We decided to check out Clarksville’s premier climbing wall (King’s Bluff). It is only 35 miles away from our apartment and pretty much the only climbing in middle Tennessee. The wall was about a mile long on the bank of the Cumberland river. All the routes were sport that needed to be lead to place the toprope. One thing I really liked about this place was that there were little silver plates at the base of each route. The displayed the name and rating of each route. It was way better than guessing the route from a picture in the guide book. We are hoping to get back there soon with a clip stick. The first bolt on many of the routes were a little to high for me to lead. I like how my neck and back are these days.
Happy Birthday to Joscelyn who turned 27 today. We had her official party and dinner at the Cook’s house this past weekend. We celebrated tonight with a dinner at Big River in downtown Nashville and at home with GiGi Cupcakes. She has been wanting to try these cupcakes for about three months now. I decided to pick out four of the most appealing cupcakes (chocolate) and throw a candle in one of them. I was impressed. I could go back and try one of each.
September 4, 2008 | Filed Under Daily
Raccoon Mountain(just outside Chattanooga, TN) was the site of the SERC (Southeastern regional championship) #7 for mountain biking. We went down to Joscelyn’s parents house for the weekend but her parents were not there so we visited with Brittany and Blake and grandma and did some grilling on Norman’s new grill. By the way congrats to Debra and Norman for climbing Mt Leconte!!! The weather was perfect for the race,a balmy 70 in June, who could not beat that!! I started the race with 9 others riders in my class and was off to a fast start at the beginning but a big rock managed to get in the way and trip me up about 3 miles into the race. Joscelyn meanwhile had found a shade tree and sat down to do a little studying while she waited for me to return from the 12 mile course. But about 20 minutes into the race I came riding back to camp, scaring Joscelyn half to death and holding my shoulder and talking about “the rock.” I logged a DNF(did not finish) for the race but gave a valiant effort, according to my wife!!!!
We spent Memorial Day weekend down in Georgia visiting Joscelyn’s family. On Saturday we went to their cabin and relaxed, ate good food and did some mountain biking on the Pinhoti trail. Sunday was church and then off to go rock climbing with Debra, Norman and Brittany. Brittany, Debra and Joscelyn climbed a 5.6 and then J(with the help of Norman holding Joscelyn the ground) climbed a 5.7 and of course Joscelyn could not be out done so she did the 5.7 as well. For all you people out there that read this(which I am sure is millions) climbing routes go from a 5.4 being the easiest to a 5.15 being the hardest. I think we sparked Brittany’s and Debra’s interest as they are looking at taking a climbing class sometime soon.
I went out to compete in my first XC race of the season today. It was called the Monkey Grinder XC Race at Montgomery Bell State Park in White Bluff, TN (Just west of Nashville). My biggest fan, Joscelyn, came out to support me. We arrived at 10:30 am to watch the other division kill themselves on the crazy course. I had to kill 2 1/2 hours before my start time. I paced back and forth with anxiety while Joscelyn studied in the sun.
Once the race director called my division to the starting line, I was ready to go. I looked the other 3 guys up and down to see who I could beat. One guy stuck out at me. The gun went off and we were sprinting through the woods. I stayed at the back of the pack until we hit the hills. That’s when I dropped the guy I thought I could beat. The two other guys quickly dropped me. I settled for third place and got a water bottle, patch kit, and some lubricant for the podium finish. At least I’ll be ready for my next race on June 8th!!
« Previous Page — Next Page »
