Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Weekend Getaway

This isn't exactly cycling related but there was some cross training(?) involved and it served as a good reset button for me. Rebecca and I hit the Great Sand Dune National Park before checking out Taos and Santa Fe for a 4 day holiday. The sand dunes are pretty amazing really. There are these 600ft high sand dunes abutting the Sangre de Cristo mountains on one side and desert plains on the other. Pretty cool phenomenon.
This is the view from High Dune. It took a solid 45 min. of exhausting hiking to get up there. Ever tried to hike uphill in sand?
We camped about 10 miles away from the dunes at a little tent site. You can see a bit of the dune field at the base of the mountains.


I really like this picture taken by Dean Hanson of the last corner at the Stillwater crit in NVGP. This is only the tail end of the Bissell train as there were 5 guys in front of me.
Next up for me is the Fitchburg-Longsjo Classic out east. Special thank you to the riders from the Bike & Sport team in Santa Fe for taking me out on a ride...and letting me win the city limit sprint! :)
Thanks for reading.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your updates Your Dad is very excited about the package he got. He called D & D right away.

DonH

Ryan said...

Tom Zirbel - you may not remember me, but I gave you a non-cycling beverage feed out of a Saturn station wagon at Battenkill.

Because I helped you, you should help me by doing the Exeter Criterium (Tuesday night before Fitchburg):
http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?EventID=8795

I talked to Ted King. He also said you and your whole team should do it.

Ian Stanford said...

Nice. Relax. I have a pile of pictures to send you from Nature Valley that local photogs took. Expect a flood to your email soon. Ciao

TomZ said...

Ryan,
I do remember your unique feed and how disturbingly smooth it went down at the time.
I'm sorry to say that the tickets have been booked and we aren't arriving till Wed. Sorry, man. Hope the race goes well!