Reflections

Umm, jelly doughnut. Somewhere, a squirrel is clenching his belly, moaning "what have I done?"

"What the hell are you doing out there in your slippers? Moron."

This is why we can't have nice things. The TP is not a toy.

"Shredding TP is hard work, I need a nap."

Happy People

It never ceases to amaze me how doing physical activity out in the woods on a beautiful, sunny day with excellent snow conditions can change one's perspective on life. This weekend we spent time Friday, Saturday and Sunday taking advantage of the new fallen snow and wonderful conditions by cross country skiing. Friday started off with a solid snow storm that lasted most of the day, one which required multiple passes of cleaning the driveway. Also mixed in was a continuation of a bad day at work and a whole lot of indecision in terms of the weekend's plans, my current work situation and life in general; the usual. We had planned to go to Maine for the weekend but between the storm and my need to work until later in the afternoon than planned, we ended up postponing the decision and playing the 'we can always go later in the evening after traffic' card.


I'd been in a funk for a while but that funk was getting really bad by Friday. After an hour of my patented indecision and sulking and fury, I mustered the focus to head over to Great Brook for a short XC skate ski in the fresh powder. I knew that if I sat around stewing things were just going to get worse and I was going to fume about the fact that I sat around stewing and didn't do anything. So, off to Great Brook we went at the very last minute, given that the trails officially close at 4:30PM. What we found were not the best conditions and it was tough going with the snow and drifts but the glide was still pretty good and the base was firm and it felt really good to be out doing something and the time we spent skiing helped to re-focus things. I managed to get in a little over 16km, finishing up just before dark. After that a detoured by Colonial Spirits for a six of Dale's Pale Ale and we made the trip home. Next we faced more indecision as to whether or not to head north. No, I don't feel like driving 3 plus hours in the dark and slushy conditions, decision made.


Now for dinner. We had been invited to friends but in my indecisive fit, we went well past the point at which we could realistically drop in on them. Going out at prime time on a Friday evening, this always goes well. We slid by Margaritas and it was a parking nightmare. I've never actually been to that place even though it is less than 2 miles from home, because the parking and whole laying is so f-ed up. What were the dumb-asses that planned that thinking? From there Cathy suggested the Border Cafe, which is the most cost effective place around and still has good food and drinks, but is located in the 6th level of Hell, also known as Burlington. We have struck out here in the past, at really odd times, like during a blizzard. Luckily, after fist fighting for a parking spot, we found room at the bar, Score! A went for something different, the Crawfish Etoufee it would be and a Negra Modelo, my Mexican cerveza staple. The Etoufee was really good. I had a couple beers and Cathy had one and we both had all that we could eat and it only cost $50 with a 20% tip. These days, that's pretty reasonable. Back home we settled in for some fine Friday night TV viewing including Gold Rush Alaska, which is a Discovery Channel reality train wreck about a bunch of guys trying to strike it rich in Alaska, mining for gold with no experience or money, or apparently common sense. It's really not a good show but I keep tuning in hoping that they are eventually going to get something, anything. A couple of Dale's helped keep the interest peaked. The day was turning around, as was my poor attitude.


Saturday AM started early when I awoke at 4AM and could not fall back asleep. I contemplated packing and heading to Maine. I also contemplated heading to Kane's in Saugus for some doughnuts. Alas, the lazy phuck I am, I did neither but did fall back asleep at about 6AM, which meant I didn't get up in earnest until well past 8AM. The day was half gone so what to do. How about eat waffles and sausage and drink coffee and basically accomplish very little in the AM. We did, however, have a plan. That plan was to do a nice, fun XC ski on the trails in Lincoln. The Lincoln trails are where I started XC skiing in earnest back in 1995 and where Cathy and I started XC skiing, which lead to all of the rest, together. The land consists primarily of limited access Lincoln Conservation tracts but also goes by the Decordova Museum, through historic Walden Woods and around Walden Pond and then over to Mt. Misery. The loop finishes up on the Three Friends Trail and brings you back to the lot at Smith Elementary School. We refer to this as the big loop as it is basically the outer perimeter loop of the local trail system. It's only just over 10 miles but is on all natural trails with no machine grooming. As always we had a great ski and were fortunate not to have to break trail. The best part of the 3 hour tour were the number of smiling, happy people we saw. We the exception of one old couple who were apparently too close to the grave to be cordial, everyone else was overly courteous, thoughtful and pleasant. What a truly welcome surprise.



