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| Day 2, finally! Sorry I haven't posted this sooner, but now that I am home for the break, you can expect all of the next installments of our amazing bike adventure blog!
Day 2:
The plan for Day 2 was to bike from Confluence to Cumberland, MD, 63 miles. It would be the shortest but most uphill day.
The forecast for the day 2 morning was rain, so we didn't want to get started too early and end up wet all day. Sure enough, it was raining when we woke up, so we took our time to eat 2 boxes of macaroni and cheese and the rest of the pretty gross dried-out, seedy, clementines we had gotten the night before. This left one box of macaroni and cheese and a stick of butter remaining, which for some reason we decided to pack and carry with us. It just seemed too delicious to waste. I also spent a fair part of the morning scrubbing the hose of my camelback with scorching hot water so that I wouldn't have to keep thinking about that bird poop every time I took a drink. This was the day that Jason and Patrick would be leaving from Pittsburgh, and while we were biking a paltry 63 miles, they would be doing the full 130 miles to the same end destination, Cumberland Gap in Maryland. The rain let up eventually, and we took off at about 9:30. We knew that Jason and Patrick had been planning to leave at 5:00 a.m. or so, so we calculated that if they could go 15 miles/hour, they would reach Confluence in only 4 hours or so, and could theoretically have already passed us. However, we knew that with the rain, it was unlikely that they made it in only 4 hours, and maybe they didn't start right at 5, so we were left wondering how close they might be and when they would pass us.
Here we are, well-rested and chipper at 9:30 a.m., leaving our cute little trailer. Nate had an actual helmet cover, but his shoe covers were from the lab. I had actual shoe covers, but my helmet cover was a shower cap. Even though it had stopped raining, you can see how gray the sky is, and we wanted to be waterproofed because the air was extremely moist and a little bit spitty still.
The biking was slow-going. First of all, we had more steep uphill this day than any other day. Here is the elevation map of the whole trip (though keep in mind that the y-axis is in feet and the x-axis is in miles). On day 2 we were traveling from Confluence to Cumberland, so we knew to expect about 40 miles of uphill followed by about 20 miles of downhill. We planned to stop for lunch near the top of the uphill so that the hard part of the day would be over.
The other reason the biking was slow-going was that the ground had been rained on, and the consistency was that of wet sand. It was much harder to pedal, and our bikes quickly became encrusted with the wet crushed gravel -- it stuck in all the gears, it sprayed up from Ryan's tires into my face, it sprayed up from all of our tires onto our bags and backs. Combined with the uphill, it made for a terrible riding surface, and Nate quickly began lamenting having brought his 500 pound backpack. Here we are at 10:30 after only 10 miles. You can see me and Nate are already feeling the strain.
Ryan is fine of course, even though he's carrying both of our stuff. You can see the path behind him, which looks deceptively easy and pleasant.
We realized looking ahead that our 10 mile stop was right next to the Pinkerton Tunnel, which is a closed tunnel that apparently has sustained 1 million dollars in "freeze" damage and is no longer safe. Instead we would have to take a detour around the tunnel.
Looking ahead to the tunnel from our 10 mile rest, and then arriving there at 10:45.
Never being one to go the long way or keep it safe, Ryan thought that maybe we could just go through the tunnel anyway. We found a way around the side of the gate that a person could fit through, maybe even with a bike. Ryan went to explore. When he entered the tunnel, I swear a million bats started flapping around, and their wings were making that creepy, flappy, echo-y sound. Ryan says they were birds, but I'm still imagining they were bats. Ryan started walking through staying close to the edge where there was no evidence of the ceiling falling in, although the ground was super soft and wet, and his feet were sinking in. I already knew there was no way I was going through this tunnel. This was confirmed when I thought he was almost to the other side, and it turned out he was only 1/4 or 1/3 of the way through (I found out the tunnel is apparently 800 feet long). At that point, the ground along the edges was full of little ponds and rivers, and the only drier ground was the soft stuff in the middle, under the falling rock. Ryan was creeped out enough at this point that instead of continuing on alone, he tried to convince Nate to come in with him. I guess that way when the roof caved in, maybe one of them would avoid being crushed and would be able to save the other one? I don't know. But Nate wasn't going in, so Ryan came back.
