White Mountain is less than two weeks away and I am in no way ready. We tried riding Ironman on Sunday but my stomach ache combined with Josh’s soreness and Lan’s adverse reaction to the extreme amount of smog caused us to turn around after b2, which was pathetic, but oh well. Josh was the only one with a valid excuse, having hiked at elevation the day before.
Damn, didn’t realize how late it was, guess this entry is gonna be cut short… need sleep.
I started to write yesterday, but I got sidetracked… I think I’ll actually have time to write today. I had foolishly thought that since I have gotten in so much better shape biking that I would be able to run much farther than before, too. I guess I was wrong. After maybe a half a mile, if that, I was dying and had to stop. My ears were hurting (inside), my throat was killing me, and my lungs were gasping for air. Even my legs were having a hard time. Basically, it sucked… which means I need to start running more often… and that really sucks. I also should start swimming, but I don’t currently have access to a pool. We’ll see, maybe I’ll join a gym that has a pool.
I am starting a mountain biking section of the site, but I don’t really know exactly what I want to put there yet. I had originally intended to create a great trail description page with lots of photos and perfect descriptions, maps, topos, etc… but I recently found a pretty good one that covers all the trails I do. I don’t remember the name right now, but eventually I’ll probably add a link from my site. Well, I’m off to work on the mtb section right now…
I’m not dead. That’s cool. The ride was pretty damn cool too… well… not cool really… more like damn friggin’ unbearably hot. But it was nice and cool under the shade of this big rock, an almost chilly 97 degrees.
Yesterday was a lot of fun. I went to Tony’s house, and we BBQ’d and lit fireworks and had a good ‘ol time. I took quite a few pics, but only some came out worth even looking at. If only I had a usable ISO 400 on the G3, but oh well, can’t blame the camera for everything. I believe I shot all the night stuff on ISO 200, and although the noise isn’t horrible, it certainly isn’t all that great. Motion blur, of course, was a big factor, and focusing in super low light with the G3 is really difficult. In fact, possibly the best shot of the night was far out of focus, but I suppose that’s just the way things are… here are two shots from the day:
The other night I went to the Angels game with Fabian and George. I’m not much of a baseball fan, or much of a sports fan at all for that matter, but I had a good time. If nothing else I was entertained by the characters around me. I took some shots and really started to miss my 1v. The G3 is not a sports action camera, but I knew that when I got it, so it doesn’t really disappoint me. Here are a couple of interesting (to me at least) shots from the night.
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Josh and I are planning a trip up to White Mountain the weekend of July 19th for some high elevation mountain biking. I have never done anything in high elevation, so I am wondering how well I’ll do. Ok, that’s not entirely true, because I’m pretty damn sure I will not do so well at all, so I guess I’m more wondering how badly I’ll do. In preparation for the trip I’m doing what I consider to be some hard training, but that’s, of course, by my standards, which are probably quite low compared to others’. I rode every day the past 3 days, I’m taking today off, then I’m riding for the next 4 days straight, and so on. Tomorrow Josh, Jarr and I are going to ride in Joshua Tree. It may seem funny to choose the hottest weekend this year has yet had to offer, but hey, what else are we gonna do? I hope to do lots of decent photography, but I may be too hot to push the shutter button.
It has finally happened. I put my beloved yet unused M6 on eBay. I also put up the 50mm Summicron and 35mm Ultron I had for it, and my Leica Minilux. Bye bye film cameras, you have all been replaced by the Canon G3. Not exactly a fitting replacement, but considering that I can get around $1900 or more from this sale I think I’ll get over it all. I’ll be able to buy a few choice components for my bike and a nice frame bag of some sort to hold the camera, and be able to pay rent, hurray! That’s not to say I won’t miss my M6, just looking at it makes me feel good, but that seems to be all I ever do with it. I never took photos with it because I knew I’d never develop them. At least with the G3 I can shoot with reckless abandon and not be worried about the stack of exposed but undeveloped film already slowly degrading in the fridge.
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On the MTB front, things seem to be going well. I am getting in better shape and my technical skills are improving every time I head down Chutes. It just gets easier and easier each time. On Monday I was a little too cocky though and tried to keep up with a couple downhill guys. May could they fly down those slopes. Unfortunately for them, they had to walk it up the inclines though, because their bikes have but one chainring, making climbing nearly impossible. I guess my type of riding is called freeriding, but I’m not too sure about the definitions of MTB terms yet so I could be wrong. Not that I feel the need to categorize myself, just that it’s easier to tell someone who asks what kind of riding to do when you have a name to call it.
It’s funny, but even though I’ve only been biking now for a little over 2 weeks, I’m already thinking about some nice long cross country rides. I think next year would be great for a Vietnam mountain biking trip. I could go with some friends and just ride, take pics and enjoy. I think it would be great. Maybe a couple weeks worth of riding. I’ve already seen a bunch of organized trips from Hanoi to Saigon on the internet. They have guys follow you with a truck to store all your gear. I don’t think that interests me as much as just taking off on our own though. We would just need to stop in towns to eat, and would probably have to plan out our route ahead of time. I guess it would be good to recruit one of my cousins to come along, too. Well, I guess it’s just a nice dream now, but maybe if I stick with this it will become a reality within the next couple years.
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