From Pedal for Paws to Bike the Barns

This summer I've been trying to get as much biking in as possible, especially since my main biking partner soon leaves town for a new job. I've been recruiting some new bikers though and having fun training with them for the fall. This September, I will be combining the biking and eating local efforts and riding in Bike the Barns. The ride supports the CSA coalition and specifically helps make fresh, local food more affordable for low income folks. In honor of the upcoming event, I have a bike-themed post. If you are interested in donating, see my donation page. Its a great cause!

Above, I took my bike with me for a dog sitting visit to Chicago to keep in shape before going on our first charity ride for the summer. Below are some snapshots of that ride: Pedal for Paws!! It raised money for a nearby humane society and most importantly was the right day, location, and length. We biked a little over 65 miles in Southwestern WI. It was hilly, tiring, and very beautiful. B and his roommate very kindly met us at the end for drinks and lunch. AND I won a giant stuff dog!!! What more could a girl want? See below:

A few days later I took a trip up to Lake Superior and the Apostle Islands with my mom. We did a little riding along with many fun things (photos to come later) and saw a few biking enthusiast sculptures, etc. The first two photos were taken outside of a local bike repair shop. The final is of our bikes as we stopped for some amazing ice cream.

Again, you can donate to bike the barns on my behalf here.

The Farmer's Market, Again

Despite my lack of recording it, I'm still endeavoring to eat local and frequent the farmer's market as much as possible this summer. My CSA is well underway, which has very much helped the eat-local effort and I've been eating lots of super healthy, tasty, in-season food. Unfortunately, I'm currently in PA doing a little summer camp teaching, so it is a few weeks of cafeteria food for me. A handy sign did tell me today that the veggies were local even in the cafeteria, so that is pretty awesome. (Also awesome/awful, in a less healthy way, the cafeteria has tons of forbidden indulgences on offer EVERY day!)

Even with the joys of all the soft serve I could desire after those local veggies, I'm still bummed to not be enjoying the summer and farmer's market, etc for a few weeks. So, here are a few more photos from before I left. I know that A) the first and third photo are a bit too similar. My other flower photos just didn't quite work and sometimes I feel self-conscious taking photos at the stands, so I'm going with them. and B) the sepia tone flowers are hardly original, but I still like them a lot. So...enjoy.

Day Five--Cross Country Adventure and Finis!

Slightly less than a year later, I've reached the final day of photos!! This is a long post, but I decided to leave the whole day as one post. It is a pretty awesome day with a lot of variety and even though there are a lot of photos here, I was actually pretty restrained in my picture-taking.

The first three are morning pictures of our campsite. As you can see, if I were really ambitious, I would piece some of them together for a panorama, but you'll just have to imagine that part. It was a very serene and quiet setting. During the evening some deer kept trying to join us for dinner, which even though disney movies suggest otherwise, is actually less than idyllic.

As shown in the previous day's photos, the campsite was at the lowest of a series of three lakes. On the last day, we cross-country (no trail) hiked to each of those lakes and then joined up with a trail to hike over Sawtooth pass and down the other side. Originally we were going to camp just on the other side, but we got there at a decent hour, so we decided to just hike out (which turned out to be a couple more miles than we thought, but they were gentle downhill miles so it was ok).

I didn't take any pictures between the first lake (Spring Lake) and the second (Cyclamen Lake) because I was busy adjusting to the whole off trail hiking thing. Cyclamen was amazing though! I love these big rocks and all the reflections, so I have a lot of photos here--complete with people showing you the huge scale of these rocks.

There was more cross-country to the next lake and I took a few pictures this time, mostly of the route scouts who proceeded ahead.

Above is looking back towards the lakes we have just left as we arrive on the plain of the third lake, Columbine. Below we are making our way to the lake which you can see sort of middle left. Below that are two pictures from Columbine's edge where we had lunch. It was nice and high with snow and everything.

Next we rejoined the trail and hiked up a pretty steep ascent. It was somewhere between exhausting and awesome with the wildflowers and snow (in the same picture even!!).

At the top finally! Below are views looking back to Columbine Lake, over to Sawtooth itself, and generally around from the top. We even ran into someone up there who had hiked up the other side (which did not look fun as it was a lot of shale covered trail). It was great going down the shale switchbacks though--fast and easy.

Our last lake stop--Monarch Lake. This was supposed to be our last campsite, but we arrived at a decent hour and it was pretty crowded, so we decided to just hike the last few miles out to the car. We booked it for most of it and were very tired when we got to the end, but it was a nice final hike.

Day Four--over the pass and to the lake

After the little side trip, we put our packs back on and hiked up and over another pass. It was a good climb, so we stopped for the views at the top of course, and a few along the way.

(Above) We'll be hiking to those lakes to the right later.

After this photo stop a little ways down, we hiked the rest of the way down the mountain and cross country across the meadow and then up a bit to the lake you can see in the photo above. I managed to get some dust in my eye though, so I was busy trying to see and didn't take any photos of that portion of the adventure. (For those tired of mountains, day five is the last day and then on to new subjects!)

Day Four Side Trip

The next morning we hiked up to Little Five Lakes and then left our packs at a campsite before taking a little extra detour down a trail and off trail to visit another lake.

Above, Little Five Lakes and the surrounding meadow. Below, the off trail adventure.