Even Ryan was comfortable taking the detour after his creepy foray into the tunnel.
An hour later, at 11:45, we reached our 20 mile rest spot. We found a nice little gazebo to sit in. We were pretty coated in dirt and mud already, as were our bikes and bike gears, and I was pooped.
Ryan still looks fine. You will notice that he is also wearing the lab shoe covers.
We must have slowed down at this point, because We didn't reach our 30 mile rest until 1:05 or so.
Nate
Ryan, still fine!
Also, that rest stop was in a cemetery:
Finally, finally, finally we reached Meyersdale, our lunch stop near the top of the hill! Of course, this time we had to go way downhill to get to lunch, and way back uphill to get back to the trail after lunch. We explored the town a little bit before settling on Subway as our lunch destination at 1:45. I actually wanted to go to the restaurant next door, and it looked cheery and nice inside, but the sad truth was that we were far too dirty even to be eating at Subway. As we rode through the town, I was thinking to myself that it might not be such a bad place to quit. I didn't know how much more of the uphill sludge I could take, but of course lunch revived me somewhat, and afterwards I continued on, knowing that there would be a big downhill ahead.
Hungry!
Ryan is still smiling!
In fact, I was so dirty that I actually left a pile of dirt in the seat when I stood up. I promise I did my best to clean up after myself!
Now, Meyersdale seems to kind of advertise itself as being the top of the peak, and it's the last town listed on the elevation map before the peak, but the truth is, there were about 9 more miles of grueling wet uphill before we reached the actual peak. During this time, Nate and I were in pretty low spirits, and I think Ryan was too since I kept forcing us to go really slowly. I was starting to decide that the trip was too hard, and if I could just make it through the second day, I would have accomplished something! It was 3:10 when we finally made it up the hill. We had not yet seen Patrick and Jason pass us, and we kept wondering if maybe they had passed us on our lunch break.
The top of the peak was more rewarding than I had hoped! First of all, there was a big sign announcing that we had reached the Continental Divide. Water on the West side goes to the Gulf of Mexico, and on the East side, it goes to the Chesapeake Bay. This sign really made me feel like I had reached a special destination that had made the last five and half hours worth it.
This may be the first time Nate smiled.
The next reason it was awesome, is that we got to then ride through a big lighted tunnel, the Big Savage Tunnel, that is only for bikers and hikers -- no cars. It was such a good change of pace, like we were finally getting somewhere, and it was super long at 3,300 feet!
Then, making it even better, when we got to the other side of the tunnel, it was like being in some kind of mystical fairy land. It was quiet and extremely foggy, and we were super high up with what would have been an amazing view if not for the fog, which instead made it feel like we had just biked into a cloud. I tried to make a facial expression to show my amazement, although maybe I look more slack-jawed and tired here:
That's better!
Now we knew at this point that there would be a downhill, but it was already 3:30 when we reached the end of the tunnel, and so we only had about an hour and a half of daylight to make it the next 25 miles or so. We were worried too that the "downhill" we had psyched ourselves up for was going to be barely detectable. When we had done training rides, for example, the way back was supposed to be downhill but felt basically flat. We hadn't wanted to get too excited. But the trail after the tunnel was more than we had even dreamed! The surface of the trail changed to a harder faster one when we hit Maryland, and the hill was undeniable -- we got going faster and faster up to about 18-19 mph and could sustain the high speeds while taking breaks from pedaling -- it was an honest-to-God hill! And a hill that was 20 miles long! If you know the exhilaration of coasting down a hill on a bike, you can only imagine how it must have felt to do that for 20 miles after pushing through uphill went sand for 6 hours. We were giddy. We were laughing and almost a little delirious, and we eventually noticed that we were the only ones making tracks in the trail surface, so it didn't seem like Jason and Patrick had passed us. This also made us very happy -- not because somehow beating them when they had to go 130 miles would be an accomplishment, but because if THEY beat US, it would be a little bit sad.
We rested an hour later at 4:20, and you can see we are actually having fun now!
Our bikes were still very dirty!
We actually reached Cumberland at 5:00. It was a cute little town and we found our way to the hotel just as it started getting dark. We were absolutely thrilled.
We had no idea what we were going to do with our dirty bikes though, until we got to the hotel and Ryan found a hose on the side of the hotel. Could it get any better than this?!
