This Helps To Go Fast!

Jon Lajoie really nailed it in this one! He should be a coach to all cyclists... maybe even all living organisms. Be forewarned, if you don't understand sarcasm, please avoid watching! Hopefully it's not on the list of banned substances for racing next year!

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Back To Skinny Dippers

A little snow and Skinny Dippers hot springs becomes an even better place to visit.

Adjusting the temperature as it was too hot when we showed up

Hot water and great views

With the snow comes the opening of Bogus! Wednesday is the official transformation from riding to skiing day.

Council Mountain Hot Springs

The plan was to hit the hot springs and then a lookout. Both No Business Lookout and Indian Lookout were in close proximity and were valid options. After making it out from the hot springs, the weather turned a bit and started snowing on us. Not much of a lookout kind of day. Still, we found what turns out to be a place with amazing potential to have a very well built hot spring pool. The amount of hot water going through Warm Springs Creek is overwhelming! It's such a strong flow of hot water that the whole creek is warm in places! Currently, it's just a small pool that is likely rebuilt each year after spring runoff. The temperatures are fantastic and could maintain at least a couple very large pools.



In separate news, the weather has been good enough for a couple Bogus climbs in the last week. Unbelievable since it's supposed to be close to opening day for Bogus in a normal year. Since Sunday, the hill is starting to look a bit more like it's supposed to this time of year, so the hill may be turned over to my other hobbies soon.

This Time It's A Square

I know, last time I said life could be described with pyramids. This time it's with a square. Not a bunch of squares either, just one. This one didn't take too much effort to make either. Less mental stress that way.

Everything we do in life can be put into these boxes. Some things make us better people and some make us worse off.
Here's a few examples.
Positive physical stress: working out to the point that the body bounces back in a way that it's stronger than it was before. You gain better circulation and feel better in general.
Negative physical stress: Falling off a ladder and breaking a bone or running so much that you over exert a joint causing long term pain.
Positive mental stress: Reading a good book, learning something new about the world or a new way to eat healthy.
Negative mental stress: Fear of being unable to make ends meet, being belittled by people who matter to you, crystal meth (okay, that's a negative physical stress too).

In some way, everything you do in your day-to-day life fits into that square. Many tasks that we do are repetitive (just ask my feet if they know how to go in circles) and have what seems like little to no affect on us, but they do. Just writing this blog keeps me fresh in my writing skills and hopefully creative thinking skills as well. It also reminds me that I should not start doing crystal meth, fall off a ladder or rip on friends.
Alright, I've said my piece. Hopefully you can use this in your day-to-day.

The Materials Economy

Need a little education?
Wake up call to EVERYONE!
Here it is: http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html

Recent Endeavors

Two days before T-day, my Dad's new wife, Raina, shot a cow elk and the next day I got the chance to go see some great country while packing it out. On the way up, I ventured out to Last Chance hot springs just to find out it wasn't really warm enough right now for a good soak. Then Thanksgiving at my sister Lianne's new place. As is tradition, it was a smidgen of overkill in the food department. On the trip back, Charlene, Shealynn and I visited another new hot springs. Trail Creek hot springs did not disappoint in any way! Well designed and perfect temperature!