Sunday once again started with sleeping late, followed by some shoveling off of the roof and eaves and then a mess of procrastination. This lasted much of the day, lamenting about various sore body parts, until at long last we packed up and headed to Great Brook at 3PM for some more skate skiing. The crowd was starting to disperse and the trails were in phenomenal shape so we got in a good, solid, quick 20km. Great stuff. Back home we watched the DVD rental Inception, which was a tad bizarre and you were left wondering if any of it was actual real, but entertaining. In short, a good weekend of having fun in the snow and escaping from the drudgery and solitude of the winter weekdays.

Now it's back to reality.

More Snow

Looks like it is going to be a real winter, at least judging from what we have seen of recent. After a number of false starts earlier in the season, today we had another storm that wasn't supposed to amount to much. The snow was steady and at times, very heavy, throughout the course of the morning and into the mid afternoon.


By the time the snow changed over to sleet and then rain we had racked up another 6" or so. This necessitated a solid 4 clearings of the drive as I didn't want to let it stack up and then have the rain come. It worked as we are clear and prepared for the wet stuff. The rain will help compact the snow and make for solid base. Unfortunately it means I'll be staying inside tonight rather than venturing out for some fun in the snow. Yes, it is only rain and yes, I will indeed melt.


At present, I've already far surpassed the total number of Nordic skiing outings from last season. Yesterday I hit Great Brook for a quick hour and a quarter skate which yielded 18km. Not exactly flying but conditions were far better than last Friday. The place was of course, a zoo as it was the MLK Day holiday, at least for some. Last Saturday I also got in a solid skate at Weston. Add that to the stuff over the holidays and I've got some good time in thus far with the outlook for the future being very bright.


Good stuff!

Caught in the Act

Caught in the act, Ellie is embarrassed and ashamed.

Partners

These days, the term partner has a number of different connotations such as life, romantic or sporting as well as the old staples of professional and crime. I believe that it is rare that one is able to successfully find a single person that fills all of those categories, to some degree or another, and is the perfect match. I'm not going to turn this post into some big sappy reflection but will keep this on the lighter side. The point is simple, I'm very lucky to be married to someone that shares so many like qualities, goals and ideals.

Earlier this week, I tried to round people up to go out and do something crazy like ride for a few hours on the road on a windy and well below freezing day or mountain bike in the winter, through the snow, ice and cold, after dark, on a weeknight. It was with no real surprise that I came up almost completely dry on both counts. All of the usual cohorts except for John passed on the road ride and all of the self-deemed tough-guys wanted no part of or had some excuse that precluded them from the mountain bike ride.

My wife on the other hand, was as always, willing, able and enthusiastic to join. We made it about two hours on the road, with Cathy clearly working hard, before she decided to head back toward home. Then the other night, we went out and rode mountain bike for a couple of hours and had a great time being outside, active and together. The ride was nothing special, and certainly not a hammerfest. It was on some of the local paths and trails that had gotten enough foot traffic to pack them to the point where they were rideable. For the most part, you would deem this a pleasant ride, but to some degree or another, they all are.

Last night after multiple passes at shoveling the driveway during the day and actually working from home, we stole away for some snowshoeing. At first we packed up the truck and headed for some local trail-heads, while the tail end of the storm was still raging. Of course not one of the places that we normally park at had been plowed and thus we we completely shut down. Back home we went and donned our shoes. We started by tracking through the yard on onto the unplowed sidewalk. From there we ducked into the woods behind Shawsheen Cemetary, a block of conservation land that we ride mountain bikes through. We made one big loop and then ventured back home to grill a big rack of beef ribs and watch the new release on DVD, Piranha. An excellent day.


As I reflect back over the years this has been a recurring theme, be it with 100 mile Notch attacks, 200 plus mile 12 hour snowmobile days in the cold, snow or even rain, or winter snowshoe or XC ski epics through feet of untracked snow. Others have always expressed interest but when the time comes, more often than not, they tend to back out. However, one thing has remained constant, Cathy has remained there as the one and only partner that I can consistently rely on, a fact that I am very appreciative of and thankful for.


I look forward to the new year of adventures, together with my partner, my wife. Just wait until she hears about all the neat things I have planned for us this year.

