NITERIDER NICAD

To know more about Nite Rider, click on the above title to the link.

The NiteRider NiCad (nickel cadmium) battery I ordered on Monday, January 16, came yesterday. Nite Rider is headquartered in San Diego. Whenever I need something, they have always come through in the clutch. Thanks guys and gals at NiteRider!

This battery can get you in trouble at the airport, because Transportation Security Administration personnel have mistakenly identified it as a bomb. If you were the TSA and saw this flash before your screen, you would be alarmed, too.

SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES?

I couldn't help but notice words inside my REI Traverse pack that I use for my cycling commutes. Amazing what phrases were inside...

God's cathedral is the forest.
The road to heaven is a trail.
Open your ears to the silence.
Climb the peaks within yourself.
The best camera is your memory.
I am a sherpa.
Animals were here before you.
Reach the top.
Make the bottom.
Wind tumbles down.
Move like a glacier.
Carry no burden.
Life begins at the trailhead.
Just about halfway.
You can always take one step more.
Switchbacks keep me rising.
Home is where you pitch it.
Reality is for those that can't deal with nature.
Peaks scratch the sky.

There are more phrases, but I ain't tearing apart my pack to find out. Maybe when it is very worn and frazzled.

It is amazing what you can discover every day.

WILDERNESS PERMIT APPLICATION

Click on the above title to view the form. For any enthusiasts out there planning to hike to the highest in the lower 48 states, feel free to print and fill in and follow the instrucions on the application and good luck.

The groundwork for another dayhike summit attempt of the 14,497 foot Mt. Whitney is in the planning and development stages.

Target date is Wednesday, August 9, 2006. Second choice is Thursday, August 10. Third choice is Tuesday, August 1. The rest will be random weekday dates for August, followed by September, then August weekend dates, and then September weekend dates. About four pages of the application will be filled out and sent after midnight on Wednesday, February 1.

All applications must be received between February 1 through February 14. The lottery will be held Wednesday, February 15. Anyone entering the Whitney Zone the cost is $15.00 per person. You can pay by credit card or personal check. Just watch for any "hits" on your statement. A "hit" means YOU ARE A GO!

The permit will be mailed to:
Wilderness Permit Office
351 Pacu Lane, Suite 200
Bishop, CA 93514
Fax 760-873-2484

One of my co-workers, Horacio, is coordinating the event. I am the team leader.

Me (August 6, 2004; July 12, 2005; August 5, 2005)
Greg
Anthony
Horacio
Garv
Jonathan (August 5, 2005)
Kelly (Horacio's girlfriend)

Besides Jonathan and me, the rest will be trying to summit for the first time. Garv has tried twice and failed. The rest are not experienced hikers, but that will change over the course of the next few months. A vast majority of our training will be at Mt. Baldy with at least one or two hikes scheduled to the top of San Bernardino Peak (10,649). They don't know what their training schedule is like, but they will! Oh, they will!

If I can do it, they can do it.

A TALE OF SIX BOYS

I received this email from one of my friends, Kandy. I pass this on for all to read:

Each year I am hired to go to Washington, DC, with the eighth grade class from Clinton, WI. where I grew up, to videotape their trip. I greatly enjoy visiting our nation's capitol, and each year I take some special memories back with me. This fall's trip was especially memorable.

On the last night of our trip, we stopped at the Iwo Jima memorial. This memorial is the largest bronze statue in the world and depicts one of the most famous photographs in history -- that of the six brave soldiers raising the American Flag at the top of a rocky hill on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan, during WW II.

Over one hundred students and chaperones piled off the buses and headed towards the memorial. I noticed a solitary figure at the base of the statue, and as I got closer he asked, "Where are you guys from?"

I told him that we were fromWisconsin.

"Hey, I'm a cheese head, too! Come gather around, Cheese heads, and I will tell you a story."

James Bradley just happened to be in Washington, DC, to speak at the memorial the following day. He was there that night to say good night to his dad, who has since passed away. He was just about to leave when he saw the buses pull up. I videotaped him as he spoke to us, and received his permission to share what he said from my videotape. It is one thing to tour the incredible monuments filled with history in Washington, D.C., but it is quite another to get the kind of insight we received that night.)

