Bitter Humble Pie

We lost our softball game tonight and it has been a hard pill to swallow, and here is why. We started tournament tonight. We are division champs, so we have a target on our back. Tonight we had two games. Our first game went well and we won. There was one incident where the other teams pitcher got mad at us and threw his glove at one of our players, but nothing huge. He got a warning and all was well. Oh, a little side note here. Our team is well known by the blues and other players and one thing that is well known is we are a fun team that doesn't engage with other teams. The only people we ever razz is our own team members and always in good fun.

Now back to tournament play. After our first game we had an hour break and then we had our next game. The team we played for our second game we played last week and we beat them by a lot. We were not too worried about losing, but knew we still needed to play well. We were missing 3 of our regular players, but we still felt we could win this team. Well we started off great with the first batter hitting a triple. As you do when running the bases he was a couple of steps off third ready to run home. The pitcher went to throw the ball and he hopped back on. As he turned he got hit smack in the back with the ball, and like a lot of us he swore. The pitcher immediately took this to heart and went after our guy. The guys on our bench emptied, but luckily they did not go out to where the confrontation was occurring, they were close watching to make sure everything was okay. Our 3rd base coach stood in front of our runner as did the other teams shortstop to prevent their pitcher from getting to our guy. The blue broke it up and only gave him a warning, but he should have been thrown out. And that was the start our game.

When that inning was over the blue went over to the other team and told them they needed to calm down. I guess they did not care much about what he said, because there were rude comments from their bench and when they were in the field all night long. I hate playing teams that are rude, there is no reason, this is supposed to be fun. Anyway we ended up losing by one point. We had a few too many errors and just did not play our best game. It was humbling losing, not that were cocky, but is always humbling to lose. But it was worse losing to a team like that. If I lose I would rather it be to a team that is a good sport than one with such bad sportsmanship.

We should end up seeing this team again, and if we do I hope we totally spank them....nothing would make me happier.

Funderful Week

This week has been soooo busy and full of great things that I have not had a lot of time to write about all of the wonderful things. So here it goes in a somewhat readers digest version.

New Job
This is probably the main reason I have not been writing. As most of you know I am a loan officer, and without much explanation all of you know how the year and the market has been. Last weekend my husband and I decided it is probably time to look for employment that is more stable. This was a hard thing to do as I love my job and the company I work for. On Monday I applied for a job. On Tuesday I had an interview--little concerned because I did not get the chance to research the company for the job interview. On Wednesday morning I dropped off a thank you note for the interview. Wednesday afternoon I received a call asking me to come in for a second interview on Friday. Thursday evening was spent researching company and any thing else that may help me to do well at the interview. Friday interview in the morning. Friday night at 7:45 pm I GOT THE JOB!!! I only have to take a written test and past the drug test and should start in the next week or so. Good news for the more stable employment.

AF Canyon
Went and did the loop Thursday night. No need to talk about the trail you have read about it before. The funny thing or kind of funny thing that happened was Steve broke his chain. While he was fixing it the link flipped off in to the grass and leaves. Kerry and I were looking for it and Kerry found a link. Guess what it was not the link that had dropped it was one someone else had lost taken off their chain when it was broke. What are the chances of stopping in the exact same spot someone lost their chain, losing our link and finding theirs. We did eventually find our link. How weird is that losing a link, finding someone elses link and then finding ours.

Lambert Park - Girls Ride
Friday I went with Jen and Jolene for a ride at Lamberts Park. Jen has only ridden rodeo down and rodeo up, so it was fun to take her on a few of the other trails. We rode river, poppy, ziggy, high bench, lamberts luge, ruin, rodeo up (2x's), rodeo down (2x's) and middle spring. During our ride we saw a totally cool, awful crash. We had arrived at the top of ruin and was deciding where we wanted to stop to get pictures of us jumping. As we were talking a guy rode by and took the first jump, landed and did a full front flip bike and all. We were a bit stunned, but he jumped up almost immediately which was surprising considering the crash, dropped one swear word (pretty impressive considering the severity of the crash), and then looked around for his bike. We went down to help and found out when he had landed on his front tire it exploded. He was really lucky it could have been a lot worse. We helped with supplies so he could fix his tire and then he was on his way. I know it is awful to say, but that was a really cool crash.
Deer near the brush by Rodeo Down.Jen, Kendra and Jolene on the Ruin trail.
Taking the jumps going down Ruin.


BlackHawk - Bikepeddler group ride

Saturday I went for group ride with a bunch of guys--bike peddler sponsored the ride. It was a fun ride. We started at the blackhawk trail and went all the way down to bennie's creek. On the ride I had 2 small crashes. The first one was the dumb crash. I was riding a long a flat trail when my tire hit the side of the trail and I kind of fell right off my bike into the meadow. I had to laugh, because there was no reason to fall off my bike that way. The second I couldn't figure out why I crashed. I went down up small slope, and then a quick up that banked left at the same time. I started to endo but twisted to the side instead and went off the bike. No damage done, but once again I could not figure out what caused the tumble.