Before we had even checked in, Jason and Patrick arrived, so we were glad to see them safe and alive and arriving just *after* us. Perfect. And I have to tell you, I have never imagined someone could get this dirty on a bike.
Patrick:
That night I attempted to do our laundry, but Patrick and Jason's clothes were actually so dirty, that my, Nate's, and Ryan's clothes came out of the washer dirtier than they were when they went in. Oh well. We ate dinner at the hotel that night because Patrick told us we needed to eat the right kind of food like pasta and protein, not fatty food like pizza. We all agreed and pretended to be healthy until our orders were brought to the table and we discovered that 4 out of 5 of us had ordered the fried food sampler platter in addition to our "healthy" meals. Mmmmmmm. Later that night, after much argument about who would sleep where due to snoring concerns, Erika and Matt showed up. Matt would be joining us for the rest of the bike ride, and Erika was our angel of a team captain who drove our conference bags to DC, made us sandwiches, and generally helped us the rest of the time when we were mentally not all there. More on that in the next installments!
Day 2 complete!
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| Day 1, 67 miles:
Day 1:
The night before we left, Pittsburgh looked like a horror movie. Ominous breezes swept through the evening air, the silhouettes of bare trees rose into the sky, and the crows came. Thousands of dark crows swarmed the sky, filled the trees, and broke the otherwise silent night with the hushed pitter patter sound of their poop landing everywhere. Ryan packed the car in these treacherous conditions, and the next morning we awoke to the foreboding din of thousands of crows all cawing their farewell to us. It did occur to me that this might be some kind of sign telling me I was going to die.
The first night, Ryan, Nate, and I would be on our own, so we had to bring anything we needed on our bikes. Ryan had saddlebags and a regular back bag for his bike, so we filled our bags with clean clothes for the next day, something to wear around the place we’d be staying, some toiletries, power bars and gu (or other concentrated electrolyte gels), and bike supplies like a spare tire tube and tool. We were amazed at how easily we could fit everything we wanted to bring, and I wouldn’t even have to ride with a bag on my bike, closing the gap in our skills a bit. We left the house a little before 8 a.m., and went to pick up Reed, who would be driving our car home, and Nate. Nate emerged from his house with a backpack that was stuffed so full that he looked like one of those nerds in high school who walked around with all 17 of his textbooks packed into his bag at all times, stretching the backpack into a big hard square. We couldn’t believe he was actually planning to ride the whole first and second day with this backpack on, but I guess that helped close the gap to my slowness as well.
We had all agreed to rule out the unnecessary dotted line portion of the trail, and instead started in Boston, PA, which greeted us with this helpful sign:
We ate some McDonald’s breakfast, took our last minute bathroom trips and as we got ready to take off, I discovered that the crows had left me one final departure gift -- a huge blob of sticky crow poop right on the tube that carries water from my camelback into my mouth. Thank goodness it wasn’t on the mouthpiece itself, but I had a hard time shaking the image of that poop from my mind every time I took a drink for the rest of the day. GROSS!!!!!
pre-departure:
Reed waved us off and we began our journey at 9:45 a.m.. Our plan for the trip was to take a break every 10 miles to get off our bikes and stretch or maybe have a snack and take pictures of each other with our iPhones. At 40 miles we would take a lunch break in Connellsville. At 67 miles we would reach our destination, Confluence. The plan worked great. The day was pleasant, and the 10 mile breaks were perfect timing for a rest. We made sure to shift our grips a lot and stretch our backs while riding, and I diligently did the leg stretches my PT had recommended at each stop.
Mile 10 (10:35 a.m.)
Mile 20 (11:25 a.m.)
Here, I think I’m making a “20” with my fingers, but am actually making an “02”.
Mile 30 (12:25 p.m.)
Mile 40 LUNCH! (2:00 p.m.)
For lunch, we rode into Connellsville. Nearby we found only places that were closed, so we used our handy iPhones to find food options. It looked like all of our best options were in one direction, so we headed that way, only to find it was a huge, steep hill. I rode part of the way up, but when it seemed to never end, with no food in sight, I decided to walk my bike. I thought that Nate was also walking his bike since he hadn’t passed me, but it turned out he was riding as slowly as I was walking. Up ahead, Ryan encountered some passers-by, walking their bikes down the hill. They asked him if we were biking to DC which Ryan confirmed. When Nate and I reached them, they asked the same. I confirmed, and they laughed “You gonna walk the whole way? You’ll never make it.” Finally we reached the top of the hill and went into a place called Merc’s for subs.