I probably didn't need to take this, but it seemed cool

Near the kill, an old eagles nest

The Seven Devils from near Chair Point

Charlene and Shealynn at Trail Creek hot springs

Morrison Knudsen Nature Center

It's small and geared more towards teaching kids how nature works, Idaho's in particular. In reality, every adult, no matter how educated and confident in their knowledge of how things work, could benefit from a trip through every now and then. These are the things that make Boise a fantastic place.
Also, the free speech by Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea) at the Morrison Center was well worth a Tuesday night! Did I mention free?! Yeah, it was free... and good!
On a totally different note, Kai and I did a full Bogus on Saturday. If you needed a "Matt perceived temperature gauge" from beginning to end, here it is:
1. Start: cold outside at base, but feeling good.
2. Mid section: colder, but feeling good to be able to say I'm actually climbing Bogus in November
3. 12 mile marker: hands starting to feel chilly even while climbing, typically a bad sign.
4. Top of the climb: Kai consumes a banana and puts on layer seven hundred and ninety two, Matt zips up three layers.
5. Couple miles down: brrr... getting colder, but pedaling hard keeps things okay.
6. 6 mile marker: where did Matt's hands go? Did I leave them on the road somewhere?
7. Little climb back up to Corrals: oh, there's Matt's hands, just a smidgen of a tingle though.
8. Flat section before getting home: meet up with Jonathan on the road and do my best to pretend that there are still rational thoughts going on in my head.
9. Home: place hands near space heater and go through pain of bringing back feeling. Explicative, explicative, explicative, explicative, explicative...... repeat. Hot bath.... all better.
Must I always make some bad choice in clothing at some point when temps are changing before I take a hint and overdress rather than risk under dressing?
Anyways, here's some pics from the MK

No Scuba Steve gear required

Pushing Your Limits

Your body is the most powerful instrument you will ever own. Some of us push it to it's limits. I mean really truly push it to its 100% honest to goodness limit. Not just its one day limit and let it bounce back. What I'm talking about is the point where you're doing damage to it that is irreversible just because you want to know what it can do. A marathon runner doing hundreds of miles of running each week or cyclists that log 25 or more hours in a week of full throttle effort, you know what it is to push your limits. Oxidizing your body to the point that it screams at you all of the time to stop. It screams at you "quit this insanity now!" and you just tune it out with desire to know who you can overtake in your prized event.
The average life expectancy of a Tour de France racer is 15 years less than that of the average person. Over training on occasion is a must to really know your limits. Over training has known negative side effects on the body. None of that matters though to the athlete who HAS to get ahead. That has been me for a long, long, long time. After having done just that for long enough to know that my true physical boundaries are just a little bit off of what is needed to get a decent pay check, I've decided that the journey to determining that piece of information has been worth more than any kind of damage it could have done to my body. Really living has it's risks.
Barreling around extreme switchbacks during the Inner Loop stage at the Tour of the Gila, hoping to keep contact with the pavement, with multiple pounds of green guck in my lungs, maxed out from a massive effort to stay on through a few early climbs, sore from a wreck and extreme dehydration the day before, I was REALLY living! I've never felt more alive. The rational side of my head told me I was crazy for skidding my rear wheel on that last switchback at 45 miles an hour. The rational side of my head told me that I shouldn't be racing with the green guck that was coming out of me. The rational side of my head told me that I shouldn't put my body through such hell to keep onto the tail end of an amazing field that would almost assuredly beat me to the line anyways. Luckily, the little devil on the other side of my head wouldn't let me lose contact with the tail end of that amazing field and that, then and there, was top notch living.
I didn't win the stage, not even close. In fact, I probably didn't even impress anyone with my 36th place finish on the stage. Frustrated that I couldn't do what I came to do, yes. But, I was living!

The pulse was, without any doubt, there!

Need A House?

A blog can be anything you want it to be right?!
Well this time it's a plug for my house that's for sale.
Pass it on to anyone that might be interested please.

Random Fall Photos

Juliaetta from the top of the Genessee Grade

A greenbelt bridge

Using the rule of thirds

And a different perspective

Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area look out

Jump Creek

Old man of the Owyhees in Jump Creek canyon

The second falls in Jump Creek canyon

Just A Quick Thought

Greed is the selfish desire for or pursuit of money, wealth, power, food, or other possessions, especially when this denies the same goods to others. It is generally considered a vice, and is one of the seven deadly sins in Catholicism.

Not that I promote pure socialism, no way. Nor do I promote pure capitalism. Without the desire to produce goods and services, an economy dies. People desire to get ahead from their hard work. The downfall of pure capitalism: A select few take everything and everyone else loses motivation to keep working hard. The downfall of pure socialism: Even everything out so that nobody can get ahead and motivation to get ahead is gone.
The last eight years have been too close to pure capitalism. It's tough to pull yourself up by the bootstraps without boots.

