elevation gain circuit around Mt. Rainier. I would never formally do the RAMROD, though would like to just try it in a self-supported fashion. Today would have been a terrible day for the RAMROD, as the ending temperatures in Enumclaw were 96°F (35.5?), which is just too hot to ride. Fortunately, we were at 6200 ft elevation on top of Sunrise. Here is what we looked like on top. The photo from left to right shows Luc, me, Russ, and Jon.
The ride down was totally exhilarating, though I’d never ever wish to miss the ride up.
You may review my many adventures and other activities during the last month at BikeBlog, BookBlog, Hike-Ski Blog, MovieBlog, and music blog. Stay in touch and keep your stick on the ice.
- I lift up my eyes to the hills.
- From where does my help come?
- My help comes from the Lord,
- who made heaven and earth.