Although Merc’s doesn’t have a website, I did find an online review which sums it up nicely:
If you have never ate at Mercs then you don't know what you're missing. They have the best subs around. Their Philly Steak and Cheese is the best. The portions are huge! They don't skimp at all on the fillings. We always get ours with the extras, onions, green peppers and mushrooms. Fantastic! Oh, and don't forget to try their fries and onion rings. Watch what you order though, because their smalls are huge. Be ready to stuff yourself if you order larges. Good food, decent price. Worth what you pay!
Nate had declared he wanted subs instead of pizza because he didn’t want something greasy that would upset his stomach. However, when he asked what was good, they told him to get the philly cheese steak, and he did. As he ate it, he kept lamenting about this poor way of choosing what to order, and wondering why he had just agreed so readily. Ryan had the spiciest buffalo chicken sandwich ever, and I had an oddly constructed Italian sub that was like a boat full of shredded lettuce and a thin but dense layer of meats resting on top.
The man who we assume was Merc started talking to us about our trip, and Ryan, in an attempt to wrap up the conversation, told him he was worried that we weren’t going to make it by dark given that it was 2:30 and we only had 2 and a half hours to make it the final 27 miles of the day. Merc yelled after us as we left that when we can’t make it, we should call him and he’d come and get us. He even actually gave us his phone number at rapid speed as we tried to get quickly on our way. Too bad there would be no cell phone service or roads accessing the trail.
Nate and I were very hopeful that the height we had gained going up the hill could somehow be maintained as we hit the trail, especially because we knew that the next 10 miles started the real uphill portion of the day. So we continued a bit up the hill, and took another uphill road toward the trail. Ryan declared that unless it was a cliff down to the trail, he was going to carry the bikes. Well, it was a cliff. We turned around and tried a different route which was a fast, fun, but worrisome downhill bendy road. We reached the trail again, but this time, saw the trail was a bridge looming over us, up a very steep leaf-covered hill. Ryan was ready to move on though, so he announced that he was going to carry our bikes up the hill and get going on the trail. I didn’t even think I could hike up the hill without my bike it was so steep, and I skeptically just stood there. Nate decided just to continue down the road to see what would happen. He remembered that he thought there was somewhere where a road joined up with the trail, and maybe this was it. I followed Nate, so Ryan was forced to come along, and luckily, Nate was right and the road eventually joined up to the trail with a reasonable hill to walk up.
This was our whole Merc's detour, with elevation:
The next 10 miles were the hardest, as they were the most uphill, and we were definitely starting to get tired by mile 50. However, 50 miles with breaks and lunch was still much better than the 55 mile training ride we had done before. We soldiered on.
Mile 50 (3:30)
Our 50 mile stop had this useful message on the picnic table:
A few miles after we passed the 50 mile mark, we reached a spot familiar from our training ride. You had to cross a street, and there were some short posts and a stop sign, and somehow on the training ride I had chosen the wrong path between posts and slid off the trail and almost hit a sign, barely catching myself from falling. As we neared the spot, Ryan excitedly said “Look! It’s Jessica’s spot!” Nate started laughing and said sarcastically “Yeah! How could you have fallen here?”. Then he promptly fell. It was the best comedic timing ever, and even though he seemed hurt, I could not stop laughing. He was laughing too, but his laughs were interspersed with sounds of actual pain. He had gone off the trail a little, and then this cement part was covered in leaves so he couldn’t see it and skimmed it with his bike. It really kept me going for the next few miles too. I’d just think about it and laugh.
Mile 60 (4:45)
Mile 67 (5:30)
As we neared the end, it started to get dark, and we had to turn on our bike lights for the last couple of miles. Finally we arrived in Confluence, our final destination for the day, at about 5:30 p.m.. We had assumed we could look up the location of where we were staying using our phones, but there was no cell phone service. Instead we wandered around the dark, empty “town” on our bikes, until we found the address Ryan knew was the owner’s, whom we needed to pay. Luckily the town is extremely small.
