Today was the first weekend Crystal Mountain was open, the first time we have owned season passes in Washington (well first in 12 or so years for Keith), the first turns of our ski season, and the first day we can remember that opening conditions were as good as mid season...even for Colorado!  Washington got some early snow...Crystal opened on November 11th.  Contrary to Colorado, Washington resorts open and close depending on snow, there are no planned days of the season.  So on Monday the news stations let the cat out of the bag....Crystal will open on Wednesday.  After both having worked as ski patrollers (one of the best job we have had) we remember those first few weekends in November spent catching up with friends we hadn't seen in a few months during the patroller refreshers including OEC. CPR, lift evac, resort opening day, and the patroller orientation.  All of these events are held at the ski area with most of us dozzing off looking outside at the snow wishing the opening day would come sooner.  From the sounds of the Crystal patrollers....they felt the same way.  But at there orientations and refreshers this year were informed that the mountain would open in a few days.  We can only imagine the excitement!  Yeah, November 11th......that is early for the Washington...at least in the last few years.

The day was great, we got some of the first tracks of the Powder bowl...our first run of the season.  If you are going to go in...why not head to the very top of the mountain.  We had great views all the way around.  The snow was that of mid season conditions...very solid although a little light in places.  At the end of the day, we realized that although it wasn't cold we had cold teeth....well if we had stopped smiling for at least 2 minutes we wouldn't have such cold teeth.  So remember a friendly biker has bugs in their teeth and a fun loving skier has ice on their teeth!  Tomorrows activities will be outside yet again...this time on mountain bikes under a bridge in the middle of Seattle.  Yep a full on mountain bike playground under a rather large bridge of I-5,including a small trials park, slope style park, bmx track, and a small mountain biking trail.

 

Enjoy the weekend!

k & l  

Last Sunday we had plans to hike an old trail Keith remembered from when he lived here in the past.  So on Sunday morning we woke up to a rainy day...one of our first rainy weekends of the "rainy season."  We remembered the Washington outdoor motto: "there is no such thing as bad weather...just improper clothing".  During the 35 minute drive to the trailhead, we notice (and both commented) on the low clouds, the rain beginning to come down in huge drops, and the snow line moving down to just above the roof of the druck.  Another 5 minutes...YUCK...WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE WE THINKING comes out of both of our mouths...but we continue to the trailhead, both aware that we are looking around and shivering already.  But both of us had cabin fever already and needed a day of fun.  We started our hike in the rain and after a few minutes realized it wasn't raining so much in the trees.  A little farther we find some snow, then more and then more.  Before we knew it...we are in 6 inches of nice soft snow...the first snowballs of the season were made.  After a few more minutes, we reach a beautiful lake.....very quite and undisturbed.  (The pictures make it look super cold.)  The logs on the lake were covered in the seasons first snow and the lake had started to slush over.  Only the "camp robbers" were around to enjoy the sites with us for the first 15 or so minutes.  As we decided to turn around we found more and more groups of crazy people out for a hike in the rain and snow!  Not one grumpy or sad face...nothing but happy smiles on both dog and owners!  Yeah...the first day in the snow.  On the way out we build our first snowman with arms, eyes, and even hair.  I think the others will enjoy...a snowman is always a good sight!  Another lesson learned and relearned....go anyway...the weather gets better and it feels GREAT to be outside. 

 

Enjoy the winter season!

k & l

 

I have learned a few thing over the past year about biking in Washington. 

     -You can ride both a road bike and mountain bike year around, sure it may be wet on the trails, but the trails are not (usually) burried under 10 feet of snow!

     -Don't bother finding a map when riding new trails, you will be lost within 10 minutes with or without a map!

     -On those rainy mid-winter days, find the 10 minute "sucker-hole" and go for a ride, it might rain on you or not, but you will go if you find that window of time.

     -No matter where you ride, people will always take a second look at a "roadie" in a t-shirt and baggie shorts!

     -Roots are slippery, but wet roots are just down right scary....just hold on and keep riding, you will probably make it over.

     -This goes for anywhere...mountain biking on leaves is one of my favorite activities but lesson learned today, riding a road bike on a trail covered with wet (and stinky) leaves is a very slippery ride.

     -No matter where you find me....on a hard climb, smooth downhill, nice trail, on the ground, covered in mud, bugs in my teeth, etc.  on a bike I will have a smile on my face!