Now for the trail, it was okay, but the first part of the trail did not flow very well. We would get riding and then all of the sudden you would go up hill, or you would have a sharp turn that interrupted the speed and flow of the downhill. Eventually though (about 5.5 miles into the trail) the trail started to flow and it became an absolute blast. There was twisting, turning, ups and downs, plenty of little jumps and just a lot of fun. By the end I couldn't stop smiling. It's definitely a ride I hope to do again.

Gareth pounding out the pedals. Jake putting it in gear. He's thinking about joing UMB race team. I told him how great everyone is, but I guess he will need to come out and find out for himself.
Steve riding with his trusty bear bell...it works.


Josh putting the flex on his bike.

Sam and James working their way on the trail.

Ghost Falls

I went to corner canyon yesterday to ride ghost falls with Jolene. This is the first time I went without a tour guide--Dot & Tasha where are you when I need you! I did okay, but there was a little bit of back tracking finding my way around on the trail back down. The ride was fun and as you can tell Jolene had a great time jumping off the hills.

Dead tarantula on the trail. We also saw a snake, but it slithered away.Splashing through the stream.Jumping the hills.I think Jolene's face say exactly how much fun this ride was.

Wasatch Crest

Yesterday I rode Wasatch Crest with the Hutchings, Nosaks and a few others. I have never ridden this trail, and had been told how great it is, so I was excited the whole car ride up to the trail head--I had big expecatations and they were all met.

I am not sure what trail head we shuttled up to or where we started other than it was at the beginning of puke hill. Lucky me, I had been told about the hill and decided to take it easy so I wouldn't blow up. It worked and I made it to the top. At the top as we waited for our group some rain clouds came in and dropped rain and hail. There was a large group at the top and all of us had our backs to the hail trying to wait out the storm. It wasn't too bad unless it hit your skin, and then ouch! When the final person in our group made it to the top we took off on the trail.

The weather was great for the rest of the ride and the trail was in great condition. There were a lot of people riding the trail, bike peddler from Utah County also had a group that arrived the same time we did so between the 2 groups there were 24 riders on the crest when we started, but it never seemed like a huge group. Eventually the groups disapted and we were out there on our own. I loved riding this trail and had a smile on my face the whole time.

Instead of taking the road down at the end we rode pipeline down to the bottom of rattle snake gultch. It was okay, but nothing in comparison to the crest. I think the pictures will give you an idea of how great the ride was.

Double Treat

Today I went on two fabulous mountain bike rides. The first one started with my cute husband. We rode in AF Canyon. Since last Saturday I have been wanting to take Royce up to the look out, so he could see the same gorgeous view I had seen. So with some hesitation, but a lot of desire we set out. The hesitation and desire were both on my part since Royce is a beginning mountain bike rider and had no idea what he was getting in to. This ride is a lot of up hill 3.5 of the 4 miles is up hill (that is only one way). We started out at Salamander Flats and headed to Ridge 157. Needless to say it was not too long before Royce realized there was a lot of uphill and very little relief. I am guessing about the time he realized this is when he announced he was switching to road biking. Ooops, too much too soon. I was worried he really was not going to like the ride, but we kept riding forward.

The hill side is changing colors .Royce cranking it up the hill on Salamander Flats.As we hit the meadow at mud spring flats I heard a clinking on my bike and noticed an unusual tension as I pedaled. Upon inspection of my bike I found 1 loose bolt on the small ring of my front cassette and one that was ready to pop out. I was able to tighten the loose bolt almost tight, but was not able to rethread the other bolt. This did not stop our ride, however I had to ride in my middle cog for the rest of the ride. This turned out to not be as bad as I imagined.

From the meadow we headed up to the lookout. We stayed there for a while enjoying the scenery and watching the wild life. We saw a hawk circling in the sky and we kept hearing a bull elk. Never did see the elk, so I am not sure if it was an elk or hunters, but it sure sounded real.

Royce checking out the spectacular view.

A rock wall created by mother earth. After pausing and enjoying the beauty of the canyon is was time to go back. The ride back was great. When you ride 3.5 miles up hill then you know you are going to get 3.5 miles down hill. Once we got back I think I may have actually seen a smile on my husbands face. I don't know if he has changed his mind about converting to being a roadie, but I do know that I will stick to the trails with less climbing when we got out together....at least for now.

