And here they are... t-shirts!

Eddy Merckx (From G)



The "Made by Michelle" Special



The commuter special (Thanks Rich!)



And of course... From Gina

Christmas update coming soon!

I got some sweet cycling shirts for Christmas so I'll post them up soon!

Bike Lane Changes

I have seen this in pictures of Amsterdam and other cities on that side of the pond, but this is the first I have seen of it here in the US (although I'd like to know if it exists anywhere else in the US). Portland recently announced that they are going to revamp an intersection that has been notoriously dangerous for cyclists. See pic below for the proposal.

If you have ever ridden a bike on a road where the right hand lane can either turn right or go straight, you know how dangerous it can be. The main thing that makes it dangerous is motorists not using their turn signals. I will NEVER pass a car on the right if they have their turn signal on. If they have their turn signal off, I will pass them VERY cautiously if there is a bike lane. The "very cautiously" part is what most cyclists forget about. Motorists frequently don't use turn signals and they will dart right into the bike lane without giving a second thought that there might be a cyclist there coming from behind. Obviously, this happens more often than not at an intersection and the situation becomes more confusing if the cars are allowed to either turn or go straight (as opposed to only being able to do one of the two). I don't know why UDOT doesn't build every new intersection like this. There's not much of a reason not to. If you make the center median skinnier, then there will be enough room for the bike lane, that's all it would take.

The blue color is to allow motorists to easier visualize where a cyclist may be riding. If the motorist knows where to look for cyclists, they are more likely to see them.


***UPDATE***
I emailed the Mayor's Bicycle Advisory Committe (MBAC) chairman about the cycling lane design. He was very quick in getting me information and also forwarded my email on to the S.L.C. transportation engineer who also left a very good impression on me. He said that between State St. and Main St. on 2nd South in SLC, one of the possibilities that they are planning is making the right hand lane (going Eastbound) a shared lane. This would entail possibly painting it blue and letting motorists know that cyclists are welcome in that lane also. Way to go SLC!

Welcome Old Man Winter!

I am so excited that it snowed today! It has been too long since we've had any snow, so it was about time. The resorts need it, the valley needed it to blow out the inversion, we all needed it! I got so excited I just had to snap some pics on the way home today. So enjoy...

What I should and shouldn't do...

I know I should be working on my essays for medical school, but I couldn't help myself when I watched this video.

How cool is that?! And yes, it's a bike ala cargobike

Thanks to The Bakfeits Cargobike blog for the video. So go over there and poke around a bit, it's a great blog.

Hmm, I wonder which one rides?

I just love shots like this. Anybody care to make a wager at which one might be the cyclist?

Bloggers I want to know

I just posted about bloggers that I know, now here are the bloggers that I'd like to meet!

1001 Albums
Clever Cycles
Bakfiets Cargobike
Bakfiets en Meer
Copenhagen Cycle Chic
Energy Rush
Engadget
Fields of Fuel
Hug the Trees
Inhabitat
Kate Benson Photography
Land Living
MassTransit Mag
Moco Loco
Modular Cabin
Need a Carectomy?

Again, if you would like me to remove your link from my blog, let me know.

Bloggers I Know

****UPDATE****
Some of my friends that used to be listed here have since become worried about who sees their blogs. This is a valid concern, and I want to help them as much as possible to maintain their privacy. So I have removed all the links to my friends' blogs unless they want their blog to appear here (please comment if you want your blog linked in this post). The main reason that I have removed them is that when I created my blog, I wanted it to be a public place to show off my photography and my other interests. I still want my blog to be public and I love when people that I don't know make relevant, respectful comments on my blog. I hope anyone who visits will comment on at least one post. That being said, if any of my friends (you know who you are) want your blog linked here on my blog, just let me know because the more the merrier! I have edited the rest of the post below to reflect this.

****Original Post (adjusted accordingly to reflect the update above)****
You will now see one link on the side of my blog referencing the "Bloggers I know." That link will take you to this post and I will update this post as more of my friends enter the blogosphere in the future. First off, if you got to this blog (Brad's) and thought you were going to Gina's blog, please go here.