 

Thanks for reading,

K & L :)

Part II started while Part I was still going!  Busy, Busy, Busy!  We were warmed up for another week and some of entertaining.  On day 2 we let the second couple get over the jet-lag after travelling over 27 hours while "part 1" left for the airport.  Upon the return we started our adventure with yummy fish and chips.  We had to show our next visitors some of the typical sites.  Part II adventures included Pike Place, Ferry to Bainbridge, NW Trek, Mt. Rainier...Sunrise, Paradise, Grove of the Patriachs, walks around the neighborhood, Puyallup Fair, Long Beach (which always includes skim boarding and kite flying), a visit with Keith's parents, Mt. Saint Helens, and packing/shopping for 4.5 weeks in a RV traveling across the US.  We are envious...I wish we could join them.  We were treated to numerous nights of typical Tirolian food!  Yummy...we were spoiled!  It has been one super busy month, every bit was fun.  Being a tourist in your own backyard is great. 

 

I hope that Lis's dad and Maria have a great trip across the US!  We tried to give them a great route, but we had to take some out....it would have taken about 8 weeks to see everything!  Definently not a direct route, but one more doable is what they settled on!  Have fun!  Happy Trails to them and all of you!

Lisl's parents have been in town for the last week (that part is Part 1....part 2 arrives in a few hours!).  We have spent the week seeing many of the sights of the Seattle area included many neighborhoods not normally seen by the general tourist...mostly due to being "lost".  The events have included the Glass Museum, Tacoma Farmers Market, The beack (and skimming of course), Pike Place, hiking on Mt. Rainier (one of the nicest days...71 degrees at the top), Museum of Flight, Puyallup Fair, "Combat Fishing" for salmon on the Puyallup River, the Locks and fish ladder in Ballard, and walking/touring the water front in Seattle.  What an eventful week.  I think her parents will need a vacation from the vacation.  PHEW!   Part 2 begins in a few hours!  Stay tuned!

More on mountain biking in Washington.  We have been riding a bit for the last year....weekly rides and of course with the two of us at least one "adventure" rides a weekends.  So far this year we have ridden every month, yes even in Jan. and Feb...not normal for our Colorado memories...and yes riding on dirt not snow!  We are still "adventure" riding because these areas are all new to us since our latest more in October.  Two weeks ago (during the NW heat wave=multiple days of 100+ dregree weather) we decided to go on a long epic ride, we started on a well used, lose gravel road and began climbing and climbing and climbing.  Eventually we decided that the 7 miles of climbing with an elevation gain of 3500 feet on a 103 degree weather was just too much...we turned around and rode the other end of our planned loop.  Holy cow!  Some of the sweetest, smoothest, and most fun trails we have been on in years...  The trail was buffed out perfectly.  I kept looking around waiting to see Wilderness Trails, Hikers Only sign.. we both commented that we felt like bikes weren't allowed on the trails.  It felt like we were way out in the Wilderness Areas of a National Forest.  It was one of the greatest rides.

 

Today we rode with one of Keith's co-workers near a town called Black Diamond for about 3.5 hours.  We were only "lost" for 1.5 hours!  We did find some of the most winding, rooted, and log obstacle trails around.  We stumbled along a "stunt park" on a plateau with 6' elevated bridges with drops at the end, gap jumps and ramps.  It was another great day on a bike!  :)

 

So I have come to the conclusion that the NW, at least the "greater Seattle" area, wants to preserve some of the small wooded areas for activities like hiking and biking so they build the most twisty trails to add as many miles in a small place as possible.  This has been proven on about 5 areas we ride.  You can be standing 5 feet on the side of someone and you are on another trail completely.  This makes for some trippy riding.  The trails are tight so you need to be paying attention to the width of your bars, ignore all the roots, and get used to the fact that there are no maps and/or trail signs.  It takes about 5 rides in one area to get comfortable with a loop you can ride over and over again.  It is really fun to explore all of these areas and options...very seldomly do we ride the same trail twice!  (this is most often because we take just one wrong turn) :)

 

The seasons also seem to change a trail completely.  In the winter the trails are bare- wet ground and no vegetation.  In the spring, the ferns start to grow and the trails are covered with ferns.  In the summer everything is blooming so you don't see much of the trail and in the late summer and fall, the shrubbery tries to ride with you...blackberry stickers stuck in your skin or on your clothes.  Our "go-to", familiar rides are still changing on a monthly basis due to the change in vegetation.  So gorgeous and so fun.

