More Travel

It appears that even when I’m not racing, I am on the road all the time. I just got back from a short trip to the Grand Canyon. I met with a couple of friends from Germany who happen to be there on vacation right now. I spend the weekend up there, getting some nice riding in at 6000 ft. Weather was nice too but the nights where rather cold.

As you can’t go to the Grand Canyon and not hike a “little” to admire the scenery, my friends decided that it was time to ignore the warning signs that state that it is “absolutely not recommended” to hike down to the Colorado river and back in one day. So we set out and pretty much walked for the better part of 6 hours; turns out that this is just as strenuous as (or even worse than) base mile riding and provides a good workout: my legs, back and shoulders are pretty sore today… Nevertheless, we made it down to the river and, after a short swim, back up. The views were absolutely incredible and the whole canyon looks totally different from down there. It was definitely worth the effort!

As a nice side effect, I am absolutely fed up with hiking now and am really looking forward to get back on my bike. I hope that my road bike finally shows up tomorrow so that I can get back to work. In the meantime, I’ll just sit back, recover and let the experience and impressions from yesterday sink in some more.