Marc's Public Blog

Except for the news crews outside





Oh, and this , I guess :)
(the pictures above are from this collection)

So, a few weeks ago, I had a really painful rollberblading experience , and had vouched to replace both the wheels and bearings (I honestly didn't know which ones were responsible for the aweful drag, but I didn't really care).
So, on my way through Big 5 yesterday, I picked up some ABEC 9 bearings (didn't even know it went that high), which is basicaly the highest rating for speed a low drag. At the same time, I bought some new 76cm wheels and made sure to get soft ones (78A instead of the usual 82-84A which last longer, work fine on smooth asphalt, but just don't work well on steven creek's trail, most of the trail is just too rough for hard wheels).
Anyway, I didn't push too hard initially because I wanted to be careful, especially downhill, but I noticed that I was already hitting my checkpoints with good times, and when I got to the end of the trail in 43:30-ish, I realized how far ahead I was, and ended up doing the whole trail (both ways) in 83:27, shattering my best time ever by a whole 6mn (or 53mn faster than with the bad wheels and bearings!!!), and I know I can even do better by pushing a bit more on the way there, and on a cooler day.
I can only say one thing: Whoa! (19km/h over 26km, and not much slower than what I did on my bike).
So, while the wheels and bearings cost more than my rollberblades when I bought them, I don't regret a single penny

Not counting the 5 accidents we saw on the road, one of them being the car right in front of us on the way to Tahoe, the trip went all right, thanks a lot to A.R. for doing the driving (we left some time before 06:00, so it was a bit gruesome)

The snow was almost good, the powder that had fallen and was falling during that day was nice and dry, but unfortunately it was too little compared to the hard icy crust under it. It's actually amazing I didn't hurt myself that day, since any fall was potentially going to be very painful (maybe that's why I went reasonably easy on jumps :)
Otherwise, I have A.R. a good tour of the spots that were worth seeing at Kirkwood, and he liked it. It's not a really huge domain, but there is still a lot to see, and a lot you can get to, especially if you know about the powder stashes

Too bad, because if you look at the snow, it seemed fine.

but then again, coverage had been greatly diminished in some areas


We considered staying a second day because it was going to snow some more, but finally decided against it because we both had some plans for sunday (never mind that it was all for naught in my case, but I won't go there), and we figured that it was not necessarily going to snow enough to make it a "can't miss powder day"

The kirkwood picts are here

Current Music: Scooter - 24 Carat Gold - She's The Sun
Current Mood: Mmhhh....

Getting up at 05:00, departure around 05:30, hopefully hitting Kirkwood by 9-ish, except that if we do get any snow, we'll be driving smack in the middle of it. Oh well, it's for a good cause :)

Sure, you could ask why I'm not leaving tonight and having a good night of sleep in South Lake Tahoe...

Weather.com seems to have settled as far as kirkwood weather is concerned for this weekend.
It won't be an epic weekend. For that matter, according to the national weather service forecast office , it may just even be traces of snow, no mention of how many inches or feet as they've done in the past, but it's still tempting...

Mmmh, I guess I need to find someone to go with, the conditions don't warrant me driving there by myself