Snow Day

Well, not really. We are both still online and working though there do not seem to be many others available at any given point. Most folks are just trying to get cleaned out from the snow. Looks like winter has finally arrived in earnest here. When we went to bed last night it had not yet started to snow. I'm not sure exactly when it did start snowing but by the time we got out to start shoveling at 7:30AM, we had about a foot. Despite the temps being in the mid to upper twenties, the snow has been consistently moist, making it more difficult for my little Toro 2-stroke snow-blower to manage. The wind has also been fairly strong and gusty throughout the day so far. It took about an hour for the first pass which included the back deck and patio as well as clearing the waffled trees.


Just before noon we went out for the second clearing attempt. I'd waited too long unfortunately and we'd received another 3 - 4", of still fairly heavy snow. This meant my plan to just push it to the side of the drive with the shovels and then make one easy pass with the blower was foiled. This time the smaller quantity allowed the Toro top fling the white stuff with no problem. I also whittled away at the 3' high bank I left at the end of the drive. The snow was still coming down and the roads were not fully cleared so I knew that if I cleared the end, the town would happily fill it right back in. Not my first day on the big job, so to speak. I cleared a small entryway at the far end of the snowbank so the mail-man could get through, which he did and only about 1/2 hours late. Those guys have it rough. Hats off to them.


I can't wait to finish pretending to be working so I can go out and play. Maybe a little XC skiing tonight. Weston and Great Brook should both be awesome after this as it will pack into a really good base. If the temps stay cool we should be good to go for some time to come.

30 Miles of Bad Road

Here in the metro west area we had gotten about 14" of fluffy snow just after Christmas. The warm weather and rain followed by the various freeze thaw cycles coupled with foot traffic have shaped the trails into a mix of primarily bumpy plate ice and pockmarked Styrofoam. Both Friday and Saturday I chose to ride out the railroad bed trail, past the Great Meadow Wildlife Refuge into Concord and then on to Estabrook Woods. Friday I went solo, late in the afternoon on my full suspension Specialized Epic XC race bike without studded tires. I also felt good so the ride was fast and hard and as always, the bike felt light and nimble and pedaled easily. It was challenging but I made great time while I still had the daylight. However, once the sun set and I had to use my lights, the terrain seemed much more precarious, confidence waned and the going proved to be much more difficult.

Starting off in the results of the big snow storm.

Yesterday the ride group hummed and hawed over exactly what to do. The snowstorm that was supposed to have befallen us didn't materialize into more than a barely perceivable dusting of snow. After much debate we chose to go with that which was know; Estabrook Woods. Cathy and I rode out the rail-trail to meet John and Alexis at the North Bridge parking lot. Cathy's plan was to break off and go meet a friend who was in town, for coffee at the Main Street Cafe, potentially a wiser choice. Off the bat I could feel the prior day's effort in the legs and lower back. For this ride I had mounted up my nearly ten year old Nokian Extreme studded tires on my Yeti 575. The Yeti is a great trail bike and excels in the bumps and technical stuff and is a Cadillac when you get it up to speed. For longer fast rides on non-technical terrain, it takes a little extra effort. Add the extra few pounds of studded tire and ooff, that hurts.

Cathy enjoys the stellar trail conditions.

Out of the lot AA had a slight mechanical issue where by he needed to raise his saddle to compensate for the thicker soles on his Lake winter shoes. We finally got rolling and onto the trail without issue until the old cleats that AA mounted on his new shoes didn't match with the pedals upon which he had the tension set for new cleats on his old shoes. Some quick work with an allen wrench and were were moving again. Because Estabrook is a fairly small chuck of land, I decided to ride every trail in the place, even the nasty ones that we typically don't ride. This brought some variety to the ride and certainly kept it challenging with the variations in trail surface. John is still training for the Master's Cyclocross World Championships so was on a tear. It took all of the fortitude that I could muster to keep the pace moving at a level that would not totally bore him and force him to pass me and up the pace. Unfortunately, this pace coupled with the sloppy pedals was enough that AA appeared to be suffering some but still hanging tough. Add to that a broken spoke that lodged into his rear disc brake rotor locking up the rear wheel and it was clear that this was going to be a tough day for the big guy.

More great trails.