Confluence, PA:
Confluence has a few B&B’s, but they were all closed for the season, so I guess the place we were staying could be considered just a B. It was called “That Dam Yough House”. Yough is pronounced “Yok” as in the Youghiogheny River which is one of the confluencing rivers of Confluence. However, we weren’t staying in the actual house, but a trailer off to the side. We asked how to get to the house and what the address was, and the owners told us they weren’t sure what the address was, but that we’d see it and it was a big cedar house, and that we’d just go up the driveway and see the trailer on the right, and it would be really easy to spot. So sure enough, we found the house in the dark and now starting to drizzle a bit night, but the area next to it was full of what could be described as little trailers or mobile homes. We thought we could guess which one it was, so Ryan and Nate slowly opened the door to the trailer. They tried the light switch, but it didn’t work. Nate started asking into the dark silence “Hello? Hello? Anybody here?” I was totally unsure about whether that was the right house, so I just stayed outside on my bike. Also, I’m the type of person who is very scared by horror movies, so when Nate pointed out that this was like the beginning of one, I was content to wait. That idea even scared Ryan a little, and it took some extreme bravery to venture into the house far enough to find a working light switch. However, once the lights were on, we were pleasantly surprised by an adorable little house which we had all to ourselves for the night. There were two bedrooms and two bathrooms, a washer and dryer, a kitchen, and a living room. It was bright and cheery and clean and perfect.
Ryan ventured out again to find out about food, discovering that everything was going to close within the hour. We could either go to a little restaurant or get food at the food mart. Nate was adamant that we should get macaroni and cheese, and that we should get 6 boxes of it for the 3 of us, so we did. And between dinner and breakfast, we ate 5 of them. Yes, macaroni and cheese is a great pre-biking breakfast. We washed our dirty clothes, and would have curled up for bed if it weren’t for the fact that I had this grading assignment I had put off until the last minute -- it was due that night at midnight. However, I had counted on at least having PHONE service! Alas, there was no phone service in the whole town. Ryan asked at the food mart where you could get a cell phone signal, and the employee responded with the location of a street corner where you could sometimes get enough signal to make a call. The night ended with me grading by hand onto tiny pads of paper I found in the house, Ryan dictating these over the land line to his sister and then Reed, and Reed typing them and entering them into the computer where they needed to be submitted. (Thanks Erin and Reed!!!!) This is a very typical Jessica ending to a day. Finally, after all was well with grading, Ryan and I went to bed a little after midnight.
Day 1 overview of whole trip:
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| How I got myself into this...
The Society for Neuroscience conference this year was in Washington, DC. Somebody in Ryan’s office apparently half jokingly suggested that they could ride their bikes to the conference along the trail which runs all the way between the 2 cities. Ryan, being Ryan, thought this was actually a good idea, and proceeded to tell me that they (him, Jason, Matt, Nate, and Patrick) were thinking of biking to DC, and suggested I could drive their bags to the conference. Me, being me, indignantly asked if he was assuming that I wouldn’t be biking with them. And that’s how Ryan and I somehow ended up 320 miles away from home, on our bikes, covered in mud and bruises.
Training...
Having never ridden my bicycle more than about 2 miles at a time, back and forth from work, I wasn’t sure how I was going to bike all the way to Washington, DC. But there was plenty of time to train, so we started a strict training regimen. Stage 1 of training consisted of talking about how we should be going on long bike rides together after work. This “talking about biking” stage was rigorous and consistent, and lasted for a couple of months. We talked about many long bike rides during this time, as well as when we should take them or should have taken them, and what they might have been like. Eventually we reached Stage 2 of the training, biking. Stage 2 consisted of the following training rides:
1) A 12 mile bike ride to the Waterfront and back one Saturday, with a nice shopping and ice cream break in the middle.
2) A 16 mile ride in which we attempted to figure out where to go for the dotted-line, incomplete portion of the trail. Dragging Reed and Erika with us, this ride included walking our bikes along train tracks, night time on the skinniest sidewalk on the busiest road, carrying our bikes up a large staircase, and riding over a crumbling bridge blocked by huge construction signs we had to climb through in the pitch dark. Here is the warning from the trail website which we should have heeded: The trail is complete to McKeesport, but not to Pittsburgh. The nine mile gap to the Pittsburgh city limits is under development; no date for completion can be given. Road-riding around this gap is difficult, even for experienced riders. We strongly recommend shuttling between McKeesport and Pittsburgh. Stay tuned for updates on our progress in building this most difficult section of the entire trail system.