The Text

This morning, I woke before Charlene and decided to start cooking breakfast while booting up the computer. A little while later, my phone went off. Who could possibly need my attention so early?! It's not like I'm answering to any boss at the moment.
Upon picking up the phone, I determined that the culprit was about 10 feet away. The message was simple, yet very clear:
"cuddles"

Most Of 2008 In A Picture

Here it goes, Johnny Cash style:

I was totin my pack along the long dusty Winnamucka road

When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load
If your goin' to Winnamucka, Mack with me you can ride
And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside
He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand
And I said, "Listen! I've traveled every road in this here land!"

I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breatherd the mountain air, man
Travel - I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to:
Brundage
Granite Mountain
Banner Ridge
Jump Creek Canyon
Loftus Hot Springs
Dump Loop
Bear Creek
Boise River
Salt Lake City
Boise Desert
Puget Sound
Walla Walla
Stack Rock
Bike Park
Snake River
Portland
Mt. Hood
Lucky Peak
Nampa
Squaw Creek
Camel Falls
Ste. Chapelles (winery)

I'm a Killer
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel - I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to:
Curtis Lake
Susitna River
Mt. McKinley
Alaska Railroad
Aialik Cape
Spencer Lake
Anchorage
Fish Lake
Rhoda Creek
Moose Creek Landing Strip
Selway River
Huntington Beach
Knotts Berry Farm
Deadwood Reservoir
Bogus Basin
Elkhorn Byway
The Depot
Juliaetta
Silver City
Stack Rock
Foothills
Rocky Canyon Hot Springs
Williams Peak

For Pete's Sake
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breatherd the mountain air, man
Travel - I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

I've been to:

Pocatello
Baker City
Kendrick
Kuna Caves
Orange
Camels Back
Idaho City
Silverado
Las Vegas
Denali
Emmett
Moscow
Skinny Dippers Hot Spring
Kings Valley
Enumclaw
Shaffer Butte
McCall
Olympia
Payette Lake
Lohman
Sugah Hot Springs
Bonneville Hot Springs

What A Pity
I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breatherd the mountain air, man
Travel - I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere

William Has A Fantastic View

Charlene and I headed to McCall Saturday for a day in the woods. First, a hike to Williams Peak Look Out with Mark, Lianne (brother-in-law and sister), Dad and Raina. 3,100 ft of climbing in around three miles. It was Mark's first hike with the family... and possibly the last. Maybe we should have taken him up a little less of a mountain the first time around, but we initially thought the climb would be around 2,000 ft.
As we headed back down, water was scarce. By the time we got to the bottom, we had to fill up in a spring coming out of the mountain. That's possibly the best water I've ever had! No, I'm not scared of getting giardia when it comes directly out of a great filter (mountain hillside) and have done this many times before. Just gotta watch out for where it comes out and how much it's falling over rocks.
We followed that up with a trip to some nearby hot springs along the South Fork of the Salmon River that had been on my list for a while. Sugah (a.k.a. 16 mile) hot springs were a welcome visit after a day of hiking.

On the way up

A swing seems like a fitting addition to a look out
Luckily we didn't break it

The view from a look out never disappoints

Sugah hot springs... the previous soakers decided to soap it up, but that wasn't a bad thing as we weren't super clean after a mountain climb (I know, double negative, but you'll get over it)