 

We hope you enjoyed reading this..............

take care,

 

  &

This past weekend we went to Missoula, Montana for Grandma Newtons 100th Birthday (really on the 14th).  Abouth 40+ family members were there from all over the US to help her celebrate.  Keith was re-introduced to a number of cousins! What a great time with everyone between a picnic in the park, church service, cake and punch, numerous lunches and dinners, and drinks.  We started the trip with a nice bike ride through Missoula to the Farmers Market...only getting "lost" a few times.  Then moved on to a picnic which included great sessions of skills...frisbee, lacross, and soccer were all on display!  A number of us included a hike up to the "M" before attending church.  We all decided that the "M" really stood for Marie (grandma) rather than for Missoula as it was built when she was born...1909! Crazy!  On our rainy and stormy ride home, the sun broke through for a few hours making it a great opportunity for us to play some more!  We stopped to visit a water park for some more adventures with family!  Lazy river, high dives, a game of beach volleyball, body surfing, and water slides are what we all needed to refreshen us for another week of work.  Great adventures, family, laughs, and smiles!  HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY GRANDMA NEWTON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

We have enjoyed a wonderful sunny spring and early summer so far with lots of activities.  Last weekend we went to the beach at Seaside.  We were very lucky (and thankful) to get to stay right on the beach for the night with Keith's parents.  What a gorgeous weekend!  We went straight to Cannon Beach for the low (minus) tide to see the sealife.  We were not allowed to crawls around Haystack like you once could do to environmental protection groups...somewhat of a bummer.  (There are two ways to look at it, but we will leave that for another discussion)  But we were able to see the edges of the pools and find a few hermit crabs, starfish, sea anemone and muscles.  See the pictures in the album.  We spent much of the time on or in the Pacific Ocean skim boarding!  We were the hit of the beach as we were the only two that could skim farther than 5 feet!  (Lots of comments that we were better than the teens!  Guess we look old!)  Keith had some 50-100+ foot skims and Lisl had a taste of the Pacific Ocean!  Yep a mouthful of the ocean at 9:00 in the morning! Burr.  It was a lot of fun to enjoy the sun, warmth, low tide, exercise, family and fun!  Too bad we had to leave to go back to work.....Darn.  I guess we will come back soon.

 

Now for planning the next weekend of adventures.....stay tuned for some exploration on wheels!  (We have a new book...that is all we are going to say!).

 

 k & l

The past month has flown by.  Between a week in Moab, Lisl's bro visiting for a week, a trip to Longview and Portland, a college friend coming to visit, and bike rides mixed in with working full-time sure makes for a super fast few weeks.  It is always fun to show people where you live.  We always seem to see more and through someone elses eyes.  We took "poor-man" style tour by taking a ferry ride rather than a tour cruise to see the city from new views.  Nice trip...highly recommended.  We are now "planning" (well as much as we plan) for all the "to-do" items on our list.  We will keep you posted. 

 

Stay tuned!

k and l

Home sweet home, at least that is what we felt like as soon as you can feel the dry heat, see the red rocks, and massive amounts of bikers.  It is such a familiar place to us...we felt that it is our home away from home....at least something very familiar to us that haven't had too many things that familiar in a while.  Camping, hiking, biking, and soaking up the sun was our agenda!  Mission accomplished!    We rode some Moab "classics" and a few new single track train that were terrific!  We are working on planning the next trip!  We hiked through Arches and revisited a waterfall.  (We blew up a photo of the falls for a family wedding gift back a few years ago...great picture)  We had to see if the waterfall was still there and still as amazing looking with the contrast of white water, red flowers and red rocks!  It is.  Arches was just as magnificant as it always is!  On our drive to Moab, we joked about having a better chance of seeing someone we know in Moab than in the town we live...well day 1 we did see two people that we know!  Small world!  We did have a great time with an evening visit with them.

 

It was great fun to get a tan, ride...getting our legs and lungs back into shape, (and our butts ready for the biking season).  It feels great to hear nothing but the sounds of nature for days at a time!  Sitting on a bus/in traffic in your car was quite a shock last Monday.  We will make it through by our memories and hopes of a repeat in the somewhat future.