3) A 25 mile “miscommunication” bike ride along the trail. The weekend of this ride, Ryan and I had a confusing conversation in which he implied that I might try to back out of the ride by being too tired, and I thought that sounded ridiculous since of course I wanted to enjoy a lovely day together on our bikes. On this ride, I discovered that I wasn’t allowed to stop, needed to try to learn to draft, and had to take water breaks on the bike without getting off. It was as if it was supposed to be some kind of preparation for some kind of actual athletic challenge ahead of us, and I was not entirely happy.
4) A 20 mile bike ride at the CNBC retreat near Ohiopyle, one of the areas we’d be going through on the ride. On this ride, I learned the importance of wearing protective eyewear, as Jason’s bike tires catapulted lots of tiny little rocks into my face. Ryan was not on this ride, but the fall leaves were amazing.
5) A 42 mile bike ride with Patrick. While the other fast people (Jason and Matt) went ahead, Patrick kept me company, proclaiming “I just like to ride my bike.” He also proclaimed other things, like that he was going to poop shape animals while riding, and I had to guess what they were. This ride felt quite long to me, and I was so happy to be fed tons of dinner by my dear friends when I got home, despite the fact that I had eaten many bugs already on the trail. After this day, I was confident I could do the necessary mileage each day for the trip, I just wasn’t sure about going so many days in a row.
Scenery:
Patrick:
Me and Jason:
6) A 55 mile ride on the trail with Ryan and Nate. Again, the faster riders went ahead to do some kind of insane 90 mile ride while Ryan and Nate and I stuck to a shorter 55 mile one. However, this day was cold, it was the first day in my new clipless shoes and pedals, it was windy, and generally I felt terrible. We did an uphill portion of the trail that would take us to Confluence, where we planned to spend the first night. By the halfway point where we turned around, I was already in much discomfort, with numb feet and hands, tired legs, a sore back and bottom... With 15 miles left, I was crying on my bike and didn’t think I could make it back. This is when I learned that there are sometimes no options but to keep going -- unless I was going to walk my bike without a light in the dark woods for 15 miles, I was going to keep riding home. And I did. However, I was no longer confident that I could successfully complete any of the actual trip days.
Stage 3 of the preparations was shopping. We bought camelbacks, clipless pedals and bike shoes, shorts with a padded chamois thing in them, handlebar ends, gloves, glasses, a jacket for me, leg warmers, a new helmet for me, socks, crazy covers for the bike shoes so air and water doesn't stream through in the cold, and more. This was my favorite part of training.
    
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| Remember when I was an extra in that Kevin Smith movie and there was a really annoying full-of-herself extra who apparently found it "humbling" to be among the extras? Well the extra I made friends with, Brandi, was an extra in another movie, and there she was again. But this time Brandi found out that she is David Lee Roth's daughter. I guess that explains it? I found this article, which pretty much sums up what I thought about her after the whole experience:
This week, Bloomington, Indiana (David Lee Roth's place of birth) is celebrating The Dark Carnival horror film festival. One of the scheduled guests, B-grade horror star Brenna Lee Roth, made an appearance at Bloomington's Plan9 Film Emporium to plug her new role in Troma's lastest horror film, Poultrygeist.
Honestly, I was pretty unaware of this whole event. I went to Plan9 to rent a movie, not to greet Brenna Lee Roth. (D-list celebs aren't my thing.) While I was walking around, Brenna was handing out cover-art postcards of herself from the film. She mentioned my alma-mater, Franklin College, so I turned over in her direction to listen to what she was saying. Someone mentioned she should hand me a postcard, and she responded LOUDLY with “Oh no, I don't want to give him one. HE CAN'T EVEN WALK RIGHT.” Thanks bitch, it's called cerebral palsy. You think I don't know already? Thanks for humiliating me.
As if that weren't awkward enough, there was a long pause where everyone in the store was silent. Unfortunately, I was so stunned at the moment, and just left. I couldn't think of anything to say with everyone staring. It's not like I get that kind of rudeness from people often.
