Day 54 - the gym - yuck!

I ended up going to Planet Fitness to ride the stationary bike for 35 minutes. It was lame, but at least I got a decent workout in early this morning. 

Day 53 Walk at night with Katie

I'm trying to get some code development each day as well, and it has been tough trying to squeeze both in. I went for a walk around the neighborhood at night with Katie - and she worked on chicken names for the chicks we are going to host for Wright Locke farm starting next week. 

Day 52 - running - meh.

I actually ran yesterday as well. Then again today. Emilia is starting track and the whole family is heading out together. It was cold and dark. Not my favorite!

Day 51 - tough ride in the woods

I received a couple of text messages yesterday inquiring about a ride in the woods. Oof that was hard. Matt and I really struggled to head out from my house to Long Pond to meet Tom Schneider. Then Tom and I had a decent ride around the reservoir. But it was all pretty challenging!

Day 50 - road ride!

I went for a short but tough road ride - a mini Ripper Hill ride. Considering how little riding I've been doing recently, a 3:54 time up Girard isn't bad. 

The sunset was pretty awesome to boot!

Day 49 - winter walks in the slushy snow

This weekend I decided not to head to Sugarbush after spending the week in New Mexico. Good decision, as I would have had to battle both the weekend crowds as well as the firm conditions.

Yesterday was a day for shoveling and today was a day for waking. I walked a couple of miles with Anita and then a mile and a half with Katie. We went into the woods both times and enjoyed the quiet white slushy conditions. Tomorrow I might get on the road bike - we'll see. 

Day 48 - back home to heavy wet snow

I spent an hour today clearing the driveway and walkways from snow and ice. Success! The 50 degree weather helped!

Day 47 - half day in Albuquerque and transfer home

Emilia and I spent the morning exploring the Albuquerque biopark. It turned out to be a good two miles of walking before we even started walking through the Albuquerque and O'Hare airports, which probably added at least another mile of walking.

Scenes from the biopark:

And here's the walkway between Concourses B & C in Chicago

Day 46 - hiking around the Rio Grande and Santa Fe museums

During the course of today, I walked nearly 3 miles exploring the Rio Grande Gorge bridge and museums in Santa Fe. 

Here's the bridge (thanks Katie for the photo!)

And here is the International Folk Art museum

Day 45 - Taos skiing!

Day 21 of snowboarding!

Although the conditions were not that great, Katie and I skied all the groomers at Taos and I hiked the ridge and rode down Corner Chute to check out some of the off piste action. 

Katie says that her mouth gets really frozen without her turtle fur. This is her attempt to smile. 

Day 44: Horseback riding!

Anita suggested that we go horseback riding today! We went to the Broken Saddle in Cerrillos outside of Santa Fe and had a great ride for an hour. It was the first time on a horse for me, ever, and a bit scary in the beginning. Once I relaxed it was fun and the views were amazing. Anita said my horse, Duke was passing gas a lot, but I did not smell that!

Day 43 - maybe the streak is ending?

Day 20 of snowboarding!

I went to Ski Santa Fe with Katie today and we were having a great time - until I crashed - twice. The first time was really hard when I hit a branch sticking out of the ground and ended up going head over heels and landing on my left knee.

I was able to finish up the morning, but after the drive back I was definitely sore and in pain and I didn't have a full range of motion without pain. We have a couple of days before heading to Taos so I'll give it some ice and see how it holds up. 

Day 42 - on the slopes with the girls

Day 19 of snowboarding!

Our family headed up to Ski Santa Fe for a great sunny day of skiing and riding. Conditions were great considering mi recent snowfall. Whee!

We all had a great time. Katie found her Moey runs, Emilia was smiling all day and Anita had a great day with her lessons. 

Day 41 - the shrubbery and downtown Santa Fe

We had a great time visiting the Farmer's Market in downtown Santa Fe today and walking around the Plaza and seeing the Georgian O'Keefe museum. 

Then Katie and I ended up walking around the shrubbery near Jane and Bill's with Katie for a couple of miles. 

Day 40 - the travel grind

Today, Katie and I headed up the advance party to New Mexico. We were up super early at 4:30AM Eastern and then did an 11 hour transit to Albuquerque. Most of my exercise consisted of waking 2/3 of a mile through Denver airport and then doing some additional walking at the Albuquerque biopark. Their gardens were superb. 