Now here's the (drastically shortened) list of "Bloggers I know":

in the eternal words of Michael Scott, "drum roll... rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

Christmas!!
Cyclesmith
NetDocuments
Wifey

Panorama-bama

Since I got back from Chicago, I've been swamped with tests. Tonight I could finally breathe for a bit so I decided to do some Photoshop stitching. Here are two panoramas from the sun deck at the Thomas' condo building in Chicago. As has been posted by Gina and Alex, me and Andy were a bit camera happy while we were there. It was great having Andy there because he actually understands the whole bit. So on to the panoramas. Click on the thumbnails for the full effect.

Day Time

Night Time

More pics to come as I get more time to look them over and blog about them.

Fine Print: Remember, these photos are copyrighted and can not be reproduced without my permission.

Emily and Kameron

I usually don't take many "people photos" but when Emily approached me and asked if I would take their engagement pictures I jumped at the chance for a bit of practice. They were awesome to work with and it seemed like they felt comfortable, so that added a lot to the way the pictures turned out. Some slight photoshop techniques were used, but the majority of each photo is as I took them. Check them out here

And, here's a teaser to get you to actually click on the link above

Subscribe now!

While that may sound like a sales pitch for a magazine subscription, it is actually referring to subscribing for email updates to my blog. It's a new subscription option on the blog and makes it easier to know about new posts without needing to check the blog until I post something. See the link in the top-left corner to subscribe, or just click here > Blog Email Updates

That is all.

Reincarnation

My late 60's model Bottecchia steel-framed bike has been through a number of incarnations. I'm sure that since the late 60's until the latest few incarnations, there are even some that I don't know about. Judging from the way I found the bike, I'm sure it has quite the history. It is named after Ottavio Bottecchia, the first Italian winner of the Tour de France clear back in 1924. His death is still mysterious and his legendary status was preserved into the last half of the 20th Century by the bicycle company bearing his name. The model that I have is the model that was ridden by the 1966 "Campione del Mondo" (World Champion). So, back in the heyday, it was quite the bike... Nice polished chrome lugs, lightweight steel frame tubes, and classic geometry. Regarding the time between the year it was built and 2005 (when I found it), who knows the stories that it could tell. Even Greg Lemond won one of his Tours de France on a Bottecchia bike in 1989. What more can I say, it's got heritage!

Despite it's proud heritage and not unlike many other 60's-70's era bikes, I found the bike in my Uncle Stu's garage one day when we were over there for a family get-together. Another bike, a Gitane, also caught my eye, but it was too small for me. The Bottecchia was dust covered with faded paint and some of the chrome was pitted and had a rust sheen to it. Most of that cleaned right up with a little TLC and some elbow grease. When I found the bike, it didn't have anything exept the frame, fork, handlebar/stem, and a crank. I figured it would be the perfect bike to reincarnate as a fixed gear. (see here for the bike in "fixte form")

The fixie worked great and was a blast to ride, but I ran into some problems. The main one is that I live 1,000 feet above the valley floor and there are some brutally steep hills that I have to ride to get home. Sometime I would need to ride it a couple of times a day. With a geared bike this is no problem, but with a fixie, it gets a bit tiresome. Not to mention going back down you have to keep pedaling the whole way because you can't coast on a fixie. I did gain a love for fixed gear bikes and really wish there was a velodrome around here to race on. If we ever live somewhere flat, I'll definitely be riding a fixie around again.

Velodrome

Continuing on, I decided the life of the Bottecchia as a fixie was over. I needed some gears and a freewheel (to coast). I didn't like the look of a deraileur and all the clutter that comes along with it, and I didn't want a single speed because that would still only leave me with one gear going up and the same gear coming down. So, for me, I fell in love with the planetary gears of an internally geared hub. This allowed me to keep the clean chainline of a fixed gear or single speed but still have 7 speeds to choose from. I decided on the Shimano Nexus 7-speed and Cyclesmith happened to have one. I picked it up and started the task of reincarnation. This included adding brakes, re-lacing the rear wheel, and installing the shifter mechanism. Today was the re-inaugural ride and she rode and handled like a champ! Now enjoy some pics of her in the current state.

PHOTOSHOP!!

Since my birthday is coming up, I was trying to figure out what I wanted. That is always a tough call for me because I want too much stuff. (Gina says I have too many hobbies) The problem with my hobbies are that they're expensive ones. Bikes (of all kinds), photography, computers, skiing, cars, Land Rovers, etc. You just can't get away with having one of those hobbies for very cheap. Maybe I should re-start my bug collection...

