What Knitters do in Winter

My posts about knitting generate the most comments, but I haven't posted any knitting in nearly a year. Is that because I'm not knitting? No, here's what this winter inspired me to do...

Hey, Eureka is shivering, she needs a sweater.

Hey, my neck is cold while riding the scooter.

Wow, that was fun to make... somebody else's neck might get cold on her motorcycle.

 

My running buddy might get cold ears, here's something for her.

 

Hey Hubbers, who else would want one of these? You would? But not as thick?

Now my neck's warm, but my legs are cold on the scooter.

Hmmm... my ears might get cold if I start doing a lot of cycling.

Far more details on each of these can be found on Ravelry. All of these small things have been started and finished during winter, unlike a certain sweater that I started in September and hoped to wear this winter. More on that disastrous project later.

Bicycling ABQ

For my first solo mid-week training ride, I decided to hit the Bosque bike path for an hour. It seemed the best place to get used to my new bike without worrying about getting hit by a car. I started at Central, setting my timer for 30 minutes, and found myself at Paseo del Norte, 7 miles to the north, when the timer went off. Sharing the path were plenty of bikes of various forms including recumbents, firemen doing PT, rollerbladers, dog walkers, runners, fishermen and a skateboarder. And this was the middle of the day on a Tuesday in February.

 

A statue on the trail near Central (from a previous winter after a heavy snow).

Albuquerque has been rated one of the best bicycling cities. Whether or not you agree, this trail along with others are probably a big part of why it's rated so high. The city claims 400 miles of paths and bike lanes. Check out the map here. Also, the weather is rather friendly toward bikes with so much sunshine. Even if it snows at night, it may be warm enough during the day for a nice ride. Then in the summer, it's nice and cool early in the morning before the heat cranks up.

I'm not terribly comfortable riding many places from my house. I'd need a better way to cross the river, bike lanes that aren't full of trash, paths that fully connect and the biggest problem is the loose dogs. But I'm going to try a few rides from home since loading the bike on the car gets a bit tiring.

10 miles

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting my Team in Training cycling team. It's an interesting mix of people who have hardly ridden a bike and others who regularly do distance rides, but all who support the mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. For me, road biking is a new sport so I was a bit nervous about riding in a big group. As it turned out, the 10-mile ride was very encouraging. It seemed so easy. I'm not too worried about doing 10 times that distance!

Now that I think of it, our marathon training started at 2 miles which also seemed too easy at the time. But doing more than 10 times that (26.2 miles) was quite a challenge!

Racing for a Cure

In Support of All Families Facing Cancer

Five years ago, I was visiting my cousin Carla (pictured above with her family in 2003) after her second bone marrow transplant. While her team of doctors were commiserating about the pain they'd endure that weekend running a cancer fundraising marathon, I marvelled at their dedication to eradicating the disease, both in their professional and personal lives. Carla responded that she'd like to run a marathon when she got out of the hospital. That sentiment stuck with me and I decided that I'd run that marathon with her.

Four years ago, I ran the 26.2 miles of the Austin Freescale Marathon and raised over $3000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Carla was with me every step of the way, if only in spirit. Sadly, Carla was never able to leave that hospital bed to do all of the things that she'd rather do. At the time of her diagnosis, she was given an 80% chance of survival, which was a great number compared to the near death-sentence it would have been a few decades earlier. However there clearly is not a cure until that number is 100%.

This year, I continue my fight against cancer with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training by bicycling the Santa Fe Century (that's 100 miles) in May. Along the way, I'll raise another couple of thousand dollars for cancer research and patient support.

Please donate! Go to my Team in Training page, or click the purple badge on the right side bar of this page. Updates on my training and fundraising will appear on this blog frequently, so keep checking back often or subscribe (find the subscription link on the right).

Full Moon Hike

The plan was to take advantage of the full moon to walk up the Sandia Peak Ski Area at night to the crest and then ski back down. However, the last time we did this, we found that clouds can really ruin a full moon, and last night was not different. In fact, you can see the clouds blocking the top of Sandia Peak in the photo above. So instead, we headed to the Petroglyph National Monument, and enjoyed the volcanoes overlooking the city by moonlight. It was ridiculously bright out for being 10pm... and I got to play around with settings on the digital camera.

Merry Xmas from Arizona

The last minute plan was to head to Chiricahua for some nice winter desert camping. However, as our trips to Arizona often turn out, we hit a snowstorm. Chiricahua was buried under 6 inches of snow and hidden under heavy clouds. So we continued a bit further west to Cochise Stronghold, also buried under 6 inches of snow, but with clear skies.

The dogs love to play "King of the rock", but they're not match for Troy.

Eureka discovered a new game by jumping on frozen huecos to break up the ice, then fishing sheets of ice out of the puddle and eating that ice. (The butt in the air means she has something super special in her mouth).
After Cochise, we moved on to Madera Canyon for a couple of nights. Where we discover many great (but icy) hiking trails, and a good mountain bike trail. Near the mountain bike trail was an undeveloped camping area, but I can't seem to find any info on either the bike trail or that camping area. It's all along a dirt road called Prospect Road.

After that, we moved on to the big city of Tucson. Below is a photo of the San Xavier Mission just south of town:
We spent our last night in Arizona at Mt Lemmon where we enjoyed more hiking and biking. Then we started the drive back home (via the Gila Wilderness), and naturally found ourselves in another snowstorm. We stopped for the night at Datil Well campground near Highway 60 in New Mexico, and awoke to find the road out buried under several inches of snow!

Dog Bouldering

I thought we were going for a hike, but the dogs wanted to climb rocks. In fact, they're such awesome climbers that I never caught any of the ascents, just the down-climbs.

Easy warm-up on a nice friction slab.

Dyno!

This is the boulder problem that separates the dogs from the puppies. Eureka made a couple of failed attempts before Vixen quickly showed her how it's done. Eureka eventually got to the top with some help from her spotter. But she wasn't willing to try the down-climb.

Eureka takes note while Vixen prepares for the toughest down-climb of the day.
Eureka enjoying a brief moment of victory on top of the rock.