The Day We Didn't Kill Star

No worries everyone - Star survived our super fun Grand Canyon hike.

First off we caught the 7am bus to South Kaibab Trail head. But to backtrack in the story just a bit...the food on the rim of the G.C. is terrible, almost indigestible. People come from all over the world to visit the G.C. and they feed them total crap. So despite our encounter with half-raw pizza the evening before, Star recovered enough to give the go-ahead, although it was touch and go for a bit.

The weather was perfect - just a bit chilly for the start. South Kaibab starts out at 7260 ft and drops down to 3870 ft in a hurry (4.6 mi) to Tipoff point- where we turned west on Tonto trail.

Tonto trail rolled along, I was hoping for more bike path, but that's not the case. It crossed two small streams and skirted side canyons. Including one Star & I renamed - One Mis-step And Welcome Into The Canyon Of Death Abyss - not the catchiest, but we were under a bit of stress. The trail we followed wasn't very wide, and as you can see below it came across the face of a shale covered slope that was at the edge of a sheer drop into the canyon. It was easily the scariest part the trip (even scarier than the pizza). In the picture below you can barely see the trail about 30 feet from the edge. yeah, that scary,

We rolled into Indian Gardens and stopped for a lunch of delicious beef sticks, crackers and peanut butter (it's better then you think). Indian Gardens is a popular stop for lunch the the benches were full of all kinds of hikers. The European's were easily identified by their baguettes and chunks of cheese, the Americans by their powerbars.

Then we headed up Bright Angel Trail. Climbed 3800 ft to 6860 ft in 4.9 miles to the top. It was totally easy, except for the hiking part. Actually we ripped it up - got up in 2hrs 45 mi which is pretty good, didn't get passed by many but passed plenty. There's water 3 miles and 1.5 miles from the top, so we stopped to rest and eat a bit at those but otherwise just kept going.

Then we ate doritos.

For those keep score at home - that's 13.8 miles, about 6000 ft of elevation, in just over 7 hours (with a 1/2 hour lunch). Yep, we owned the Grand Canyon. Not really, but it's fun to say. Below are more pics.

Rainbow Argyle?

What would that look like? We'll find out next year and how a God can rock it!! Yeah, our favorite Viking out kicked everyone else to the line in the World Champions down in Australia. Now next year when he joins Garmin, he'll be sportin' the argyle in all the colors.
And congrats to our favorite Swiss rider for winning the time trial....4th in a row. He's really fast on a bike. And David Millar won silver, good on 'im!
In other cycling news:
Milram has dropped thier sponsorship, so no more kits with blue cow spots (frowny face).
Alberto Contador has got himself in a mess (heavy sigh).
-Star

Yep, it's NBA time already

Well, I know it's been awhile. But finally, after a long and terribly scorching summer of being forced to watch the D-backs it's NBA training camp! Yeah! I know. Exciting stuff.

Your Phoenix Suns brought back Grant Hill and Steve Nash and other guys you don't know. Amar'e bolted for the asphalted pastures in New York. Because the Knick are so good and D'Antoni will never make him learn defensive rotations (that's pure speculation, not the defensive rotation part).

Sorry Boo, but Lou bolted for higher paying pastures also. He signed with Golden State where by default he will be the hardest working player. Since they fired Nellie as their "Coach" they might be good. Kidding. Will not be good. But the bench will reek of run less with Nellie gone.

Goran is back! El Dragon attempted to grow a mustache over the summer. But the results were fairly embarrassing, and also represented Slovenia at the FIBA Worlds. Yes, Slovenia has enough athletes to field a team.

Tonight MPSteve has his 30 for 30 documentary on ESPN. Am assuming it will make me bawl like a baby.

And you can read about Kurt Warner's DWTS here.

Good to be back.

I Heart Tyler and Taylor...

Tyler Farrar won the last stage of the Vuetla a Espana over Cavendish!! Cav ended up winning the green jersey, but not with out some crying.
Taylor Martinez, or T-Magic as we all like to call him, is fast, too. He might be the savior of Husker football.

Tyler Farrar is Fast!!!

How fast, you ask? Faster then everyone else in Spain today!! Yeah him!! Tyler passed Cav at the finish.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL!!!

I haven't been this excited for football in a few seasons, but Bo's got me all geared up!

Not sure why, since we are losing the best defensive player in all of college last year, and our offense gives me no reason to believe we will be be any better than the anemic version we saw last year. But blindly optimistic, I am, nonetheless.

I also yearn for the crisp football Saturday weather, too. This sauna where I live is kind of getting on my nerves.

GBR

Adios Big XII

-boo

And now for a little soccer fun...

I just can't get enough of the Icelandic Soccer celebrations.

Post Tour

I was going to do a post on all my thoughts of the Tour, blah, blah, blah, then I stumbled on a little more info on the Jens crash, which explains this. And then there was more Jens videos. Oh Jens.
My only regret for this tour, besides not enough Jens, was that I didn't get to mention Lars "here comes the" Boom.

Oh Alberto,

you were suppose to put minutes into Andy on the time trial. Will this now be known as the Unchained Tour?
Ryder did really well, moving up to 7th, but that won't be without some questions as well.
File this under another unusual Dave Z interview. There's a lot in that file.
-Star

Col du Tourmalet

Andy and Al made the rest of the peloton look like they had tassels at the end of their handle bars and a basket in front. They are so the top 2 riders in this years Tour. And given a chance the sheep could have totally taken them down. Why do the sheep in France look a lot like goats?

Carlos Sastre did a hell of a impression of Jens Voigt today. And I do have to agree with him, the Tour is a bike race, not a bike ride.

Riders that impressed me today (besides the A's):
Sammy Sanchez - I totally thought he was having a heart attack, but he just crashed and had the wind knocked out of him, and then finishes in the 5.
Chris Horner - Jumped all the way into the top 10 in the GC.

Chris is a happy dude. Last year's Tour of California. Just hangin' in the parking lot.

The winner doesn't always have the best salute across the line.
Jens, Jens, Jens, I had to watch this a couple of times. Good stuff.
-Star