On Saturday, June 26th was the Great Urban Race's stop in Madison. This is basically a two-person team event (our team was myself and my lovely wife Jess) that is a scavenger hunt around the downtown Madison area. You can only use your feet or public transportation (aka a bus in a city like Madison) so there would be lots of hiking, running and learning to take a bus. I haven't been on a Madison bus since 1998 (and that was a bus that ran for free to curb drunken driving at 2am on the UW-Madison campus) and I have ran once this whole year...we were in for an adventure! The top 25 teams qualify for nationals in Las Vegas. We arrived at 11:30am for the noon start and soon realized that this was going to be hard. It was already in the mid-80s and humid out and we saw so many teams, I estimate around 300. Our friends Kendra and Jess also had a team so we agreed to team up when we got the clue sheet.
The clue sheet: Basically it was a sheet with 12 clues on it. We could skip one clue of our choice. You get the sheet when you start and you can try to figure them all out right away. There is no set order that you have to accomplish the clues as part of the sport was figuring out the best and most efficient route for doing the race. Knowing bus times and locations and being able to run fast and far were a definite advantage we didn't have. Here is a run down of the clues:
1. Go To Tenney Park beach and act out an improv skit judged by someone in the Monkey Business Institute
2. Head to the restaurant that claims "we're serious about fun food" and eat a delicious treat (Bluphies)
3. We had to find a mystery word by answering trivia like who the mayor is, the state tree, etc., which one phone call to Riz and some googling later turned out to be Wandos.
4. Buy a pet toy somewhere and donate it to the humane society in front of the Barrymore theater
5. Head to Wingra Boats and use a paddle boat to go out in the lake, head around a buoy and come back
6. A scramble (NISOCEN NOTANI) led us to Sconnie Nation store and we had to watch a 4 minute movie and answer 3 trivia questions about it.
7. At 115 State St (Ian's Pizza) we had to do an over the head pizza dough twirl
8. At Library Mall we had to do a circus activity
9. We had to play Tic Tac Toe and get three in a row of activities, almost all required a photo: honk a stranger's car horn, all teammates in front of a cow (real or fake), a penny from 87-90, shaking a dog's paw, stranger with 2 or more visible tattoos, single piece of fruit, pretending to dive into a real fountain, a job application, high-fiving someone in uniform.
10. Jess figured out a riddle that had us taking a photo of us in front of a street sign that had a double letter.
11. A word search got us to Tenney Park where we spun around a bat 8 times and then ran the bases
12. At certain GPS coordinates we had to eat an entire jalepeno pepper, ended up being Tex Tubbs Atwood.
Here we are with the clues planning out our route with the team Ooh Shiny.
The game plan quickly became, head to Atwood to hit the Barrymore and Tex Tubbs. We didn't have a bus map so we figured if a bus came down Willy we'd get on it. We ended up running/speed walking almost 2 miles to get to the Barrymore with one stop at a pet store to get a cat toy and one stop at the Russell St. sign for our photo.
It was then decided that Jess and Kendra wanted to go at a little more casual pace so we parted ways. We hit Tex Tubbs for the jalepeno pepper and Jess ate half and was burning. I took the other half and chewed once or twice and swallowed it.
We both felt like crap, Jess with a burning mouth and myself with a burning stomach. A gatorade and a Clif Bar helped stabalize the pepper as we headed towards Tenney. At Tenney a tattooed guy was fishing so we got the photo for tic-tac-toe. 
We did the dizzy bat challenge and headed to the beach. There we had to act out things with an ice scraper and talk about what we were doing without saying it. Our scraper was a bat and a tug-o-war rope and something else. 
We then waited 5 minutes for a bus to go downtown, the east side was done. Sweet, sweet air conditioning!!!
It was then decided that Jess and Kendra wanted to go at a little more casual pace so we parted ways. We hit Tex Tubbs for the jalepeno pepper and Jess ate half and was burning. I took the other half and chewed once or twice and swallowed it. We both felt like crap, Jess with a burning mouth and myself with a burning stomach. A gatorade and a Clif Bar helped stabalize the pepper as we headed towards Tenney. At Tenney a tattooed guy was fishing so we got the photo for tic-tac-toe. We did the dizzy bat challenge and headed to the beach. There we had to act out things with an ice scraper and talk about what we were doing without saying it. Our scraper was a bat and a tug-o-war rope and something else. We then waited 5 minutes for a bus to go downtown, the east side was done. Sweet, sweet air conditioning!!!
We got to State St and knew Ian's pizza was a block away so we did that between transfers. Dough spinning was fun! 
The buses were way behind, we probably could've knocked out all of State St at that point but oh well. We got on an already overcrowded bus to head west to Monroe St. Every stop had tons of teams waiting and eventually the bus was full and teams couldn't get on. It was insane how packed the bus was and they probably could've had a second bus equally as packed. I felt bad for the dozen or so people who weren't racing that Madison Metro didn't pick up either but what can you do? It took forever to get to Monroe St and then it was a mad dash to Wingra boats. We beat many of the teams from the bus and only had to wait about 3 minutes to get on the boat (Jess personally beat about 5 teams by filling out the waiver faster.) 
