Home Sweet Home

This past week has been nice. Really, really nice.

After what felt like 2 months straight of living out of a car, I have been home for over a week doing lots of anti-bike racer things. Staying out late, drinking summertime cocktails, catching up with the many friends I haven't seen all summer and not opening the training log for any reason what so ever. It's also been a nice change to do my school work in the comfort of my hammock on my deck, rather than in the front seat of a car, fighting off car sickness as Nate and I trade driving shifts to get to all of these far away races.

With no training agenda it's been a week of exploring. I had to go confirm the rumors of the new, super-secret singletrack in my neighborhood...near that other not-so-new secret singletrack. I had a great late night of exploring, getting lost, viewing enormous black bear tracks and discovering the awesome work my pals, who will remain nameless (wink wink) have been doing over there. Here's the view from where I came out (our house is along that ridge to the right)

I've also been cruising around the valley on my cross bike. Victor and Driggs are pretty much made for cross bike riding. We have so many more dirt roads than paved and the exploring potential around here is endless. The valley is full of these types of roads:


You also never know what kind of agricultural/wildlife experience you will run into in Teton Valley. I was on my ride home the other night and ran into a herd of about 40 horses running down the Cedron Road. The nice, older man who was there to block traffic told me that I should come over some time to ride his horses. He assured me that it would be much easier than riding a bicycle, but that was just his take.


Speaking of experiences, I figured out who the heck came thundering through our yard the other morning at 6:00am. Our house is up there on the ridge. Seems these 4 trouble makers busted free, came up the hill, left a few piles on our lawn and continued to have a great time for a few hours running around Edgewood Lane:


I wish I had the photo to share, but there has been an enormous mountain lion hanging out in our neighborhood in the last 2 weeks. It has already taken a few sheep and a goat and is rumored to be not at all afraid of humans. We're keeping Maddy inside at night and I have been doing a lot of singing out loud to myself on trail runs and rides. I love living in the mountains-you never know what you are going to see next. But, we are keeping the dog-door closed just in case so that my laundry room doesn't become a super-sized litter box!