So we went on a bike ride today about an hour North of town (near the lovely golf course we go to, but sadly haven't been to since early October). The mountains in the distance are basically where we went.

Whoever built the road we biked wanted it done quickly, I guess, as the road was as short up the mountain as it could possibly be, meaning short switch backs and lung explodingly and leg liquifyingly steep. But beautiful nonetheless. We thought we were going on a long loop, but never did find the way to the loop. And, in mountains, it's never smart to take a road down where you don't know where it will end up, because you could come out in a different valley miles from your car.

So we basically did an up and back. The up, as it turned out, was a long walk for most of us. Probably 70% of the time 6 of the 7 of us were pushing our bikes and gasping for air. Our friend Jon, however, was a machine, and pedalled his way all the way to the top with a couple rest stops thrown in there to wait for us slowpokes.