After looping around on trails that I had not been on in years, we proceeded out the dreaded Two Rod Road (a rod is a unit of measure and is 16.5'), a colonial era highway that is now a bumpy, rocky slightly uphill both ways trail that beats you into submission. Shortly onto the trail I noticed that my bike computer stopped registering. The issue turned out to be that the magnet on the spoke had slid down away from the sensor. The trails were so rough that the magnet slid. Never seen that happen before. Toward the end of the trail AA had another issue, this time the ferrule on his rear derailleur cable housing cracked and allowed the cable to flop around. This resulted in poor shifting and ultimately, the straw that broke the camel's back. Coming back into Estabrook on the Bee Sting Trail was sheer misery. Less foot traffic meant deep pockmarks that snatch most all of your forward momentum, forcing you to struggle mightily for all forward progress. Alexis finally the in the towel and told us not to wait. We decided to make our way directly up to Estabrook Road, the primary colonial era roadway through the land, such that he could limp back out, which he did.

It's still better than riding the trainer.

John and I looped around a bit more and then finally called it quits and headed out. On the way back to the rail-trail, on the road, I noticed a hop in the rear wheel. My thought was that I'd probably tweaked it some but would check later. Shortly after John and I parted I stopped to change gloves and put a head covering back on under my helmet. I also took a look at the rear wheel. I quickly noticed what looked like the swat of a tiger's claws on the sidewall of my rear tire. Three identical tears with inner tube splaying out from them. I wanted no part of fixing this on the trail so rode the final five miles on what was possibly the worst of the trail, very gingerly, which was all my tired body could handle. I returned home cold and tired feeling wholly tenderized. Total time was 3.5 hours with just over 3 hours rolling and 30 miles. The rear tire is a throwaway. Bummed I only got 10 years out of it. Replacements have been ordered. I'm actually glad the tire is toast as it means that I don't have top go ride the bumpy ice again today. 10 hours of wrestling with bad road was enough for me last week. One thing is for sure though, riding in this stuff certainly builds skill and confidence as well as character. Good ride.

Stupid tire!

2010 Cycling Stats Summary

2010 Cycling Stats

Totals

• 8662 miles
• 600 hours
• 45 races
• 11 CBTT's

Hourly Breakdown

• 235 hours road (SS & geared)
• 197 hours MTB (SS & geared)
• 81 hours cross (SS & geared)
• 48 hours trainer/rollers
• 22 hours tandem
• 16 hours TT

Ride Breakdown

• 101 MTB
• 99 road
• 62 trainer/rollers
• 52 cross
• 12 TT

Summary
My yearly mileage was up mildly this season, year over year, as was total time on the bikes and was the biggest year ever. This was the first year since I started the CBTT that I have not set a new PR and my Waterville Valley TT time was slightly slower than the previous year, though the course was longer and I struggled really badly controlling the bike with the crosswinds. I did have my biggest week ever with 462 miles during our "training camp" vacation week in the middle of the summer. Also managed to get in three centuries (100 plus mile rides) in February.

MTB season saw some of the best results ever, consistently setting the fastest Cat1 time overall. Keep in mind however that many of the fastest Cat1's are now racing the P/1 Open and my toughest competition in the past did not race MTB this season. There were also a couple of solid rides in the Elite category though the fields were not terribly deep.

The road season was lackluster but had some bright spots within the races themselves. Strength and fitness were typically not the issue, it was their overuse during the race resulting in less than stellar finishes. I'm left once again unable to pull together the pieces that would allow for a good finish. It may simply be that my personality will not allow me to effectively race the road.

The cross season started well but the motivation dried up quickly. Injury and mechanical issues played a strong mental part as well, leading to a painful and demoralizing season that had but a few glimpses of hope. All in all, a season that I can and will use for it's lessons learned.

This is what I have to say about that.

Misery Loves Company

It always seems that this time of the year, when it is dark and cold and the conditions are poor, that motivation is hard to come by. During the summer it doesn't take much if any encouragement to convince yourself to go out and ride your bike. Why would it, it's warm and light outside. However, it is not the summer, it's the start of the winter and as mentioned, it's dark and cold and the trails pretty much suck. Did I forget to mention that there are wolves? You get the point.

Riding into the cold darkness.

Now is the time when it is incredibly important to have a really strong support group of like minded individuals to prod and coerce you off the couch and onto your bike, even in the cold darkness. I recognized this fact years ago and have done my best over the years to keep a constant stash of cohorts that I can rely on to brave the elements and keep the pattern of continual exercise going. I firmly believe that this is the key not only to weight control but physical and emotional satisfaction and stability through the long and often relentless New England winters.