Day 39 - exhausting hours in the snow

I walked 4 miles through the Fells in the middle knee high super wet snow attempting to find some good turns. Unfortunately, I forgot to turn on the POV camera for the best run of the day. Oh well. 

And then right at the end of the hike, I broke the toe strap on my right foot binding while strapping in. Fortunately, I had an extra one in my pack and after getting my hands nice and cold with the wet snow I managed to remove the binding, insert the new strap in, and remount the binding. The last step was the hardest as there was stray snow everywhere around the binding mount and disc. 

And then when I finally got home I shoveled out our driveway, spare parking spot and walkway by hand. Oof. That was an ass kicking after hiking around for a couple of hours for turns!

Day 38 - hiking onto a frozen body of water!

I decided to hike straight onto a frozen body of water early this morning. It was pretty exciting, since I had never done that before. Fortunately, I didn't fall in! I took a 16mm lens, which was a little too expansive for what I was photographing, but a lot of the pictures turned out nicely. 

And the neighborhood...

Day 37 - tough ride through the woods

After hiking through the Fells, I figured I should try riding around in the hard snowpack. It turns out the snowpack wasn't that hard!!

I ended up walking a bunch but I still managed to make it up some pretty challenging snow packed fireroads. 

Day 36 - another fine Fells hike

Or maybe just an excuse to take some pictures of the woods in the winter. 

Day 35 - halfway there!

Anita and I went for a two mile hike through the woods at dusk. It was nice and quiet and we walked through some untracked snow looking for our house from afar. We called Katie and turned on the phone flashlight and she saw us!

Day 34 - Super not so Bravo

Day 18 of snowboarding!

II was really proud to watch Katie today at the Jr Castlerock Extreme competition. She looked really smooth and was skiing great.

Unfortunately we spent much of the day in line since the Super Bravo chair was down. Mt Ellen wasn't much better due to the crowds. 

However, they managed to get Super Bravo working again at the end of the day so we had some nice runs on a Domino to finish off the day. 

Katie getting ready to compete. 

Dumb...

My board's twin. 

Day 33 - an interesting half day at Sugarbush

Two days after a 9 inch snow event I thought there might be somewhat nicer conditions than what we experienced at Sugarbush this afternoon.  The groomers were mostly skiing great, like under Gatehouse, but some of the natural snow trails such as Morning Star were meh. Who knows why this is.

(Day 17 of snowboarding this year!)

We previewed Katie's Jr Castlerock Challenge course at Lower Birdland and it was kind of lame - not a lot of mogul action there.

Love the entrance to Valley House...

Katie at the top of Murphy's Glades.

On the way over the Mall

Day 30 - Feb 4 - A bike ride and a walk

I ended up going for a short bike ride before the storm and later that day I went to the library and back to get a book for Katie - the Amber Spyglass, which we are really enjoying. 

Obligatory picture from the woods. 

Selfies!

Day 32 - Feb 6 - a snowy walk as an excuse to take pictures.

There was lots of snow from winter storm  Nika on the trails. I took lots of pictures but only this one turned out really well.

Day 31 Feb 5 - shoveling out from winter storm Nika

Wow - a lot of snow came down today - it was probably about a foot. I spent more than an hour clearing the driveway and walkway in several shifts. My main worry now is where will we put all the snow from the next storm!

Day 29 Feb 3 - nearly 3 miles in the snow

The pace of life is different when you are walking an errand. I headed out to the local library to pick up a copy of the Amber Spyglass, the third book in Phillip Pillman's trilogy, that I am reading to Katie. The soft feel of snow below my boots just emphasized the unharried nature of my task. 

I wore my new down jacket together with a shell. Oops. That was way too warm for 20 degree temperatures. Well, now I know what I'll be wearing on those super cold days on the mountain!

Happy Birthday Mom!

The view outside from the Winchester Public Library

Highland ave in Winchester. 

Looking back the other way. 

Day 28 Feb 2: a couple of inches of fresh snow before the dump

Day 16 of snowboarding!

A couple of inches of snow fell at Sugarbush last night, and they were quite wet, so I got to enjoy some smooth snow this morning. I went snowboarding with Amy and her friend Doug - there was pretty good snow on both Ripcord and Organgrinder. Even Stein's wasn't bad. But Emilia had a concert in the afternoon so I headed home early after a top to bottom run from Jester to Spring Fling. 

At the beginning of the day I attempted to hike up Ripcord. Yikes it was steep!!

There was also a very cool cloud formation this morning.