Last weekend I spent 2 days of quality time in the wilderness (well, it was car camping) – away from cellphones, civilization, et cetera.

A fair number of us (over 10, under 15) went out to Colorado Bend State Park, a 5000-some acre park roughly an hour and a half north-west of Austin. Much fun was had friday, including cooking hotdogs, strawberry marshmallows with mint-flavored chocolate crackers and the requisite raucousness of a group of people staying up far later than their ordinary bedtimes. (Yes, we even had the park ranger come by to tell us to quiet down, the weekend was a success!)

Rebecca had been gracious enough to bring one of the Dobsonian telescopes from UT with her out ot the park, since it’s nice and dark in the evening. We ended up looking at some very nifty constellations, and I got to play with the coolest thing ever.. A green laser pointer.

OH MY GOD. SO AWESOME!

My life’s been pretty busy lately, with work being overly busy due to a missing teammate (he got promoted), so it took quite a time for me to fall asleep fridaysaturday morning. Despite this, I was among the three first people out of bed the next morning, and I even felt well-rested.

Saturday was spent lounging around, canoe-ing on the Colorado river, followed by a late lunch and even more lounging around.

Much fun was had around the campfire, and as it got darker (and approached midnight), I remembered what I’d intended to do the first night, but didn’t end up doing… The last few times I had been out to the park, I’d seen this really awesome waterfall, that would look totally super awesome if I were to stick a dive light inside it.

I asked around if anyone wanted to accompany me on the trip (it was a good 30 minute hike one way), and Jeremy joined me.

We had a good walk there, practicing our night vision, avoiding dangerous racoons, and the GREAT BIG EYES on the bridge… 🙂

As for the result? Well, judge for yourself:

Many thanks to Jeremy for the good conversation and keeping my company while we walked through the deep dark woods. 🙂

Sunday we all woke up, had some time with song and a small devotional (Psalm 8), pack up camp, and then a group of us went for a short-ish (3 hour) hike…

Last wednesday I picked up my old habit of mountain biking again – I’d started a couple months ago, with some bouldering, but tweaked my right shoulder and was taking it easy. I rode the St. Edwards Park trail from one end to the other – followed by a short loop around the lower end of the park.

Last monday Daniel went with me to ride the full-length trail twice, back to back – it was a nice workout, not too warm, not too muggy.

The plan is to do this three times a week, interspersed with bouldering/climbing on the weekends.

It seems that mountain biking and climbing are the only sports that I can consistently keep doing. I’m looking forward to getting into a bit better shape. 🙂

About a month ago I spent the day riding my motorcycle.. Now, dear reader, you might not find this odd if you know me – as I go for rides on a semi-regular basis (At least when it’s not pouring).

The thing that was interesting about this particular day – well, you’ll find out later.

It started out as usual, heading out on 360, continuing onto 2244 (Bee Cave Road, as some call it).. This terminates into Hwy 71 which takes you to Llano, if you go far enough.

I had done that ride before. Once you pass US-281, Hwy 71 becomes really beautiful.. Hills, cliffs off in the distance, and all.. A very nice ride.

Although I did end up in Llano, it never happened like I thought it would.

Off of Hwy 71, there is a fairly well-used but not too well known road, called Hamilton Pool road.. Once past Hamilton Pool (which it actually goes to), it becomes yet-another-nondescript-farm-to-market road. Oh, but it is a great FM road. Curvy, a few hills, no traffic other than other motorcyclists.. It’s awesome.

The other end of FM-962 ends into US-281, a few miles south of Hwy 71 -and about 20 miles south of Marble Falls, home to the delicious Bluebonnet Cafe.

Originally, I was going to take US-281 back to 71, and then take 71 out to Llano (I have done this before) – however, I saw a sign that said “Johnson City 12 miles”, and at that point there was no question where to go.

I took US-281 to Johnson City, and then followed US-290 out to Fredericksburg. What a beautiful day for a ride.. Just enough sun, not too warm, and a gentle 70+ mph breeze… (Oh, wait… that’s the wind from… oh, nevermind.)

Once in Fredericksburg, I fueled up, had a drink, and then decided I’d see if I could get home by 7pm. I knew I could do it, if I turned around and went home the way I came, but I figured we’ll try some other way. I know it’s about an hour back from Llano, that means I have… oh, crap.. better get going.

The drive on Highway 16 between Fredericksburg and Llano is gorgeous.. almost more so than the drive on 71 from Llano. Long, sweeping curves, just the right amount of hills… Trees everywhere… Just awesome.

I ended up spending a grand total of 2 minutes within the Llano city limits – Just long enough to find the 71 turnoff from 16. And then headed home, riding fast.

It was on this stretch that it finally occurred to me.. I was “in the zone” – man is one with machine.. We were cutting smoothly through the air like a sharp knife… Or a paper airplane.. Everything flowed nicely, a single roar of man and machine flying low through the countryside.

And it was good.

Most of the ride home was uneventful.. I did end up being about 30 minutes later than I thought… But I still beat the sun. It was interesting, racing the shadows cast by the setting sun.. Man, machine and nature, in one combined game of hide-and-seek.

Mostly for posterity, and so I have a place to reference it at, here is a re-post of my google maps bookmarklet.

map it

Simply drag and drop to your bookmark-bar. When you’re on a page, highlight the address you wish to map, and click the bookmarklet.

Voila, yummy google-ism.

As you can see, I’ve gotten my blog back up and running.. And here’s the first post to the new blog.

I will be trying to recover some of the old entries, and posting them (while trying to retro-actively date them) as I succeed.