A bare spot on the powerlines at RT3/128.

Last night I managed to wrangle by normal riding crew of Scott, Ben, and until he threw his arms up in disgust, Keith together for what alone and by oneself would have been a mostly miserable intolerable ride, but as a group was a brutally fun ride. Riding on nights like last, on trails like were rode was the type of thing that you used to do back when you were just getting into the sport of mountain biking. You did it because you loved it and you simply couldn't get enough of it. Sure, the trails were bumpy, pockmarked ice ridges at the very best and stretches of wheel sucking Styrofoam into which you firmly sunk at the worst, but you were still out there riding your bicycle, in the woods.

Follow the leader; riding icy crud one handed taking pix.

This was the type of ride where you fought for every mile, foot and inch of trail that you laid claim to. Small victories, ever so skillfully won were sweetly savored. With the application of ungodly amounts of power, balance and fortitude you could manage to maintain forward momentum through all but the deepest snow. The going was slow but you were still going, none the less. The night how relative any particular thing can be. That which you think is terrible can easily change and be looked forward to once something truly much worse comes along. We rode sections of trail where we found ourselves reflecting fondly back onto the icy bumps and ridges in the trail for at least it was packed and seemed like pavement by comparison to whatever current torture had befallen us.

Having ample light makes all the difference.

Anyhow, we ended up having a great ride. What could have easily been a negative experience was flipped around into a positive, fun and beneficial experience. Of course Cathy had prepared an excellent dinner to which everyone contributed, while we were out riding and we all sat around, socialized, drank beer and at Christmas cookies. A good night indeed.

Offenders

So, I had some people ask for more detail on the hack job I did to get the fenders on our cyclocross race bikes that were not intended to have and seem downright offended by the though of fenders. I guess that in this case we should call them offenders.

As I mentioned earlier, the Ridley X-Fire's have a total of zero mounts. Heck, my older one didn't even used to have water bottle bosses until I bought the necessary tool and added them myself this fall. After all, what would a thoroughbred race bike want with bosses and junk? I'll tell you what I want, and that is to not have yet another f-ing specialty bike in my basement that collects dust much of the year. With that and with the help of a bunch of zip ties I managed to get them on both Cathy's and later onto my bikes.



After a ton of searching and pondering and basic tinkering I discovered that the mounting bracket insert from the inside of an SPD shoe, for a set of SPD cleats will fit perfectly in the rear dropout cutout of the X-Fire. You can affix it to the outside of the dropout with one threaded hole protruding into the dropout cutout and the other threaded hole sitting on top of the dropout. The space between the holes matches the upper/back dropout width. You can then affix the cleat plate using a single recess head bolt, like one from an SPD cleat, by screwing it in from the inside of the dropout cutaway. This gives a perfect, fixed mounting point for the fender brackets. Unfortunately, the front fork affords no such option.



For this I used 1" ID rubber coated metal conduit clamps that I had to modify to fit right (needed like 3/4" but they didn't have them so I had to cut them off and drill a new hole), and bolts to mount the brackets. This was how I'd done them on Cathy's Specialized Tricross in the past as well. For a road bike, all bets are off without highly modifying the set of fenders. I'm thinking about buying some new fenders and giving that a try though.



I also determined on the ride Saturday that I would much rather ride solo than to do a group ride with people who do not have adequate rear fender coverage. Sure, it doesn't take much to keep your ass dry but following behind someone whose fender is too short means that you are taking a shower. Those raceblade clip on thingies suck x2;

1. they inevitably get bumped or move and rub so everyone has top stop and wait for the owner to futz around with them
2. they don't do squat in terms of reducing the rooster-tail spray behind them

Never again. The rear fender should wrap well around and come within inches of the road. Better yet, you could add a flexible "mudflap" that actually skims the road. A chunk of old innertube works great for this. I still need to add those to my bike but did have them last year.