 

 

 

 

Well our spring has been full of fun and adventures!  We have been to the beach twice in the last 3 weeks, camped in the back of the topper for the first time, ridden our bikes with the "crew" a few times, watched volleyball and lacrosse, ridden our new trails, and watched a Rally Ameria race!  It is back to the fun!  This weekend we went to check out the Olympus Rally.  A car race on fire roads with lost of turns, hazards, super fast cars, good drivers and a lot of dirt.  We have seen the World Rally on TV, Pikes Peak Hill Climb in person a few times, and Keith has seen the Olympus Rally before but it was Lisl's first in WA.  We decided to make a weekend out of the day since the area was all new to us.  We toured the WA coast for a while.  It was gorgeous!  We met some great people and saw some super fast cars as well as ate a whole lot of dirt!  The beach on Sunday was great!  Nice and warm!  Here are some pictures for your view....

 

We have been riding more than skiing this winter.  The winter has been mostly mild, except December and until the last few days. We have been on some "group" rides and some on our own.  It is always fun to ride new trails.  The trails out here are different in many ways....less rocks and more roots.  Slippery roots!  The hills are mini and fun for winter riding....more miles on the legs and butts then just climbing.  On one of the rides we found a rather large seesaw that was newly constructed.  As others that we have seen on trails, this was about 18 inches wide made of mesh and nice wood.  The plank actually has a real base rather than balancing on a log.  Some of the guys in the group rode it and found that it was built so well that it didn't tip very early...you felt like you were riding off the edge before it tipped.  A little scary when you are on it as it just increases your falling distance....nothing any of us want!  Well Keith and some of the other guys rode it but not all of us, some of us are still a little chicken when it comes to the "stage".  So hoping everyone would leave Lisl went to try it again....nope still too many eyes so we "had" to come back for another ride to try it again.  This time, no problem.....we rode right up to the top and over it a number of times, well on the second trip past the feature as once again a group of about 10 were all riding and taking photos.  Overcoming some of "silly" fears is one of our New Years resolution.   We have found the trails to be very fun and making for rides that keeps us going and going.   We also found a friend on the trail!  We have seen him a few times and finally had to introduce ourselves.  We included his picture. When the fresh snow melts again (hopefully mid week) we will be out again.  Maybe a night ride this week!

 

Oops...we have slacked on updating our blog.  We have had a "normal" winter.  We didn't have too much snow this year...none since the mid December dump so we didn't ski much but we still got out there for fun.  We have been riding both the road bikes and mountain bikes, skied twice, watched some sporting events, and travelled.  We spent a long weekend in Vancouver hanging out in the city.  It was crazy to be in the middle of such a huge city.  We stayed downtown and experienced some "city life".  It was fun.  We will continue to add to our adventures and keep you posted.

 

Take Care,

K & L

I have been watching the weather forecasts the last few days excited about the snow that is falling in the Northwest.  Friday was forecasted to be a blue sky day after days of snow.   Blue skies and with 16" of new snow at Crystal, the skiing would be great.  We packed our ski stuff just in case Lisl's work was cancelled.  It was due to hazardous weather, funny to us after living in Colorado and dealing with feet of snow, but the lack of Washington snow plows makes a difference!  So Friday morning we headed to Crystal Mountain.  The hardest part would be getting off our hill... it did snow a bit and the road is slick and the hill is rather steep.  On the ride up the chair, we talked about a warm up run to give our legs a proper warm up for the season and as we rode the second chair drooling over the fresh tracks. We decided to go to some more fun terrain.  We explored the mountain and enjoyed fresh tracks, blue sky, light Colorado style snow (very unusual for Washington) and great turns.  We experienced the thigh burning sensation of ripping down the hill, our legs got used to the burn after the first run only to return shortly after lunch.  Over all it was an amazing day on skis.  Just what we needed.  I'll take many more days like this!  The early season snow conditions did take a tole on Keith's skiis. They opend up the Northway chair and during a traverse I was ripped out of my gear and sent flying. The result was major damage to my ski but I was uninjured. The photo shows the damage, the white in the photo is not snow it is the metal plate which is also scratched ! Enjoy the pictures below and stay tuned to the video when I figure it out. 