Since it's that time of year, we followed through with an old tradition

Greenspan Concedes That T-shirt Sales Are Down

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJ8os6vTknLk&refer=home
Highlights from the article: (only partially onioned)
Former Treasury Secretary John Snow says:
"The U.S. needs ``one strong national regulator'' to oversee firms and fix what Snow called ``a fragmented approach'' to regulation. ``Steps to restore transparency and responsibility in the marketplace will go a long way towards restoring stability and confidence,'' he said."
Category 1 cyclist Matt Weyen reacts:
"So you're saying corporations should actually 'trickle down' their wealth? Maybe stop firing even the best employees one year before their retirement kicks in? Should the 'employer/employee contract' still mean anything?"
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan answers:
"Yeah, pretty much, it's a simple process. We thought we'd go against it anyways. The way we knew the U.S. had a problem was that our slogan t-shirts haven't been selling very well. If you want to buy into it anyways, here's the link:"

It's Time For Hot Spring Visits Again

I've been to a fair number of hot springs in Idaho now. Rocky Canyon hot springs have been the best so far... at least as far as the free ones go. Even up against the pay for places, these springs are extraordinary. They were an especially welcome trip this time around since I've been doing what most cyclists have been doing lately, pumping iron.
Mom fording the river

There are at least 12 pools. I didn't check out the top since the lower pools were the perfect temperature.

Charlene and Shealynn

Weird Weekend

It all started with snow Friday night... October 10th in Boise, Idaho. I knew the weekend couldn't possibly be normal with such a strange beginning.

Give it two months and I'll expect this.

Next, for some reason or another, I decided to show Charlene how to make a funny face that pops taught me waaaaaay back in the day. Turns out she's pretty good at it and told me she'd kill me if I kept the picture... hmm, wonder what she'll do when she finds out it's on my blog?

To perfect this, place your tongue over your top lip while pushing out the bottom lip as much as possible.

Sunday consisted of a different activity... hiking to find a thing I'd heard was a mini-Stonehenge.

Once we found it, the question of what it's used for came up immediately, any guesses?

After such odd events unfolding, I decided to try my hand at something else... turns out that I can walk on water! Eddie Money could have used this trick back in the 80's to get his woman back. Maybe they'll put me in Joe Dirt 2?

Job Satisfaction

Could corporations that treat their employees like expendable piles of dirt be at the root of economic problems? An economy is based on how much a nation produces of both goods and services. Unmotivated employees being pushed to produce via fear of losing their jobs mixed with stagnating wages rather than desiring to produce out of their own accord may reduce that overall production, right? The push-pull idea's as old as dirt.
Check out these reports:
http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressdetail.cfm?press_id=2582
and
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20060724005163&newsLang=en

Maybe companies should focus on job satisfaction? Seems to be working for Google... and Europe.


I promise to write a more happy-go-lucky blog next... I just thought I'd put in my 2 pesos in the midst of an economic melt down that is likely to affect my, and your, future.

If you needed a warm and fuzzy this time too, I'll finish it off with a great photo of the East Fork of Moose Creek at sunset.

Once Wasn't Enough

Sam's blog listing wasn't enough... feel free to add it to your blog too.

It Was Time For A New Camera

The compact Kodak C653 was in dire need of an upgrade, so I found just what was needed. The Kodak Z712 IS (IS means image stabilization) is way better! Here's the comparison:

C653 Vs Z712 IS

To test it out, we checked out both mountain ranges of the Treasure Valley.

Charlene looking out over the valley from Stack Rock

Need I explain this shot?

A shot to give you an idea how big it is. It's the big rock on the skyline near Bogus that is seen from any west part of town.

The new cam does panoramas without using the computer too.

Sunday was a trip to an old way of life in the Owyhees with Mom, Mike and Charlene. Silver City is a well preserved ghost town where the Cavalry was called in to stop fighting between mine owners who couldn't figure out if the silver was all in one or multiple veins. Today, you can walk the dirt streets where countless gunslingers ended lives over the demand for gold and silver.

Management on top right? Okay, maybe it had something to do with snow drifts.

The path to the old catholic church proved how tough people were back in mining towns.

A view of the inside of the church through the peephole.

A shot of most of what remains of this remote historic area.

We had burgers and a beer from the old grill in the Idaho Hotel where you can still spend a night in a 150 year old room.

Quaking aspen starting to turn near town
A huge culvert at the entrance to town.