At any rate, since my birthday is in October and it's not as fun to bike in the winter, (and winter is coming soon!) photography was the next best hobby to feed. So, since the new Photoshop CS3 Extended is like $1000 new and it's only $192 for students, I decided on that!

And boy is this software amazing! I know it's just work for you graphic artists, but for me it's a lot of fun.

Finally some photography

I finally have some photography to post! Yay. Short story: We went to Yellowstone kind of on a whim, the weather was bad but the scenery was beautiful! Here are some of the pics I took, and more can be found here

"Cold Osprey"


"Above it All" (actually taken in Midway, Utah)


"King of the Meadow"


"Go Away"


Is that for real? (Silex Spring in Yellowstone)

PS, feel free to comment

Amazon MP3 Store

Those of you that got my email about this know that I'm pretty excited about the new Amazon MP3 Store.



Finally there is a good, reputable digital music store that offers DRM-free music. But not only is it DRM-free, but it is also in a higher bitrate (quality) AND uses the widespread mp3 format. This means that it can be played on ANY digital music player. All of the things that I just mentioned have been the exact things that have kept me away from iTunes (and other mainstream stores too of course). And it's cheaper to boot! Only $0.89/song. I'm sure the others will catch on fast though, they're just one step behind. (and even Amazon has a ways to go still IMO)

My dad as a puppy

First off, let me preface this by saying that I love my dad and look up to him always. But, there are times that he just can't stay awake when we're talking to him. Here's what he would look like in a puppy costume... (and in reality, this could be any ONE of the Duncan men).

Car-free day

Bottom line, Gina wanted to ride to work today, so we rode together. What a great wife! Click here for the full story.

Tour of the Wasatch Front

Tyler and I have been wanting to ride from SLC to the alpine loop through Heber and then back to SLC for a few weeks now (one big 115 mile loop). After looking into it a bit, we decided to start out a tad bit easier and start from Midway instead of from SLC, thus cutting out the ride up Emigration Canyon to Parley's Canyon and up over the hill to Heber. It took off about 35 miles and a good bit of climbing. We figured that the resulting 74 mile ride with 5000 feet of climbing that we would end up with would be good enough.

And now for some pics:

And one more of the Alpine Loop Scenery:

That crazy track bike disease...

No matter if you're a cyclist or not, if you look around Salt Lake City lately you will see many more bikes than you used to. They are becoming a very popular mode of transportation as residents discover the well defined bike lanes and bicycle-friendly roads of Salt Lake City, not to mention the added benefit of losing a few extra pounds. (and I'm not talking about making your bike lighter...) It is likely that a good number of the bicycles that you see are fixed gear bikes, commonly called track bikes. People choose these types of bikes for a number of reasons: less maintenance, no dérailleurs to break or go out of tune (and thus no griding gears), extra leg strength from riding only one gear... the list goes on. Most importantly, they're a lot of fun to ride and people have compared it to almost "walking" on your bike because when you pedal forward, you go forward. Pedal backward, and you go backward. Pedal slow, you go slow. Pedal fast... you get the idea.


Ahhh, the Raleigh One-Way, mmmmm (Cyclesmith sells it, need I say more?!)

Now, if you're looking for more fun on your commute than you normally have eating that "footlong" and coffee from Maverick in your car while stuck in traffic (probably on Foothill Drive), then commuting on a fixed gear bicycle is for you. Believe it or not, you'll actually have fun getting from point A to point B! (not to worry all you "geared-bicycle commuters," there will be a post in the near future for you too)

As mentioned on Cyclesmith's website, Salsa's new line-up also includes a hot new pre-built fixie that would make a great commuter bicycle somewhat "on-the-cheap." If you're truly looking for a fixie to commute with, pay special attention to the rear drop-out area to look for eyelets that will allow you to mount fenders. (see photo at left, eyelets are the little round loops on top) Because having a nice "pin-stripe" up the back on a rainy day may be considered cool while you're actually ON the bike, when you're off the bike it doesn't do so much for attracting the opposite ... well, let's just say that it's a pretty good wife repellant. So get those fenders on for a rainy (or snowy) day and ride worry free.

