Keystone Canyon Ride

Not a lot to rabble about today, well in any sort of detail or seat of your pants excitement. Heck I am actually just now doing the entry at nearly midnight because the day has been filled with us both being busy and up since before 7:00 AM which rarely happens in this house. Normally Oggy is the only one that is ever up that early besides me, and most times even he will stay in bed snoozing with Cicely and baby Zoey!

Garage Sales

So Cicely, her step-mom and her sister all loaded up along with Zoey this morning to go over to the older part of Reno to check out some garage sales and see if they could find any good deals. Mostly looking for things like baby clothes now that Zoey is in between sizes 3 months and 6 months. Everything we have starts at around the 6 month size now.

Anyway, off they went and at the very first place they stopped they got a bad taste in their mouths. The guy immediately noticed that it was 3 woman and a baby and said "if you are looking for tea cups and plates you are not going to have any luck finding them in here so don't waste your time looking around".

Wow, I could not believe that was said to them when Cicely told me. At first I thought maybe he was being funny but based on what he was selling, his age and so on I think there was unfortunately a lot more male chauvinistic tone to his chatter.

They hit up a couple more sales and were still not finding anything worth while and decided it was time to head to the thrift stores, look around and get some clothes there. I know, you are thinking "thrift store" but the stores around here actually have brand name and brand new stuff. They buy it from the manufacturers when they are getting rid of old stock and so on. I mean they do have things that are used, donated and stuff but the entire store is not like that as you would think.

Once done they decided it was time to hit up one of Cicely and I's favorite new favorite spots for breakfast that her step-mom Kay actually turned us on to in the first place many months back but we were never able to go with her. From the sounds of it they had a great time together, food was great and everything went well spending time together. Not to forget that Zoey was ear-to-ear grinning and smiling according to Cicely it's simply something she just does when around grandma Kay. Seems to me she is wrapping all of us around her little pinkie finger. That's my girl!

The Ride

So for the ride today I decided to try a place that I am familiar with but have never really went to, its called Keystone Canyon Trails. There are a lot of people that mountain bike there, hike, walk their dogs and so on. I figured simply based on that it would be a great place to go for a ride and to work on my endurance.

I was wrong, it was a great ride but it was high intermediate rather than beginner to intermediate as it was listed on the website of areas to go ride. I only managed to put in just under 7 miles today and I honestly hiked a good portion of it because my legs turned to spaghetti very quickly as the trails became steeper and steeper.

The ride back down was a total blast but I did have one little mishap and ended up plowing the spikes on my pedals into my left shin. Then because of the tight single track area I was on, there was no way for me to stop and look at it, I just had to keep going and wonder how bad it was or how bad it would look by the time I was able to.

Well I am happy to report that I do have a nice set of 3 holes in my shin (could have been MUCH worse) and they cleaned up nicely. Now I just need to remember what to do and what not to do when on tight trails like today's was. I even had my bear bell annoyingly ringing away so long as someone was not wearing headphones they would have been pissed and scared.

In the end it worked out well and I did have a lot of fun. I cant wait for the day that I can actually ride up many of these hills and feel like I deserve the fun ride down that much more. Had I rode the entire way up it would have been that much more rewarding but hey, its only like my 6th ride and I am trying to really work into this in a safe way.

I think tomorrow morning I am going to try to hit the place I did last weekend or the weekend before called Steamboat Ditch / Hole In The Wall. That way I can try some of the different tracks they have laid out, so that is cool.

Friends

We did swing by our co-worker / friends house this afternoon. Still we are not entirely sure why we were going by other than for him to meet Zoey and so that he could show us the new tile in the bathroom and kitchen that he had done. I have a feeling that is one reason we are so tired today. We did not get our nap and now here we are still up and bouncing around. Enough about this.

Road Bike

So you guessed it correctly if you read the title to this paragraph and wondered if I would ever go that route (I imagine most would think that my answer to the end on that would be a flat out no - been there done that). I did in fact lay down the cash for a 2012 road bike that has a zillion upgrades on it that will make it 3 times as expensive as anything even remotely related. It weighs in at a whopping 14 pounds or so.

More on this bad boy later one I have it in my hot little hands. My guess would be about 1 to 2 weeks before they get everything in that they need and so on? Not a big deal, I have a bike I can ride in the meantime - my flippin' Heckler people,

Night, Night

Anyway, I am dozing off as I write this tonight and I want to get to bed anyhow. I hope this entry makes sense because I feel like I am sorta all over the place but I am dam sleepy. Tomorrow will be a new day and I think I will go and ride the Steamboat Ditch I because its a little mellower and good for my stamina building.

Photo: Panoramic photo I took at the top of the mountain while catching my breath before trekking on to explore some additional trails in the area.