When all had gathered around, he reverently began to speak.

Here are his words that night:

"My name is James Bradley and I'm from Antigo,Wisconsin. My dad is on that statue, and I just wrote a book called "Flags of Our Fathers" which is #5 on the New York Times Best Seller list right now. It is the story of the six boys you see behind me.

"Six boys raised the flag. The first guy putting the pole in the ground is Harlon Block. Harlon was an all-state football player. He enlisted in the Marine Corps with all the senior members of his football team. They were off to play another type of game -- a game called "War." But it didn't turn out to be a game.

"Harlon, at the age of 21, died with his intestines in his hands. I don't say that to gross you out, I say that because there are people who stand in front of this statue and talk about the glory of war. You guys need to know that most of the boys in Iwo Jima were 17, 18, and 19 years old.

(He pointed to the statue) "You see this next guy? That's Rene Gagnon fromNew Hampshire. If you took Rene's helmet off at the moment this photo was taken and looked in the webbing of that helmet, you would find a photograph... a photograph of his girlfriend. Rene put that in there for protection because he was scared. He was 18 years old. Boys won the battle of Iwo Jima. Boys. Not old men.

"The next guy here, the third guy in this tableau, was Sergeant Mike Strank. Mike is my hero. He was the hero of all these guys. They called him the "old man" because he was so old. He was already 24. When Mike would motivate his boys in training camp, he didn't say, 'Let's go kill some Japanese' or 'Let's die for our country.' He knew he was talking to little boys. Instead he would say, 'You do what I say, and I'll get you home to your mothers.'

"The last guy on this side of the statue is Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian from Arizona. Ira Hayes walked off Iwo Jima. He went into the White House with my dad. President Truman told him, 'You're a hero.' He told reporters, 'How can I feel like a hero when 250 of my buddies hit the island with me and only 27 of us walked off alive?'

"So you take your class at school, 250 of you spending a year together having fun, doing everything together. Then all 250 of you hit the beach, but only 27 of your classmates walk off alive. That was Ira Hayes. He had images of horror in his mind. Ira Hayes died dead drunk, face down at the age of 32 -- ten years after this picture was taken.

"The next guy, going around the statue, is Franklin Sousley from Hilltop,Kentucky. A fun-lovin' hillbilly boy. His best friend, who is now 70, told me, 'Yeah, you know, we took two cows up on the porch of the Hilltop General Store. Then we strung wire across the stairs so the cows couldn't get down. Then we fed them Epsom salts. Those cows crapped all night. Yes, he was a fun-lovin' hillbilly boy.

"Franklin died on Iwo Jima at the age of 19. When the telegram came to tell his mother that he was dead, it went to the Hilltop General Store. A barefoot boy ran that telegram up to his mother's farm. The neighbors could hear her scream all night and into the morning. The neighbors lived a quarter of a mile away.

"The next guy, as we continue to go around the statue, is my dad, John Bradley from Antigo,Wisconsin, where I was raised. My dad lived until 1994, but he would never give interviews. When Walter Cronkite's producers, or the New York Times would call, we were trained as little kids to say, 'No, I'm sorry, sir, my dad's not here. He is in Canada fishing. No, there is no phone there, sir. No, we don't know when he is coming back.'

"My dad never fished or even went to Canada. Usually, he was sitting there right at the table eating his Campbell's soup. But we had to tell the press that he was out fishing. He didn't want to talk to the press.

"You see, my dad didn't see himself as a hero. Everyone thinks these guys are heroes, 'cause they are in a photo and on a monument. My dad knew better. He was a medic (Navy corpsman). John Bradley from Wisconsin was a caregiver. In Iwo Jima he probably held over 200 boys as they died. And when boys died inIwo Jima, they writhed and screamed in pain.

"When I was a little boy, my third grade teacher told me that my dad was a hero. When I went home and told my dad that, he looked at me and said, 'I want you always to remember that the heroes of Iwo Jima are the guys who did not come back. Did NOT come back.'

"So that's the story about six nice young boys. Three died on Iwo Jima, and three came back as national heroes. Overall, 7,000 boys died on Iwo Jima in the worst battle in the history of the Marine Corps.