Hebmüller Pre-Filter

I finally got my pre-filter installed on the Jetta. It filters down to about 150 microns, which is not very small for a filter, but the larger filter medium makes sure that I don't lose any flow capacity across the filter element. However it's still small enough to catch any dino-diesel crud left over in my tank that gets cleaned out by the biodiesel before it clogs my main fuel filter. Thus, a clogged main filter is a thing of the past. :-) Had my car been running on biodiesel from the start, there would be no crud in the tank for the biodiesel to clean out so there would be no worry for a clogged main fuel filter.

It is still kind of fun to see the "bean juice" flowing freely into the engine through this clear pre-filter though. It should also help out in the winter when there *might* be a chance of the fuel gelling. This will allow me to see it easily if it happens. The air space in the top is nothing to worry about because it's a low pressure line on these pre-2003 TDI's. If it were a post-2003 engine (PD engine), the line would be pressurized by the tank pump and pump that air pocket right out.

If anyone local is interested, I have some extra filters and high-quality fuel line because I had to buy in bulk. The filter cost me $3.25 each and the hose cost me about $2.00/foot, both prices including shipping. If anybody local wants to put one on your TDI, let me know and you can buy the stuff from me for what I bought it for. Some people don't even put the new fuel hose on, but instead they just cut a section out of their original fuel line and put the filter in place, this works just fine too, but I liked the look of the blue hose, haha.

A Crude Awakening

I haven't blogged for a bit, so today turns out to be a good day to blog. We had a great time this weekend with our friends, Steve, Liz, and Nash (and Lexi too of course), that finally joined us up in Salt Lake. Cornia even showed up at their house! He's got a great reggae band, "Carlos Cornia" that I actually have yet to see in person, but want to really bad. We went to eat at Settebello, mmmm, that's all that needs to be said about that :-)

But the main thing that spurred me to post was the movie that Gina and I just got done watching, A Crude Awakening. My favorite part was hearing about Hubbert's Peak because I have learned about it in school already and could relate to it. I highly recommend the movie if you have not seen it

The movie is very well researched and follows along very well with what scientists like Hubbert have been telling us since the 60's and 70's. So far, they've been very close to perfect with their estimations about oil reserves and our obscene exploitation of those reserves. For those of you that remember the 70's gas crunch, that was only a drop in production of crude oil by about 5%. Royal Dutch/Shell announced in 2004 that it really knew of 20 percent fewer oil reserves than they had been reporting up to that point. At the time, 20 percent of just their reserves equated to 3.9 billion barrels of oil valued at $136 Billion at that time. Today that same amount of oil equates to nearly $254 billion at current ~$65/barrel prices. Evidence that our oil reserves are limited is all around us. Many countries are now importing more oil than they are producing and it's not far off for the U.S. either. At the rate we're using it, even all of our "untapped" reserves would not sustain us for very long in a crisis. It's an interesting movie and shows how dependent we are on oil. A change is needed, and there is no silver bullet. No matter the mechanisms that you use (even my beloved biodiesel) we will all have to use less of it and promote sustainability and conservation. Go out and rent this movie, if nothing else, to simply be aware of what is to come in our future.

Biodiesel report

I figure that after 9 1/2 months of having the "ole oil burner" aka "The Jetta" in her new home in SLC that it was time for an update on how she's running. As stated in an earlier post, we found the Jetta on Craigslist after months of searching for a cheap, TDI that I could run on biodiesel. It also took a few months convincing Gina that getting one new car and selling our other two would be worth it. After getting it home, the first few tanks were a B20 blend of biodiesel (20% biodiesel 80% regular diesel) to kind of ease into the whole biodiesel thing. The car had nearly 100,000 miles on it and biodiesel really cleans out the system, so it's not a good thing to make the switch very fast. The weather started to get cold and we had to continue to run B20 until the spring time because a higher percentage of biodiesel would have a problem with the cold weather. So B20 it was throughout the winter, and I was still 80% tied to foreign oil. But, glorious spring time came around and I topped off with B100 (100% biodiesel) from Cardwell Distributing.

It smelled a little vegetable oil-like and not like a fuel at all (which was nice compared to the oily smell of regular diesel), so I pumped it in and drove away happy on a mixture of 100% soy and canola-based biodiesel from Idaho and Colorado. The car immediately quieted down a significant amount and the exhaust was devoid of it's normal slightly pungent diesel aroma in favor of the new cooked vegetable oil fragrance. And it was about $0.05 cheaper than regular diesel at the time to boot!

