Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are presently in Ontario, Canada spending some time with Jill's family over the holidays. Be safe and enjoy some time with the ones that count!

Camp Elke

These last few weeks have just flown by out here at Camp Elke in Durango. I can hardly believe we are off to Moab on Sunday. It feels like we just got here. Elke has been awesome. The amount of quality time she has put into correcting a lifetime of bad habits is going to make all the difference in the world. Now all I have to do is survive the next 16 weeks of training until the 1st WORLD CUP in Vigo.

It has been a crazy few weeks of “CNS” training as well with the local crowd. Most weekends (and far too many weekdays) have started with a few local brews and ended 3 beers later (it’s the altitude I think) with “penguin” competitions and getting 86’d from one of the city parking lots! Apparently the money-collector wielding a monkey wrench didn’t think it was funny when I told him I would be back later to remove the wheel clamp off our DD’s truck with a hack saw! Either way, I think I will make it out of Durango relatively quietly.

Elke, Peanut (little Jack Russell) and Noodles (the cat) have all been wonderful hosts. Peanut especially with his morning wake up kisses and cuddles. Not to mention the endless hours of barking at the local deer family that hangs out right outside the window. Noodles has been a slightly different host-peeing in most of Ellie’s duffle bags and making a habit of biting both Jill and I. Ellie has done our best to improve our culinary skills, especially when it comes to Mexican Food. She has been nice to my British stomach too and kept most of the chilies away from me.

We are heading to Moab Sunday to hang out with Michael and Wink, the brains behind my long time sponsors Zeal Optics. Then it is up to Canada to enjoy the Holiday Season before training officially starts January 1st.

We finally arrived here in Durango after 3 wicked days of travelling all over the Four Corners. We packed as much as we could into the 3 days and saw the Hover Dam, Grand Canyon, Painted Desert, Natural Bridges, Monument Valley and Mesa Verde. The views have been incredible every minute of the trip and the stars have been so bright at night!

We planned on camping our first night up on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, but both Jill and I were a bit jetlagged and ended up spending the night sleeping in the back of the rental car at a gas station. It was so cold....snowed overnight and everything, so it is probably a good thing we weren't at the full 7500 feet of elevation which is the South Rim. The Canyon was wicked! If it hadn't of been so cold up at the top, we probably would have spent the entire day there. However, the wind was ripping up there and we were both wearing every bit of clothing we had, so we decided to head out to check out more of the sites.

Throughout our journey we saw a total of 2 mountain goats, 5 Coyotes, and a heard of Elk! It has been a pretty incredible trip! Mesa Verde was really cool too with all the old cliff dwellings and excavated sand huts from the natives dating from 1 AD to about 1300 AD. We took a hike with a Ranger into one and it was quite the experience being inside one of these primative cave dwellings.

We are now safely at Elke's and training starts today. I am definately looking forward to it (although not the cold rides and runs in the snow)!