"My voice is giving out, so I will end here. Thank you for your time."

Suddenly, the monument wasn't just a big old piece of metal with a flag sticking out of the top. It came to life before our eyes with the heartfelt words of a son who did indeed have a father who was a hero. Maybe not a hero for the reasons most people would believe, but a hero nonetheless.

We need to remember that God created this vast and glorious world for us to live in, freely, but also at great sacrifice. Let us never forget from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism and all the wars in-between that sacrifice was made for our freedom. Remember to pray praises for this great country of ours and also pray for those still in murderous unrest around the world. STOP and thank God for being alive and being free at someone else's sacrifice.
God Bless You and God BlessAmerica.

REMINDER: Everyday that you can wake up free, it's going to be a great day.

The Clint Eastwood directed movie, "Flags of Our Fathers," is scheduled for release August 2006.

SOLD?

Signed paperwork for a possible sale of the "shoebox."

iPOD

My 30GB iPod is great! I wanted to get a Nano, but Circuit City was out of stock and an urgency of need outweighed the wait. For $50 more, I figured why not get the 30GB.

Just where am I going to find 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos, and 75 hours of video? CDs I have and maybe that's only 800-900 songs. I do have some DVDs, so I will download two to see how it goes. I will download "Silence of the Lambs" (A census taker tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti. Th-th-th-th-th!) and "Touching the Void" (SIMON!).
Photos? I have plenty of those on CDs, too.

I asked the Circuit City associate all kinds of questions. I am not much of a techno-geek, but I am working on it. I used their no interest plan and I got a few accessories. They also threw in $15 of music to download from iTunes. At 99 cents a pop, I am going to make my list of hard-to-get-songs. A vast majority of my music CDs are "best of" or "greatest hits" so I am pretty much covered.

I went to the Apple Store at Fashion Island to get a Speck Tough Skin Case since Circuit City didn't have any at any of their stores. It has a belt clip and I figure that is good enough for me.

I will use my iPod for use during those moments when I want to rock my brains out listening to Metallica or relax listening to the sounds of Japanese classical music.

Use while running, biking or hiking? Never! I intend to keep "in tune" with what is around me.

Besides...

Wouldn't be prudent.

AND THE RAIN CAME DOWN

First major storm of the new year. Heavy rain, gusty winds, and SNOW!

I have been monitoring San Gorgonio Backcountry Bulletin Board. Avalanche conditions will be a major concern during the upcoming winter season.

I will be waiting for more snow and get my permits for either South Fork, San Bernardino Peak or Vivian Creek trails.

2005: A YEAR IN REVIEW

Hiking/running totals: 718.48 miles / 303 hours 52 minutes 54 seconds.

Commute cycling totals: 2,222.96 miles / 145 hours 28 minutes 7 seconds.
Ride days: 137
Non-ride ("wasted") days: 95Weekend/recreational cycling totals: 42.19 miles / 3 hours 8 minutes 48 seconds
Overall ride total: 2,265.15 miles / 148 hours 36 minutes 55 seconds


Pushups: 66,100
Crunches: 119,000
Pullups: 1,310
Bardips: 1,310


Summits for 2005 (elevations in feet):San Gabriel Peak (6,161) -- Red Box Station, ODC, January 29
Rocky Peak (2,714) -- Hummingbird Trail, ODC, March 13
Sunset Peak (5,796) -- Mt. Baldy Village, ODC, March 19
Bedford Peak (3,800) -- Silverado Motorway, ODC, March 26
Bald Peak (3,947) -- Silverado Motorway ODC, March 26
Modjeska Peak (5,496) -- Silverado Motorway, ODC, March 26
Tahquitz Peak (8,828) -- South Ridge Trail, ODC, April 17
Strawberry Peak (6,164) -- Red Box Station, ODC, April 22
Thunder Mountain (8,587) -- Manker Flats-San Antonio Road, ODC, May 14
Timber Mountain (8,303) -- Ice House Canyon, ODC, June 5
Mt. San Antonio (10,064) -- Baldy Bowl-Devil's Backbone-San Antonio Road, ODC, June 25
Mt. Whitney (14,497) -- Mt. Whitney Trail, ODC, July 12
Mt. Whitney (14,497) -- Mt. Whitney Trail, ODC & TFG, August 5
San Bernardino Peak (10,649) -- San Bernardino Peak Trail, August 13
Mt. San Antonio (10,064) -- Baldy Bowl-Devil's Backbone-San Antonio Road, ODC, August 20
Bertha Peak (8,201) -- Cougar Crest Trail (Big Bear), ODC, September 4
Mt. San Antonio (10,064) -- Baldy Bowl Trail, Solo, October 22
Los Pinos Peak (4,510) -- East Horsethief Trail, ODC, November 19

