~ 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). 
~ thus doing before death ~
The rush of traversing the snowy hillside, the thrill of hitting the jump and landing, and the amazingnitude of riding my board fast fast fast in a manner akin to surfing down the bowl shaped spaces between the ridges. Ah, but I am still feeling the exhiliaration from yesterday evening. Josh and I arrived at the snow resort at about 5:30 in the evening yesterday, which was about the time that the night lights were switched on. We rode the front side of the mountain, in total satisfaction, until 10:00 pm. The high winds of the day had blown the fresh powder around in ways heretofore unexperienced by Joshifern. Because of those winds, the ridges lacked the fresh powder but had gained some humps all their own.
As always, the first several runs were for the purpose of getting into one's snowboarding groove. Once gotten, our groove sustained us for hours and hours. Several runs into the evening, Josh and I were on the four-person ski lift all by our romantic selves, approaching the top with the stunning view of Boise's evening lights in the horizon, and we were examining all possible run choices. We looked directly down and decided to try going down the "bowl" which is normally used for snowboarding tricks and stunts. The winds had blown over many of the jumps and no one appeared to have used this bowl for some time. Carving fresh tracks into the bowl, we quickly discovered the fun that could be had of picking up some good speed, approaching a hilly hump, and trying to jump up and over it. Josh was able to clear a good distance, but I couldn't get my speed high enough to do anything spectacular (funny, with the winds of last night, my mere 110 lbs provided me with a good deal of difficulty in achieving my speed and jumping goals). My aim with this particular jump was to arrive at the top (which required my aiming straight downhill, forcing all of my weight forward, and hunching down to reduce the effects of the powerful headwind, and then completing a minihop as I approached the top of the sudden hump). After getting to the top, I would quickly turn right and go straight down from that to a mini pipe area, where I would play around and experience the delight of pure magical snowboarding (with the dim pink lighting casting shadows across the terrain, and the wind blowing ghostly snow fog around). Then we headed deep into a section surrounded by trees with no lighting, and caught a jump. This jump was amazing. The headwind was buffered by the ridges around us and the trees, so I was able to pick up enough speed that when I hit the jump, I was able to catch a respectable amount of "air", table my board off, and land perfectly. It was amazing - - I haven't done much jumping like this before, and my success at it was awesome. There were several times when I caught so much air that I just had to squeal in delight as I felt several seconds go by with myself and my board suspended in the air. At one point, after completing this awesome jump, I looked back to try to watch Josh on the jump, except that my snowboard was continuing foward and I flipped over and sustained a good amount of whiplash. (It actually hurts pretty badly today).
From this area, we located a great way to cross over several other runs and ridges to get to the Sunshine run. Now, Sunshine is normally full of a lot of beginner types, so it's usually not so fun (what with the almost being run into by people who can't control their fiberglass). However, last night it was empty. And Sunshine, while definately an intermediate run, has some steepy potential. Well me, having the whole run almost to myself, I had an opportunity which I usually do not have: the ability to go completely bananas! I let my board, as they say, rip and was carving these amazing turns, going really fast - - I couldn't see all that well, the lights are bright, but the trees and the snow just cast such dark shadows everywhere, that I just had to abandon my rational mind and let go - - so I let go and rode fast and hard and it was so.much.fun! My legs were my suspension, and whenever I hit mini humps that I couldn't see, my knees did a little sproingy action and I was just flying. When I go as fast as I was last night, my turns send me a little bit more parallel to the ground than at a slower speed. As I turn, the carving action leans by body over, and were I to reach my hand out perpendicular to my body, I could graze my hand along the snow. And then to the catrack back to the lift - - it's a decently long catrack, and I was having such a need for speed all last night, that I would hunker down low to the ground to reduce the effects of the headwind (also, I felt a bit safer that way, so that if I were to crash going so fast, my whole body was closer to the ground and I surmised that I could do more of a somersault instead of a jerky hard fall), and I was going fast. I'm not normally such a speed demon, indeed, I can be something of a 'fraidypants....but because it was so dark, I simply could not see the danger.
We left at 10:00, and because the roads were icy and slippery, I was driving quite slowly down. We arrived back in town at about 11:00, and went immediately to O'Michael's pub for some beers and food. We walked in wearing our snowboarding base clothing, you know, not sexy, and saw that the pub was filled with people who appeared to have been skiing or snowboarding. It was nice to not be the only ones wearing our base layers. We sat by the fire to warm up, had a good pint, and consumed some greasy food. We discussed our snowboarding adventure, describing it as surfing and got onto a conversation about doing things before death. Surfing, being something that I would like to do. Skydiving, rock climbing, and bungie jumping being activities which I do NOT want to ever do. What about going to outerspace? Yes, Josh and I want to travel to outer space. I said that I would also like to do some deep sea exploration in a submarine.
