Summertime

Didn’t DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince have a song about summertime? I believe I was in that video this weekend, North Country style.

I will bore you with the details:

No racing this weekend. This was the first of several weekends in August that we are not racing. It was VERY nice. It all started with an outdoor dinner at BIN 42, the new wine bar in Littleton. Yes, we have a wine bar. No, Boone’s Farm is not on the wine list. After several delicious glasses of wine, flat bread, ice cream and chocolate chip cookies, we headed home for a nice nights slumber.

Saturday, we awoke, drank some coffee, ate (well Martha made them first and then I ate them) Belgian (trying to get my Vervecken on) Waffles and saddled up for a long climb intensive ride. We hit Kinsman Notch, Moosilauke and Swiftwater: totally sweet climbing and even better descending. Mousilauke is by far one of the best climbs in New England. Most people that come to the Whites to climb do the standard routes: Kanc, Bear Notch, Crawford, etc. Mousilauke is narrow, very lightly traveled, twisty, 30 minute (depending on the Wine Consumption Factor or the WCF) climb with an equally exciting 55+ MPH twisty decent off of the other side, Stefano Garzelli style. Killer.

As a side note for you crossers: We saw Jesse Anthony out climbing the backside of Kinsman as we descended at 50+ mph. Building base back up for Cross perhaps?

Saturday ended with Sauza-Ritas on the deck at Rosa Flamingos. Yes, it was a good day.

Sunday we awoke early thanks to a hungry cat and decided to head over to Gorham for breakfast. I had scrambled eggs made with cream, fresh parmesan cheese, fresh garlic and fresh basil. Did I mention Fresh? Oh yeah, it was rich. Martha of course had fresh fruit (which included a yellow kiwi, ever heard of such a thing?), yogurt and granola.

After breakfast, we drove up into Pinkham and took ole Daisy for a hike up to a swimming hole. The weather was still pretty chilly (in the low 60s) when we got to the hole, so only Daisy swam. Then we hiked out. By the time we got back to the trail head, most of the tourists were just heading out on the trail. Suckas missed the best part of the day.

We had plans to meet a few friends in East Burke to rip some mtbing at Kingdom Trails and by the time we got out on the trail the group had grown to 15 people! We ripped the kind single track for a few hours and headed to the pub.

Now up until this point, I was still thinking: yah, this little break is good for me and “my form” will be good come cross season. Then it happened and it totally blind sided me. I was finishing my first Hoppin’ Mad Trout IPA at the pub chatting with Gabe and Joanna and Gabe said it . . . .tele-skiing. Fucking Tele-skiing! Are you kidding me dude? It isn’t even August 1st! It spiraled out of control from there . . . discussions about a friend of ours who was cutting glades this summer for some trust funder who owned a local hill, amazing back-country at Big Jay, some local peak that they cut a ski trail on, etc. I pounded another beer. Bike racing?!?!?! What’s that?

In case you are keeping track . . . .after wine, ice cream, beer, sauza ritas, etc I still didn’t gain any weight. 147 lbs this morning.