~ sunshine ~

As you can see from this photograph which I snapped on Friday, a small snowstorm thwarted my plans for going on a mountain bike ride. Snow is good, however, for another outdoor recreational activity: snowboarding. If you examine the photo, you will note that it was taken from about 1,000 feet elevation on Bogus Basin road. On Friday, instead of mountain biking, Josh and I went snowboarding. The snow was an interesting consistency - - a combination between slush and snow with a skiff of fresh powder. It was by no means the funnest snowboarding, but it was pretty fun...and much better than being down in the valley where it was raining.

On Saturday, the sun was out and it was glorious. After enjoying some morning coffees, Josh and I went on a big walk to absorb some vitamin D. We went a little bananas in the photographing of things with sunshine, but sometimes it's nice to be overly-enthusiastic about nice weather. That afternoon, we went on a big road ride out to Kuna and back. It was about 40 miles which we rode in three-ish hours. I know that the idea of riding a bike out to Kuna doesn't sound like the most appealing activity, but it was lovely. And if one has an open mind about the concept of beauty, I would say that I experienced many beautiful moments on the ride. I will say, however, that I was getting pretty tired and feeling a lot of pain by the end of the ride. I'm not exactly in optimal riding shape, and I was ready for the ride to be over about 45 minutes before it was. That evening, my energy crashed and I was not good for much except for reading about the hijinks of celebrities and receiving an update on spring fashion.

On Sunday, I spent most of the day trying to work on my two research papers which are due in one week. Incidentally, one is going well and the other is not. The one that is not going well, however, is for the class which I received the highest grade in the class on the last paper, so I am not all that concerned. I was still exhausted and without energy from the road ride of the previous day, and my mind didn't want to think about anything. So, I spent a lot of time sitting in front of my computer not accomplishing much. I did have a lovely intermission during the afternoon when I met some friends for a picnic - - and after sitting outside with them for two hours, I discovered that I received my first sunburn of the year. That evening, Josh and I made it on a mountain bike ride. We rode Freeway, which is a very mild beginner trail, but as I was leading the way downhill, I decided to fly down Red Tail, a more advanced downhill. It was an incredible amount of fun. This trail had become extremely rutted, which posed some interesting challenges on some of the steeper decents, but I found plenty of humps and bumps to launch off of. This photo to the right depicts one of my more hardcore moments (and I say "hardcore" ironically...as it is not hardcore, but I felt a twinge of bad-assedness).

Posted by jennifer at 8:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)