Town Riding

Rode in town today--paved bike paths, new-house developments (mostly vacant it seems),

country club, etc. etc.  Borrring!  

Road Riding

yep, rode on the road yesterday with Pat and Al.  I think it was about 40 miles, going hard

coming back.  Al had cold feet.  I used chemical toe warmers, stormtrooper socks, thick booties,

and had warm feet.  Still it was pretty darn cold going out against the North Wind, that broods

ill.  Tomorrow it is supposed to snow again.  Enough snow already.

TRAIL RIDING

Yes, I hit the trails today on the Klein with front and rear fenders.  The River Trail, Jim's Trail, Al's Trail, and Patrick's Trail (south of the Fire Station), well, you know these trails, are all ridable.  There were a few patches of ice/snow which I rolled over no problemo.  Also I descended the Pump House Hill onto the last bit of the Plumb Creek Trail which went OK, although it is sort of nasty where the Compost Workers have trashed the trail.  The ground is sort of semi frozen with the result that it is not really very muddy.  So I guess the trail riding season has begun.

Ride On. 

Back in St. Cloud

Yes, we came back from Idaho.  We skied every day, beginning with Teton Village aka Jackson

Hole Ski Area.  They have a brand new tram which is pretty cool taking you up to the top of 

Rendevous Peak (I think).  Greg (nephew) was with us.  He is a snowboarder likes to go fast

and get air (Air Bear).  Elena proved once again why she was a top ranked national alpine

racer, while I just made big easy turns.  Next up was Grand Targee where we stuck to the groomers.  Elena was almost killed by a snowboarder (Sorry Dude!).  Then we did some

backcountry on Teton Pass including State Line Bowl (steep, good powder, long slog to the

car), Christmas Tree Bowl (skier right of Eldleweiss) which was quite good all things considered.

I got some good turns in fresh pow in the steep trees.  Also went down Thanksgiving Bowl;

it was good in the gully but above and below it was breakable crust requiring survival turns--jump, stem, snowplow whatever.  We did a little "track" skiing (that is, cross country) at

Teton Ridge Ranch, the private resort owned by Paul Allen, you know, the guy who started

Microsoft with Bill Gates.  

The bad news is it took us a week to get back.  First the fuel pump failed, then the highway in

North Dakota was closed for two days.  Today we did the North Loop four times and it was

great!  Thanks to Matt for grooming.  It looks like this is the end of skiing however.

Riverside

Yeah, we skated back and forth on the new grooming at Riverside.  Pretty nice

but limited.  Tomorrow we are off to Idaho for some real skiing.  My favorite

for cross country is Teton Ridge Ranch, the private ranch owned by Paul Allen

(or maybe it is his sister); Allen started Microsoft with Bill Gates and he owns

our local (bankrupt) telecom company--Charter Communications.  Anyway TRR is  professionally groomed every day and is wonderful and it is only locals who

know where it is and have permission to ski there.  You upscale people  can stay at the lodge for

about $700 a night (and that includes dinner!).  The other good xc skiing is

at Trail Creek at the base of Teton Pass, which is for members only and their

guests.  Hardly anybody ever skis at either of these places; I happen to know about

them because my brother has a house in Victor.  Also, I want to check

out the new gondola at Teton Village.  

Skiing

We skated on the North Loop today.  It was pretty good, thanks to grooming by Matt Stone.  I did

a couple of loops with Professor of Physics John Harlander  who explained the difference between dark matter and dark energy.  The former brings galaxies together by gravitational force, while the latter makes them go apart.  Apparently the dark energy is stronger with the result that the universe is expanding and will continue to  do so forever resulting in the so-called "heat death" of the universe, that is, it will be cold and dark.  Of course by that time the human species will be long gone, extinct as dodos.  In fact, the earth will be destroyed when the sun turns into a red giant.

Ice Skating on the River

Pat, Al and Me on the River.  A rare event.