Panoramas

Here's a few panorama shots I took on our trip out west in early June. I'm not sure what to do with them, so I thought I'd share them, enjoy.

Snake River - Grand Teton NP

Many Glacier - Glacier NP

Little Missour River - Theodore Roosevelt NP

Theodore Roosevelt NP

Waterton Lakes National Park - Alberta Canada

The Katy Trail

This weekend my friend Tyler and I set out on the Katy Trail.  The Katy is a rail trail that traverses 220 miles of missouri, most of which follow the Missouri River.  We didn't ride the entire trail due to time constraints, but we did manage to pack in almost 160 miles in 2 days.  Our starting point was Boonville, MO which is slightly west of Columbia, and our ending point was St. Charles, MO.  This is our big training ride for the Allegheny Trail and C&O towpath we plan to ride in August.

**Update - I just added my little bro's blog on the right hand column, be sure to check it out.  Or go to http://natesdarkroom.blogspot.com he's usually got some cool stuff and also some good music.  Sorry it took me so long to add you Nate!  OH..I would also like to point out that just recently, my blog recieved it's 3000th hit.  So that officially puts me into the category of, "Blogs that Almost Nobody Reads", but I don't care.  Friday is also the 1 year anniversary of my very first post...if you don't remember it, then go back and read it!

Painful Memories

One thing I have found to be true of any vacation, adventure, or any other life experience is that whatever it is, it's always more memorable when there's some sort of pain or struggle involved. Things that you must overcome to accomplish what you're set out to do, or something that makes your goal just a little more difficult to reach.

A couple weeks ago I bought a new bicycle to hopefully help me accomplish a 340 mile-long bicycle trail. In August we're planning on riding the Great Allegheny Passage and the C&O Canal Towpath trail which connect to one another to form a complete passage from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington DC.

I'll have to admit, even I was a bit skeptical when my friend Tyler proposed the idea to me. I'll have to admit again, that I still have my doubts, but I'm going to give it my best shot anyway.

Yesterday we did our first "training" ride from Springfield to Boliver and back on the Frisco Highline Trail. The Frisco is a 35 mile rail-trail that was completed a few years ago by Ozark Greenways. 70 miles is the longest ride I have ever done in my life and I really didn't know how well I would fare, but I made it and I'm still here the next day (albeit I'm a little sore.)

Here's some of our stats from my trusty Cateye cyclocomputer:
Total Riding Time: 7 hrs 55 min 55 sec
Total Distance: 72.75 miles (this includes some riding around in bolivar)
Average Speed: 9.1 mph
Max Speed: 19.1 mph

Total Distance ridden on my "new" bike: 127.3 miles (in 2 weeks), I'm pretty proud of myself!

It's almost that time...

In exactly 6 days I embark with my wife and 2 friends on what I hope will be one of my best adventures yet. We will be spending 8 days in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and South Dakota. I know, it's not a enough time to even scratch the surface on any one of those states, but I've never been to any of them, and it's darn near time! Besides, if I don't go, I may not be able to afford it later if gas keeps going up!

Our first destination is Glacier NP in NW Montana where we will spend 2 or 3 days. Hopefully we'll get to visit the Canadian side of the park as well. Then we make our way down through Idaho where we will then enter the W side of Yellowstone, where we will spend another 3 or 4 days. Then we'll be on our way back where we'll make our way through South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore, and possibly the new Crazyhorse monument. If I'm lucky maybe I'll even see Wall Drug! I think the best part of the whole trip is we have absolutely NO plans whatsoever! That means we go where we want to go, and see what we want to see!