Sight Seeing

First, an update on my last post.  The porch is dee-you-in DUN!  We finished putting the screen up that next day, and I caulked everything a couple of days later.  Here's the finished product, enjoy!

This left us with no big project for the following weekend, so little J thought it would be a good idea to do a little 'sight-seeing' in the local resort town an hour up the road.  Now, when I say sight-seeing, I picture a car ride, bus tour, or maybe a leisurely stroll.  My better half, not so much.  Our destination:  Ski Apache's tallest peak, at just over 10,100 feet.  Our starting point: Ruidoso, elevation 6900 and some change.  So we packed up our bikes and gear, and headed up the road to Ruidoso.  The entire drive I could see the peak in the distance, taunting me, heckling me, DARING me to take it on.  Who are you to tackle me, you who has recently moved from the land of No Hills?  Yeah, you with the chicken legs, I'm talking to you!

We arrive at our starting point and get everything in order.  The first 3 miles go by relatively quickly, then we hit the real stuff-for the next NINE miles.  My legs scream-I ignore them.  My mind says I can't do it-I turn up the ipod.  Before I know it, we're there!  And man was it worth it!

Of course, I forgot my camera, so we have to make due with the photos from my iPhone.  The second pic is the base of one of the slopes at Ski Apache.  The last one is a nice pic of the road we conquered to get there. 

Now, for the ride down.  Did I mention we were at 10,000 feet?  The temp was, at best -40. Celsius.  Or that's what it felt like on the way down.  We made several stops on the way down to break the icicles off our noses, and pry our frozen little fingers off the handlebars.  But we made it back to the base of the mountain in one piece, and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon people watching cheering at the horse races at the local track.

All in all, a good day :-).  So take THAT Mr. Mountain :-P