 

;)  A memory from "back in the day"...typical Tyrolian birthday celebration....at least in the 70's and 80's.  So to really learn/remember the game we had to play!  I guess that's what happens when you are hand delivered the BEST chocolate in the world!  The object of the game is to eat as much chocolate as you can in 30 seconds fully dressed following the rules.  One player goes one at a time and the rest gets to heckle them.  Each player starts blindfolded and has about 30 seconds to put on mittens, a hat, goggles, and a scarf.  Once dressed the person has to use a knife and fork to cut the chocolate and feed themselves...using the utensils  (as you can see Keith is a cheater!)

 

 

Now it is your turn....send us pictures of your tries!

 

:)   we did NOT eat it all....yet

 

We have been mtn. biking on weekends in November and December!  What a concept.....we should be skiing.  It seems strange still that we have trails that are not under feet of snow!  We have been mtn. biking the last few weekends.  It is a great place...full of trees, roots (very slippery), and ferns.  There are still leaves cover the trails in places so much that you want to stop to make sure you are still on a trail.  The trails are relatively flat and not too busy.  We a few hikers but not usually any other riders.  We are hoping that it will stay in good enough shape so that we can ride all winter.  SKiing one day and riding the next!  We rode a few times after work in the dark with our lights until we were told that the park closes at dusk...what a bummer, it was super fun with your light!  

 

Enjoy the season.............

 

K & L

Lisl's dad came for a week visit and boy did he see some stuff.  We are still relatively new to the area so we still have lots of sights to see....and took dad around.  From Pike Place (30 minutes after landing) to Canon Beach, we had a busy week.  We took dad everywhere....some funny places that Colorado just doesn't have like Ikea, Fry's, Cranberry Farms, and Cabellas for 2.5 hours. 

 

Neither of us had been to Boeing so we took a tour of the production site in Everett.  We saw the largest building in the world (at least that is what they say).  It is something like nine stories tall, .7 miles long.  We saw about 10 planes in the building.  The inside is divided into sections.....747, 777, and the new 787. Each section of the building is set up for work on that specific plane....so all materials for the 747 are in that section, bathrooms, coffe stops, restraunts!  An amazing operation.  We learned and saw where they test the planes before leaving the production site.  Who would have thought about the weight of paint or that certain colors are too heavy!

 

The area was getting pounded with rain so a "water chase" was on.  We went and saw river flooded over the road and the MASSIVE Snoqualime Falls.  Quite amazing....it was hard to see at times due to the mist.   It was a busy week but lots of fun.  I guess we need some more company (hint, hint) so we have excuses to see some of the bigger sites.  (I still need to go up the space needle!)  Any takers???

 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

 

k&l

Another great fall weekend in the NW.  Today we decided to take a trip to Mt. Rainier, we were headed up to Sunrise and found that the road was closed so we decided to go to Paradise.  We found out that we are about 80 miles from PARADISE! :)  Just as we got to Paradise, the clouds starting covering the top of the mountian.  Another trip without seeing the top!?  We decided to stick around a hike a little more and to our great suprise, the clouds were thin and the entire mountain was in full view!  Lisl had never seen the mountain that close up!  It was gorgeous!  We hiked around for a few hours enjoying the gorgeous fall weather.  We saw about 4 skiers hiking down the mountian after a day on the slopes....next time, that will be us coming down with our skis!  The fall colors were in full bloom and snow is starting to stick to the ground.  Great day, just what we needed!  Enjoy.

 

 

 

Sorry for the delay in posts.  In the last month we have packed, moved, unpacked, and repacked.  Last weekend we moved 2 hours south.  We had a hard time finding a rental similar to what we were living in so we are in temporary housing for the next few months.  The area is new to both of us so exploring is on the top of our list.  We went mountian biking last Wednesday night.  It was fun to ride at one of the best times of the year...fall mtn biking is great.  The trail is lined with colorful signs of fall and crunches under your tires.  We had fun riding in the evening and the DARK with our lights.  We made it to the cars just in time...the rain started as we jumped in the car.  Today we found a great 18 hole disc golf course (we have 2 within a 10 mile radius).  Once again the colors of fall guided us through our day.   

We have a 18 hole disc golf course only a few miles away.  We have visited this course a few times...none were conditions to play in.  The site was a swamp the first two visits.  The third visit the grass was super, super tall...over our heads so as soon as the grass was cut many locals (us included) scrambled to play a game.  We found a nice course with a number of "non-traditional" baskets.  See the photos in the album section.  It was fun to see and play.