I can now report that after 21,000 miles on either B20 or B100, the Jetta is still going strong and just ticked over to 120,000 miles. I have performed the regular maintenance with a filter change here and there, an oil change (which only needs to be done ever 15,000 miles BTW), and a timing belt job and that's about it. During this last tank, the weather was extra hot (think A/C on all the time) and we did almost exclusively city driving and we got a horrible 39 MPG. It was the first time we have dipped below the 40 MPG mark, so it was a sad day. On the flip side, here's a shot of our fuel mileage record:



Yep, that's a 53 MPG in the middle there. That was on the way to Durango and back on one tank. Diesels really excel at the freeway driving, so the times where the mileage was high were times when we did a lot of freeway driving. The times when it was low was city driving (which we do more of anyway). What drives me nuts though is the stupid EPA. Just look at these numbers, eek!



Can you believe that? That's the EPA trying to say that my car is supposed to get 38 MPG combined and I actually get about 43 MPG! How can they do that?! The one that irks me the most is the freeway rating. They say the car gets 44 MPG on the freeway, I have never gotten below 50MPG on the freeway and I run a renewable fuel instead of gasoline! I don't understand the EPA sometimes, it's ridiculous. At least they revised the bloated numbers to better reflect the mileage that hybrids get (believe it or not, hybrids do NOT get 60 MPG as Toyota claimed). A prius for example gets a little better mileage than the TDI in the city, but gets worse mileage on the freeway. Hybrid technology is great though, don't get me wrong, although it would be nice if they could run a renewable fuel and still get the same mileage numbers. Can't wait until Europe brings over the diesel-hybrids to replace all the gasoline ones, can you say true 60 MPG combined mileage?

HDR, and Gilgal too.

OK, a bit of explaining... I didn't know that HDR photos had to be in a special format, but now I do and it makes sense. So I had to figure out how to turn them into a JPEG file so I could post them up here. I finally figured it out, and here's one:



The idea is that you get a wider range of tones with HDR, and therefore you see more detail throughout the photo. Looks like I need to work on it a bit, haha. I'll post more later.


Gina and I went to Gilgal Gardens the other day too. It was a blast and really cool to see some of the sights that surround us that we usually take for granted. See the post here

and a teaser photo:

Me, my bike, and a camera, what else do you need?

Since Gina's been out of town, I haven't known what to do with myself. It's especially interesting without a car... although so far it's been great going completely "car free" for a few days. Tonight was a beautiful afternoon and evening, so I headed out on my bike, camera in tow, towards downtown SLC to see what I could find. This is where the Chrome bag comes in really handy! Shoes, camera equipment, a bike lock, and my trusty hat all fit quite nicely.




I am going to try a few HDR images if I can ever get the Photoshop CS3 free trial downloaded, haha, all 450 MB of it. I took some photos with that very intent, so I hope they work out. If they work, they'll be in the next post. For now, here are some teasers:

The "lighting" was beautiful all evening


Yes Timmy, that's a flag...


When you walk or ride (anything other than a car) you notice quite a few more deserted alleys.




And of course the Wells Fargo Building. I really like the lines on this one, maybe I'll try it in B&W.

I like to ride my bicycle...

...ahh the eternal words of "Queen." My response: "Yes Queen, I sure do..."

Saturday I had a couple of options... 1) Ride the Chalk Creek Road Race (50 miles) 2)Ride with the Cyclesmith Team to Henefer (don't ask where that's at), or 3) Ride with a high school buddy that I haven't seen in way too long up to Snowbird. I choose option 3 please Bob. The day was made even better by getting in a partial ride with Gina before heading out to meet Jeff at the point of the mountain. Gina and I rode up Emigration Canyon until I had to turn around to be able to meet Jeff in time. Gina kept going to the top and got there in record time for her! Way to go G. I headed down, and here's what my day ended up looking like:



Yep, that's a darn steep hill. 9% grade with pitches up to 11%

The dope

If they didn't before, everyone now knows there are cyclists that use performance enhancing drugs. This post is short and sweet about the sport I STILL love.