So, Brenna Lee Roth, I hate you.
Sources:
Me, first-hand experience
Brenna's MySpace
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| Last weekend, I took a trip up to Vermont to visit one of Ryan's lifelong friends, Brian, who's at Dartmouth. Our plan was to visit and take advantage of the last snowboarding weekend of the season at Killington, a ski mountain in VT. It also happened to be the weekend of their pond skim. I had never heard of a pond skim before, but it's apparently a common spring skiing or last weekend of skiing activity at many different mountains. They dig out a chest deep trench that's maybe 50 feet long, fill it with water, and have a contest where people try to get up enough speed coming down a hill that they can skim across the top of the water and make it out the other side. People are all crazy and wear funny costumes to do it, they play music and announce you as you head down the hill, and the give prizes to the best skim, best fall, best costume, etc.
I was doubting whether this sounded like something that I wanted to do. On the one hand, any kind of crazy silliness ESPECIALLY involving COSTUMES is right up my alley. Nothing screams Jessica like that kind of event. On the other hand, anyone who knows me knows that I consider 73 degree water freezing cold, so it's unclear how I would fare splashing down in water that is *actually* cold. And it's not like I would expect to make it across. But as I discussed this with Michal, she matter-of-factly reminded me, "eh, you only live once." So pond-skimming it would be. Saturday came and the weather turned out to be sunny and warmish, the mountain was a pleasant wet slushiness, and I had a blast snowboarding. We practiced for the pond skim on a naturally occuring puddle, and even though I didn't make it across that, getting my boots wet wasn't so bad. Sunday was the day of the actual pond skim. Somehow, the temperature dropped to 30 degrees, the "pond" was covered in a thin layer of ice, all the slushy mountain froze over into the iciest conditions I'd ever been in, and it started to snow. Meanwhile, I had come equipped with my shorts tankini made of neoprene (1mm), a swim cap, mardi gras beads, and swim goggles. I was starting to think that maybe if the cutoff happened before we registered, it wouldn't be such a big disappointment. It's one thing when it's kind of warm out, but when it's snowing?? But when we registered, they were only halfway to the cutoff, so I was definitely getting to go. We got our official numbers, and it turned out it was only an hour until the skim. We decided to take one run down the mountain to prepare ourselves. This is when I started really freaking out. It was so icy, and I was really scared that I would fall on the way down the hill, BEFORE the pond, and look like a complete idiot. Plus I wouldn't be wearing my helmet or wrist guards. I was definitely having second thoughts, but I had to keep thinking, you only live once!
I changed into my outfit and came out into the lodge in my somewhat small outfit, and people told me I was either very brave or crazy. I would like to think brave, so I'm going to go with that. Ryan wore his swim trunks and an awesome crossing-guard type orange mesh top, Brian dressed like Mugatu (or some combo of Mugatu and some of his other Halloween costumes), and his friend Christine who got roped in at the last minute wore some of her ski clothes. We hiked up the hill with all the other people, and it was so icy it was hard even just to sit up there without slipping down. I was sitting on my pants and covering myself with my jacket to stay warm until it was my turn, and I decided to also wear my gloves on the way down. We watched from the top as person after person splashed down into the water. I actually somehow got less nervous and more psyched up. Ryan went first and had a spectacular go at it, splashing down probably more than halfway across. Then a couple of pre-teen girls went together, and their strategy was to go down slow, stop, take off their boards, and then run into the water. To me, that took even more guts than falling! Then my turn came, and I took it a little slow so I wouldn't fall, actually got part of the way across, and then fell in. It was SO COLD. But I couldn't stop smiling -- you can see how much I'm laughing in all the pictures. It was one of the most fun things I've ever done, and I'm proud that I stood up to the cold and showed it who was boss. Brian came SO CLOSE to making it. And Christine had the best fall, losing a ski to the pond which had to be fished out later when they drained it. Ryan found someone's mom to use our camera and take video of us. You can hear people commenting on how I'm going to slow in mine :)
Links to video!
Starting off okay
Still looks like I might have a chance
Brian as Mugatu
Christine splashing down
Ryan "safety first" Kelly (someone says this about his outfit in the video)
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