These steps may look fun going down, but they were not as great as they look.Royce bombing downhill.War wound from the ride. I popped out of my pedals while trying to pedal over some rocks. I ended up rolling down the hill with my bike. The second ride of the day was the Ride Like a Girl group ride. Jolene and I rode our bikes up to Timpanogus park to meet the group for the ride. Once we got there we found out the ride had been changed and we were going to Big Spring Hollow. There was someone there to help us load our bikes and make sure we got up to the trail head.

For the group ride we had there was Patty and Jen (part of the Mad Dog racing Team), Jessica, Jennalyn and Tiffany and of course KC Holley helping us along the trail to improve our skills. At the trail head we met and worked on tight circles, unweighting our bike and hopping our bike. After working on these skills we headed up the trail. It was a beautiful evening for riding the temperature was perfect and the landscape showed the beauty of the changing colors of leaves on the trees.

Jessica, Jennalyn and Patty coming up the trail.
Jolene heading up the trail.
At the top of the hill I scrambled ahead to get some pictures of everyone riding. This turned out to be good because after taking pictures I ended up behind KC and got some great advice on riding my bike and now have something new to practice. Unfortunately as we were riding Jessica's chain broke. KC stayed to fix it and we rode on. However it wasn't long before KC and Jessica caught up to us. Granted Jolene and I were taking pictures, but I don't think I could fix a chain as fast as KC did.

Patty tearing up the trail.

Jessica clearing the obstacles on the trail.

Jennalyn looks like she is having a great time on the ride.

Jolene riding the trail with style and grace.
Tiffany doing a great job riding. This is one of her first mtb rides.KC showing her more serious side.

We ended the group ride in the parking lot by the trail head, but Jolene and I continued riding down the canyon and back home. I wanted to see how fast I could get my bike to go down the canyon road, but it never got over 31 mph. I tried, but that's as fast as I could get. When we got to the Provo River Trail Jolene and I got out our blinking lights and took off down the trail. Somewhere along the way mine fell off and I ended up without a light. Glad we did not have far to go on the city streets.

It got dark rather quickly and was cool riding in the dusk as it changed to dark of the night. A perfect ending to a great day of riding.

Game Strategy

Tonights game was all about strategy. Right before the game started the blue called the managers to the plate and explained that it would be a strike if the ball hit in front of the white line and a ball if it hit behind the white line. Okay, this is not the best way to call a strike, but at least we knew ahead of time. With this knowledge our pitcher went to work. He made sure all of his pitches crossed the plate and were in front of the white line. Do you know how hard it can be to hit a high arched pitch that is deep. Well, the other team does.

So how do you compensate for a high, deep pitch? You stand back in the box by the white line. The other team never figured this out. However, we did it from the start. We had our struggles, because good or bad if it hit in front of the white line it was a strike, but at least we worked with what we had. The other team not so much. Needless to say they lost. The funny thing is after the game the team manager went and complained to the field manager about the blue. I thought this was funny because the blue was consistent. He called the same strikes on them as he did for us.

The Altar

Today was a day for exploring the Orem Foothills, or actually I was exploring Jolene was leading the way. I have been wondering for quite some time what the trails were like in the foothills. I read Kris's blog and talks about the different trails he has ridden and is mapping out and my interest has peaked. One of the things I read often in Kris's blog is the trail marker of the altar. Well today I got to see it.
The infamous altar.
The ride was a fun ride with a lot of climbing. We started out riding up the road behind the Orem cemetery, and then continued riding up the service road until we got to the trail. The climbing here was not too bad. We would go up and then we would get a break from climbing for a moment. The trail was fun, but had its challenges. The first part, much like the service road you would climb and then get a break, but the last part there is no break. If you stop, you are starting up on a steep incline. Sometimes this was not too bad, other times I skid out and couldn't keep on the trail and ended up pushing the bike to the next suitable place to try and ride.


Of course like all trails after climbing there was a fun downhill. On the downhill we wound in and around the trees. The trees were intertwined with each other above our heads, making it like we were riding through a tunnel. Eventually the trail looped back to a fork we had originally veered off to create this big circle. I am not sure what the name was of this particular trail, but I think it should be called Lasso. After Lasso we continued down the trail to the next fork and turned left on to what Jolene thought was roller coaster and it was fun like a roller coaster. It had ups and downs with a few bermed turns. The trail ended at the service road. From here we headed back to where we had started.

After the ride I stopped at Jolene's and had some snickerdoodle cookies. know this may not seem like something to write about, but I am because it it. They were the best tasting cookies. I could have eaten 20 easily they were so good--I kept myself to 3. The cool part was she made them out of a cake mix, and I got the recipe. I came home to make some, but I only had vanilla and cinnamon swirl cake mix and I am not sure they will work....I may have to find out.
Jolene with bike in hand at the alter.

Posing with my bike at the alter.