There is nothing like the "sssssss" of the tires and then the gust of air that the peloton pushes as they speed by in a bike race. The first time I experienced it, I was hooked, it's intoxicating. I love the competition, suffering, dedication, and being outside trying to will your body to go harder against mother nature, not to mention the mind games, strategies, and teamwork. However, in the upper tier of the sport, a major "weed out" is occurring. Guilty cyclists names are being thrown out as cheats and liars which inevitably draws others into the interrogation light simply due to the human urge to stereotype and put everything (and everyone) in some sort of grouping. That's OK, stereotyping happens, but I am proud of the sport I do and there are so many good things about it that it propels those involved to weed out the cheaters. This occurs in cycling more than any other sport that I have seen. A few cycling teams even have their own doping control programs that administer more tests in a single season than the entire US Anti-Doping Association performs across ALL sports in an entire year! That is showing the world that something is being done about the problem. After learning that, does it surprise you that more cyclists get caught cheating than in other sports? To end my rant and rave, could you ever imagine the following happening to somebody in another sport ? I can't.

Taken from Pezcyclingnews.com:

"Immediately after the stage, it was announced that Christian Moreni (Cofidis & Italy) had failed a drug test earlier in the race. Not only was he immediately disqualified, his entire team was asked to leave the race. To illustrate the seriousness of the situation, Moreni was arrested after the stage and driven-away by the police whilst still wearing his race clothing." (Emphasis added)

It doesn't happen in other sports that way, as we've seen here in the USA, so the sport of cycling gets a pat on the back for that. I love my sport.

No bus route

I've heard many excuses for not riding mass transit, but the one I hear the most is that there is not a convenient bus route that matches where the person wants to go. I thought this was the case for me personally for a long time until I discovered deadheading buses. Imagine the typical US city with a downtown in the center (generally) surrounded by suburbs. Buses run in the morning carrying the throng of people from the suburbs to the city center. Because there are fewer people going away from the city center in the morning, they run empty (what is called a "dead head run") from the city center back to the suburbs to then pick up another load of passengers. Any bus scheduler will tell you that it is almost impossible to avoid some dead head runs, but the good news is that most bus companies will still let riders travel on the dead heading buses. In my example, I travel from near the city center against the majority of traffic. I never thought there was a fast bus that traveled in that direction so I would either drive or wake up obscenely early to ride my bike or take the combination of TRAX and the 811.

If anyone is familiar with the 811, you know what it's like. It's a 93 series bus generally, which means that it tops out at 55 mph on the freeway and wasn't even built for the freeway to begin with. It's generally packed with people (most of which wouldn't be riding it if they knew of other options) and stops every few yards as it lumbers along it's route. Not to mention that air seems to seep right through the windows as well as through the floor and doors... and roof and everywhere. This provides the opportunity to get the sauna feeling in the summer and the ice cream isle feeling in the winter. I thought the above were my only options that I could ride until I saw a dead heading bus one day completely empty. You can imagine the situation... me, standing on the 811 (because there's no where to sit) huddled next to the most pleasant people in the world and as I gaze out the window at the mountains, I see a nice commuter bus (see pic below) cruising by completely empty! So I said to myself, "Self, I REALLY need to be on that bus!" I emailed UTA that day and they informed me that I could ride those dead heading buses. The next day I caught one.

I was hooked! It was just as fast as driving because the bus makes no stops until it gets back out to the suburbs (or Orem in my case). It's a straight shot at 75 MPH from Salt Lake City to Orem and it is amazing. It affords me about 40 minutes extra studying time, reading time, or SLEEPING time. Hello, who wouldn't want to catch an extra 40 minute nap to and from work? So I ride a dead heading bus (there are many of them) nearly every day and going to work is so much more enjoyable now!

If you think you can't ride the bus because there is no route available to you, it may be worth contacting your local transit authority and asking them if there is a dead heading bus that may fit your schedule. I have been emailing UTA once every few months asking them to advertise the dead heading buses, so I hope they do one day. I hope they don't change the route that they run, but at least advertise them!

