Sedona, Mountain Man Tri and a little green guy

In an effort to catch up on our summer adventures, I have combined a trip to Sedona, a triathlon in Flagstaff and a visitor to our casita.

Adrian tore is ACL back in May in the last 10 minutes of soccer practice. That pretty much ended his soccer league career for the season.

He was unable to keep off his knee for long and within a few weeks had started excising again. He focused on swimming and biking and figured why not sign up for the Mountain Man Triathlon, which I had planned on participating in months before.

We headed up to Flagstaff for the weekend and stayed with our good friends Meghan and Craig -- also known as the Craigen.

The Olympic distance course started in the Lake Mary reservoir and the bike and run was along Lake Mary Road. The bike was hillier than expected, but I managed to shave about 15 minutes off my Wildflower bike time back in May.

Adrian kicked ass - especially on the run - and finished about 30 minutes before me. Adrian finished the 1,500-km swim, 25-mile bike, and 6-mile run in 2 hours 42 minutes. I finished in 3 hours 19 minutes.

After the tri, we left for Sedona. Here are some photos of Sedona and later when we returned home, this toad snuck his way into the house.

Hello, Old Friend

Damn. It's been awhile.

Life, as it always does, kept right on with its gifts and sneaky tricks. I just managed to avoid to jot it down these past few months.

Which brings me to today and the sudden inspiration to share.

I'm not going to try and catch you all up in one long-winded Faulkneresque blog post. But you can all look forward to some photos and snippets in the coming days.

In short, Adrian and I are still in Tucson. We haven't completely eradicated the travel and adventure bug from our hearts or minds. And that can make life in the "real world" semi-complicated and quite honestly, boring.

But we're survivors. To cope with the horrible conditions of having jobs, we've turned our attention to mini-adventures, namely races, hikes, climbing and a few jaunts out West.

There is still a little bit of vagabond in us - possibly to the chagrin of the parentals. We've settled in nicely to our 500-square-foot casita situated amongst the horse stalls and within view of the house I grew up in.

It sounds more primitive than it is. Unless you consider the parade of ants that have plagued us this summer or the gopher that somehow managed to chew through the ceiling at 3 a.m. last month. Ahhh. The wonders of duct tape.

Kirsten Tri's Wildflower

Kirsten finishes!!! So cool and I'm so proud. This was a great event. We camped near Paso Robles (read, good wine country) at the event with about 5,000 other athletes. Being the photographer and not the athlete allowed me many luxuries I'd otherwise not be afforded. It was fun, but next time I'm competing.

Looking strong 3:30 into the event.

The work crew was awesome. Kudos to all their hard work.

The 10k run begins.

Out of T2 in good style.

Starting the bike.

Kirsten out of T1.

Kirsten into T1.

The start. It's a wave start, so they start in waves of about 30 athletes every 3 minutes.

The swim officials ride paddle boards.

Photographers line the course, snapping away at the triathletes. I try and compete with the best of them but it's hard. They take really good shots. This spectator business is tough stuff.

Kirsten gets marked for the start of the race.

This chick was flying but most everyone passed her.

This is it. The swim start.

OK, so this trip starts out with a stop in Joshua Tree National Park. We hiked, bouldered and soloed some stuff. We even met Squeak, from NH, who hiked the PCT southbound last year. We met her in Sisters, OR., and of course Kirsten recognized her....spooky. She was laying down on a rock in our campsite when we rolled in; I thought she was a nymph, K recognized her as PCT hiker. The pic below was taken at sunset from the top of some rocks in the Hidden Valley Campground.

Pepper Sauce Revisited

This is how we looked coming out of the cave. Notice how clean K is compared to me. The difference? I sweat...alot! This cave is not cool, rather it is very humid. We went through very tight passages, climbed vertical walls and descended mud cliffs with fixed ropes.

This time wee made it all the way to the very end of the cave. There, we found a register, not unlike those that are found on many mountain summits. We read the posts of people that came before us and left our own words. I descended into what is called Hell's Hole. It is a 2 foot wide passage that drops vertically into the abyss. I dropped down as far as I could and did not see the bottom. I assume it continued to...

Shades of Nagawicka

Our summer residence is on Lake Nagawicka. Of course, we can't afford to live there in summer, but it is our residence in summer (and spring, fall, winter), even if it is rented out to others :)

I love this shot.

Fossil Creek, AZ

Fossil Creek is located in north-central Arizona near the towns of Payson and Strawberry. The creek originates from springs that gush out a million gallons per hour! We hiked to the source but were thwarted by high water and a washed out trail. The area was very crowded being Memorial Day weekend. Even though, we managed to camp creekside with great swimming. The water was perfect. Our friend Craig was stung by a white scorpian 4 times! It crawled up his pants while sitting next to the fire and started going off on his calf. Turns out scorps are not that bad and you are fine even if stung 4 times. He drove up to the top of the rim tp get cell coverage and call poison control to get that info. Good to know...

The Payson area is also home to one of the hardest 50 mile runs in the country called the Zane Grey Highline Trail 50, held in late April. The trail traverses the famous Mogollon Rim.

Bouldering in Joshua Tree National Park - Aiguille de Joshua Tree

A fun little route in the Park. Rated 5.6 X.