The boat took only about 3 minutes then the mad dash to Bluphies. Yummy, a cookie dough egg roll had to be fed from one teammate to another. Took an extra for energy. At this point the bus stop in front of Bluphies was packed. So we walked a block up the street to avoid that crowd. Soon that bus stop was packed so we went one more block and other teams followed. At this point someone was walking a dog so we got a photo of me shaking a dog's (Olie) paw.
A great move as some of the teams that waited at Bluphies couldn't get on the bus and we had our dog photo. This bus driver flew and before we knew it we were on campus.
The buses were way behind, we probably could've knocked out all of State St at that point but oh well. We got on an already overcrowded bus to head west to Monroe St. Every stop had tons of teams waiting and eventually the bus was full and teams couldn't get on. It was insane how packed the bus was and they probably could've had a second bus equally as packed. I felt bad for the dozen or so people who weren't racing that Madison Metro didn't pick up either but what can you do? It took forever to get to Monroe St and then it was a mad dash to Wingra boats. We beat many of the teams from the bus and only had to wait about 3 minutes to get on the boat (Jess personally beat about 5 teams by filling out the waiver faster.) The boat took only about 3 minutes then the mad dash to Bluphies. Yummy, a cookie dough egg roll had to be fed from one teammate to another. Took an extra for energy. At this point the bus stop in front of Bluphies was packed. So we walked a block up the street to avoid that crowd. Soon that bus stop was packed so we went one more block and other teams followed. At this point someone was walking a dog so we got a photo of me shaking a dog's (Olie) paw. A great move as some of the teams that waited at Bluphies couldn't get on the bus and we had our dog photo. This bus driver flew and before we knew it we were on campus.We got off at Sellery Hall so we could buy a piece of fruit at the Madison Market (kiwi) and head to Library Mall. I pretty much stopped taking photos at this point as we just wanted to get done and there wasn't much in the way of exciting on these last 3 stops. We had our choice of circus acts but one was getting 6 juggles in with 3 balls. Did that on the first try. Here we had two left, Sconnie Nation and Wandos and only had to do 1. At this point it was certain we weren't even in the top 100 teams so we decided to do both just in case we messed something up and to get the full experience. Wandos we had to throw a ping pong ball into a fish bowl. Jess nailed it on try #2. We also had to find a Bud Light beer cap. No one had one so I bought a Bud Light. $4 for a bottle in the afternoon? I slammed the Bud Light and we headed to Sconnie Nation and finished up the course. We pretty much had a 1 mile hike to the end and we even opted to skip the bus that was loading right in front of us, which was a bummer. We get a block from the finish and see the bus dump off 8-10 teams, all of who finished ahead of us then. Oh well, we ended up 70th place out of 211 finishers (and 267 total teams who started.) Perhaps next year we might have to train and try a little harder, we did alot better than I though. I was also happy that Ooh Shiny did end up finishing, 7 minutes before the cut-off. Wasn't sure if there were going to make it but they recovered nicely!
We then had to check in and thank god we did all 12 events because at Bluphies we did eat the egg roll but forgot to bring a flyer from it so that ended up being the one we skipped. The official results list that we recieved a penalty but that isn't true as no time was added so not sure where that came from. Since we finished at 3:30, had to go pick up Nina and be in Blue Mounds by 5pm, we really didn't stick around (saw the end of the US's World Cup loss at various stops). We made it to Blue Mound by about 5:15 for a cookout and movie night at Irbys which was the perfect recovery for a tough day.
I made it my goal to hike the whole Dane County portion of the trail in 2010 so what better way than to knock out the 
Then we went back up through the woods and marshes of the state wildlife area. The birds were out in full force and there were lots of classic 
I turned my ankle a bit about a mile and a quarter from the lot but at this point we were moving pretty well so I kept rocking it! The last third of a mile was downhill so that helped and by 1:30 I was back at the parking lot, my car was all alone, here are the 
Only one thing could help me recover from a hike like this, a burrito. I opted for 
It was the single biggest burrito I've ever seen (besides a place trying to make an intentionally huge burrito) and it was delicious. They make their burritos pretty bland, almost like a cheesesteak with veggies and pico, so not really mexican but just all around awesome! 
2009 was a year of change, or at least setting the tones for future change. We were told in 2009 that we’d have a baby in 2010. 
I was also told in 2009 that my job was ending in 2010. So 2009 was a year of preparation for an almost new life in 2010. As of right now it appears we are heading for a C-section on February 11th. I also have my job until at least March 30th. So the 1st quarter of 2010 will be crazy.
Caches in 2009: 485 found, 1 placed (near Rice Lake.) We found caches of all size and shapes in all sorts of different places:
States I geocached in: 11 (Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Florida, Colorado and Pennsylvania) Jess didn’t get to cache in PA. This is our favorite cache ever, located near Ames, Iowa, a crazy night cache that was cold, hard and high! We basically had to find a shiny little reflective point with a flash light, head to it, then shine the light again to find the next one on a little trail. While a ladder was supposed to be required, I gave Jess the ultimate boost to tackle this one.