Most people however can ride the normal express buses (VERY fast options=Bus# 801-810) easily. In addition, many large companies will offer cheap bus passes to their employees which makes the commute drastically cheaper than driving and just as fast with nearly front door service in downtown SLC. Even if your company doesn't give you a cheap pass, a monthly express bus pass (including TRAX and all other buses) is $107. With just a little arithmetic and gas at $3/gallon, that means you would only need to make about 11 trips from Orem to SLC and back to break even on a monthly pass (assuming you get 25mpg). Many people make more than 11 trips to SLC and back in a month, so it's quite cheap. Not to mention less wear and tear on the car and the ability to arrive at work much more relaxed.

oh yeah, and if you're looking for pics of our Bald Mountain hike (cause I know you are...), they can be found at The Bradlee Duncans

Havasupai

Well, July means it's time for the Boy Scouts' 50 miler in our ward. This year we picked Havasupai for it. We were there Monday through Friday of this last week hiking, swimming, cliff jumping, wreaking havoc on other campers, etc. We had a blast and there were a few newcomers to the 50 mile hike. They did great and we had a great time. The weather was perfect and warm while the water was just cool enough. My legs hurt a bit, but they're doing better now. Here are some pics, enjoy:



Being there (yes, even with all the people) really gives a sense of why the Havasupai tribe believe that the waterfall and creek is a direct manifestation of God's power and love for the people. It is a humbling place and there is definitely something magical and spiritual about the area.

Collegiate Cycling National Finals (Finally)

After leaving for the Virgin Islands, Lake Powell, and then having Justin leave for Alaska, I finally got all my pictures that I (and Katie, good job Katie) took at National Finals. Justin had them on his computer because I couldn't fit them all on one CF card (now I have a bigger card though, hehe. Bigger is always better, eh?). Anyway, to give a little background, the U of U cycling team had a few people that qualified for the Collegiate Cycling National Finals in Lawrence, KS and here's the story.



An acquaintance of some of the team members was absolutely awesome in letting us crash in his living room. (Cam, thanks for the genuine Kansan hospitality bro) And his room-mates were great in dealing with a bunch of sweaty bike racers for nearly a week too! Thanks guys. We had a great time and our team had some great placings overall. I only qualified to race in the team time trial, which we did OK in. And as a team, we were quite happy with it even though we didn't place really great (not last though, haha). Justin was the Veteran and showed us all the ropes while Mitch represented for the U of U also. In the road race, T-mo and Brian ripped it up with T-mo placing really well (I'll have to remember what he placed and edit this post, but it was like top 20 IIRC out of nearly 150). Brian placed in the middle of the pack somewhere on a brutal 90 mile course through the rolling Kansan hills in 90 degree weather that was ridiculously humid for us Utah folk. The crit was a great time and the town really knows how to support a bike race, they showed up in droves packing the whole crit course a couple of people deep. Katie did great in her events and showed everybody what a Utah girl is made of. It was a great race and we were sad to leave (especially because we had a 16 hour drive ahead of us to go home, ouch). Good times were had by all. Now, because there are so many pics, here's a slideshow of some of the better ones.

Evening Ride

Today, being such a nice day and all, needed to be filled with as much biking as possible. So Gina and I headed out after we got off work and went for a tour around SLC. It was a pretty good ride at about 17 miles and she did awesome! Just take a look at this elevation plot!



She's pretty tough, because just coming up from downtown to our house is nearly 1000 feet of climbing. And of course, we gotta have the picture from the ride.

Virgin Islands trip

Ahoy! Gina and I returned a few weeks ago from a 10 day sailing trip with her family to The Virgin Islands. We chartered our own 40 foot Catamaran named "Clarity." Gina's older brother Tom captained our vessel and the rest of us, okay mostly us guys, worked hard as the sailing crew. We really loved the sailing and I think we got the hang of it pretty good. We had great food, okay amazing food, that we prepared right on the boat. We spent our days sailing, swimming, snorkeling, eating...you get the idea. Needless to say, we had so much fun! It has been slow getting back into work and day to day life and my mind keeps drifting back to the awesome memories we have made. Take us back to paradise...

Ode to Judd

This post is about Judd (mostly because I have pictures of him from lab, but because he's a good guy too). Judd started working in the cardiovascular physiology shortly after I did. We put our lives at risk there everyday (just kidding). Here's Judd playing with beta mercaptoethanol





Deadly stuff, it will work it's way into your skin and denature proteins. Believe me, you do not want your proteins denatured.