Blah

I really hate this part of the year. Serious post holiday funk going on right now. This year is especially bad as we were treated to good conditions for riding until just after Christmas. It was cold and dry, which meant the trails were hard and fast. As long as you dressed appropriately, it was great. We were able to get in a bunch of really great long rides as well as a string of really fun rides in light snow and gentle snowstorms; perfect for the holidays. Shortly after Christmas we got our first real taste of the season and received a solid dumping of snow. This allowed us to get out for one of the best local backwoods XC ski days in recent history and also allowed us to march forward into the second stage of the holiday vacation, the snow based fun up north. This brought a wonderful mix of skiing and snowshoeing and just plain enjoying the break. Alas all things must come to an end though.

The holidays are over, vacation is over, race season is over, I'm back to work, I haven't had a beer in 3 days and the weather is now in that finicky, in between stage where it is basically good for nothing at all in particular. We have just enough snow to make mountain biking mostly miserable, though you can still do it. It says something about the ride when you look forward to the rough, bumpy, frozen footprint tracks in the trail to break up the horror of riding through 3" of untracked frozen granular. Sure, you can do it and it is still nice to be outside, but this is just about the low point of riding bicycles. The only thing worse is riding on the road for 4 hours in a 40 degree drizzle. Fortunately we still have a couple months before we get that treat. Monday night, after I showed up at work at 6:30AM only to find out that we had the day off (I worked anyhow and will take the day at a more opportune point), Cathy and I made our way into the woods and despite the conditions, had a good time and a good ride. We were out for about an hour and 45 minutes and traveled just over 9 miles. That tells you what the going was like.

This past weekend we lost almost all of the snow that we had due to the spring conditions and temperatures in the mid to upper 50's. That weather allowed the first longer road ride of the season. Cathy and I joined Scott and John and some other NEBC folks for a local tour starting in Bedford and winding through Carlisle, Chelmsford, Westford, Dunstable, Groton, Ayer, Littleton, Acton and Concord. We ended up with 60 miles in the bank by the time we rolled back home. I chose to ride my single-speed cross bike with a 38x16 and some 700x25c slicks (do the math and see what 100RPM gets for speed). This seemed like a good idea as it was the easiest bike to get fenders on. By the end it proved to be a challenging choice and whupped in good shape. My back is still sore from the grunting up some of the hills coupled with the extended frantic spinning.

Speaking of fenders, what was I thinking in getting rid of all of the bikes that we owned that would accept full fenders? Things got very creative in getting the fenders affixed to the Ridley X-Fire's, which have a total of zero mounts. With the help of a bunch of zip ties I managed to get them on both Cathy and I's rigs. I also discovered that the mounting bracket insert from the inside of a shoe, for a set of SPD cleats will fit perfectly in the rear dropout cutout of the X-Fire. You can affix it from the inside out with a single cleat bolt and leave the other bolt hole overhanging the top of the dropout. This gives a perfect, fixed mounting point for the fender brackets. Unfortunately, the front fork affords no such option.

Last night I started my winter time 3 day per week lifting regiment and then suffered through an hour on the rollers. This lifting is nothing too spectacular but attempts to build some core and overall upperbody strength and flexibility, the stuff that I spend the rest of the year negating via the bicycle riding. This instantly exposed the fact that my left shoulder is still hosed from the crash I took into the pavement in cyclocross training back in early October. This was no surprise as I'm reminded of it every night when I roll onto my left side in bed. I'm hoping that between the skate skiing (poling), which doesn't seem to bother it, and the lifting, I will get some flexibility and build some strength to compensate for whatever is torn or mangled. I'm pretty sure that I'd injured this one in the past but it may have been the other. I'm old and bad with details so forget this stuff.

Tonight we make an attempt at a MTB group ride. It will be fun regardless as it's as much a social thing as it is anything else. I'm looking very forward towards getting back into the routine.

Vacation's End

Well, this is it. Vacation is over. I guess that all good things must end. It was a great ride, and this particular vacation was long and had many, many faces. We got in a string of good fun MTB rides before Christmas and then a full week of fun in the snow up north in Maine last week. Finished it off with a good long road ride back at home yesterday and a bunch of milling about and not doing much of anything today. Even had the opportunity to get a bunch of chores done over the course of the long break. Alas, it's back to work tomorrow morning.

Here are some images from the various events and adventures of this past vacation.

The calm before the storm, GB/RM MTB Ride.

Cathy and a sunset ski at the Bethel Inn.

The view of RT26 East from Table Rock.

The Mount Washington Hotel and it's namesake.

Awesome XC skate day at Bretton Woods.