Almanac:January 6: First ride day of the year (16.52 miles / 1:06:34)
January 18: 30,000 cycling commute miles since working at TFG.
January 19: I get a FasTrak transponder. No more fumbling for quarters on the tollways.
January 23: Pulled my left calf and right hamstring in a co-ed softball game. Two limp gimp.
January 26: My sixth year at TFG.
January 29: First summit of San Gabriel Peak (6,161)

February 13: Led my first ODC hike at Crystal Cove State Park. The muddiest ODC hike ever!

March 26: First summits of Modjeska Peak (5,496), Bedford Peak (3,800), Bald Peak (3,947).

April 14: One thousand miles cycling commute.

May 4: "Blogging" for the first time.
May 14: First summit of Thunder Mountain (8,587).

June 5: First summit of Timber Mountain (8,303).
June 13: Unsuccessful Whitney summit. Hyperextended right knee.

July 1: Vivian Creek trail opens after months of logging.
July 12: Second Whitney dayhike summit with ODC members Tonya, Joe, and Adrienne. Their first summit on their first attempt. 22 miles in 13 hours 46 minutes.
July 28: Chemotherapy over. Onward to the next switchback.

August 5: Third Whitney dayhike summit with ODC member Cisco (first summit first try), and friend, Joe (third summit) , and co-workers Garv and Jonathan (first summit first try). 22 miles in 14 hours 27 minutes.
August 13: First summit of San Bernardino Peak (10,649).

September 1: Mandatory Settlement Conference. Divorce final. Time to move on.
September 4: First summit of Bertha Peak (8,201).
September 8: 100th bike commute day.

October 15: The "shoebox" goes up for sale with an asking price of $519,000.
October 22: First solo summit of Mt. San Antonio (10,064) via Baldy Bowl Trail.

November 11: Two thousand commute miles. Egads! Seven months to ride 1,000 miles?
November 14: The "shoebox" drops to $499,000.
November 19: First summit of Los Pinos Peak (4,510). Easy scramble!
November 23-27: Walking in a Whitney Wonderland. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!
November 27: The back goes out trying to repair a vacuum. Go figure!

December 7: Ex-wife "proposes" to pay me $2,000 to move out by January 15. Not! NUTS!
December 8: Sciatica. The back and now this!
December 10: The "shoebox" goes down in price to $485,000.
December 18: The "shoebox" gets a bid for $485,000.
December 25: Another Christmas come and gone.
December 28: Broke the 2,200 mile barrier in cycling commute.
December 29: Signed paperwork for a bid of $475,000 on the shoebox. Counter offers to follow.
December 31: I buy an iPod. Thank you, Mom and Dad! My parents still spoil me so at my ripe age! The one that stores 7500 songs. Jeesh! I don't know that many songs!

And that's the way it was for me in 2005.

I was lucky. There are many of you out there who know of people who lost loved ones and were displaced by the recent hurricanes. I cannot imagine losing my home, my business, my job as well as my worldly possessions and having to evacuate and to live in a strange city without knowing where I will be living next. My heart and prayers go out to those families.

Natural disasters and wars take their toll. We grieve, but we must continue with our lives. Yes, it has been hard for all of us.

I always say to people, "If I can do it, you can do it." We have to pull ourselves up from our despair and continue to live and breathe another day and appreciate all that surrounds us.

Well, damned if we do and damned if we don't. Well, damnit, let's do it!

May your 2006 be a wonderful year. My resolutions? Have fun, ride more, hike more, run more, help others, etc.

In other words...

Carry on and be myself.