We also caches in 5 countries or territories: 5 (US, St. John, St Maarten, St Thomas, Bahamas)
and Breckenridge 32 which was actually 37) I weighed 12lbs more this new years than I did last new years. Played a lot of basketball, went downhill skiing and snowboarding (once) and swam twice. I then sold my wetsuit. Snowboarding on January 3rd, 2009: 
I summited 5 14ers this year and 
I attended 15 baseball games (9 home Brewers game, 2 Brewers/Cardinals games at St Louis, 1 game each at Kaufmann Field in Kansas City and Coors Field in Denver, an Iowa Cubs minor league game and a Madison Mallards game.) I even got to play triva at a Brewers game on the jumbotron and won me a sweet bat!!!
February we went on a cruise with 6 of our friends. 
It was the best and most memorable cruise yet! Bahamas, St Thomas, St John and St Maarten were all dominated including getting destroyed by a jet engine at Maho Beach, a once in a lifetime experience. Zip lining rocked!
June 2009 was a great month, we found out we were pregnant! A dream come true and a great start to the second half of the year!
In early September my grandmother Larson passed away. She’ll be greatly missed.
for a triple feature concert of my favorite bands (Silversun Pickups, Manchester Orchestra and Cage the Elephant)
October and November were rather tame months with work travel and house work but we did head to Chicago to cheer on our friend Kyle in the Urbanathalon 
and Jess created the best Halloween costume I’ve ever seen. 
We got an unseasonably warm fall/winter day and hit the Wollershiem winery with friends in late November.
December was all about family and friends. We had our annual Christmas party with some of our friends in addition to our work Christmas party. We celebrated Christmas all over the state with family. We even flew down to Florida for a week with my parents! Even rode the teathered hot air balloon over downtown Disney. 
Disney World and the beach both happened but took a back-seat to just relaxing and not being in the cold and spending time with family. From there we went to two Christmas Parties (one for work and one with friends) and then we celebrated Christmas 4 seperate times with family! It was a great time. 
Kyle is a pretty fit dude and we had been at elevation for a few days so he was up for the challenge. He set a pretty rippin' pace early that I struggled to keep up with (I pride myself on being average speed but all day long endurance) but eventually he leveled off and we were able to find a great pace we both could maintain for the duration of the hike. We made quick work of the mountain early passing everyone we saw and we hit the false summit (which isn't very false) in under an hour. 
I snapped a black and white shot back with one of my next conquests, Grays and Torreys in the background. Looking towards the sun caused a neat haze.
We also spotted mountain goats down the mountain towards the resevoir! First goats I've seen in my (5-7 14er climbs)
The last part of Quandary is steep and relentless but we were pretty sure we would have a clear summit and with no one else so we hauled up to the top passing the two people that were in front of us! And we were alone! Kyle's first 14er summit! 
And here's my summit shot too! Elbert and Massive are in the background, way back there! 
Summit certified!
And then a father/son combo from Chicago came up and took this photo for us! 
The view to the north was stunning. That's the upper part of McCullough gulch. 
Kyle was not afraid to live on the edge on the way down. The weather was beautiful! 
We saw no less than 500+ people accending on a perfect Thursday morning so glad we got there early. There was a school field trip, a group of maybe 50 people each with balloons to let fly at the summit to honor a friend who died exactly a year ago and loved climbing. Many retirees who didn't even care of they made the top, etc. Oh yeah and 6 non-people too! 
Some mountain goats! They were curious and probably looking for food and standing right in the trail! Too much fun! 
We kept making our way down the mountain and were to the treeline in no time. Going down is easier on the lungs but harder on the joints but we made it down with no injuries or falls so all was well! Here's me in standard warm weather Colorado climbing gear. 
The road back to Breck has a pull out to view Quandary. My camera viewed us and Quandary. What a fun day with a good friend, perfect weather and a nice sense of adventure!
We then met up with Hez and Jess and got our spelunking on. This was a pretty cool gold mine and freezing cold in there!
Jess and I went around Breck to find our favroite spot, a nice mountian stream with a little ropes course action!
And no blog post would be complete without the trip to Keystone. Because Jess was pregnant no biking for her so it was just Kyle and I again. Keystone is the single most fun you can have on a mountain bike as far as I've experienced. Shuttle up and then dozens of different routes down. The easy routes are some sweet flowy and rocky singletreack! Perfect! 
You can also opt for harder routes with drops, stunts and features. What to do, the double black diamond bypass or the triple black diamond corkscrew?
Why the corkscrew of course! It's hard to ride when you are shaking in fear but I had no choice but to not crash! 
Here is the finish (a reenactment) but it shows the whole thing. Pretty cool, I've missed seeing this stunt on previous trips so glad we saw it this time! 
Kyle liked bombing steep, rocky drops! This was just the start of a black diamond natural terrain trail with rocks, jumps, ledges and many successive drops. No problems! 
That pretty much catches you up on my Colorado Adventures for 2009. Thanks for reading!
