Another hockey game last night, and another loss added to our record. The good news is that I had another game without an injury. The sad thing is that if we would have played last week as well as we did this week, we would have easily won that game. The team we played last night is one of the better teams in the league, and we managed to go up on them 3-0 at the end of the first. However, we fell apart in the second period and let them tie it up at 3. In the third we started playing well again, but just couldn’t get the puck in the net. The opponent scored one additional goal toward the end of the game, and another empty-netter with under a minute left, to take the game 5-3. Only one more week and then it’s time for the playoffs. Hopefully we can turn it on and win a few games to finish this session out.

I finally played with my men’s hockey league team again last night after taking four weeks off for my re-injured ankle. Like I did after my other injuries, I had Kim tape it up real well and then made sure my skate was tied tight and not going to loosen up much as the game went on. I was a little hesitant, especially near the boards, but I was able to skate without much pain at all. I was pretty sore once the game was over, but I made it all the way through and even managed to get a goal and an assist, though the team still lost. We don’t have too many games left, so hopefully I can get a win before it’s all over, the team only has had one win and that was last week.

Kim participated in a volleyball tournament yesterday, along with the rest of her team and hundreds of others. I went along to watch the action and cheer on her team. It all started at eight in the morning and the park was literally filled with nets, over fifty nets I’m sure. And though I don’t think it was the most organized event ever, they did provide free beer for everyone. And not just any beer, they had keg after keg of Breckenridge brews. One of the highlights was trying their new SummerBright Ale, which has elements of both a wheat style beer and a pale ale. It was a great treat on a hot summer day.

Today is Denver’s official Bike to Work Day and both Kim and I decided to participate this year. Last night we mapped out a route and amazingly we stuck to it and had zero problems. We left the house around six this morning and anticipated it taking about an hour and a half to get to Kim’s office, a twelve mile ride. Along the route we stopped at a Panera Bread shop, one of the many locations around town that were providing food and drink for participants. Even with the stop for a bagel and coffee we still made it pretty close to our time goal.

Once I successfully accompanied Kim to her office, I decided to keep riding on toward my office. I originally thought about hopping on the light rail near her office, but the great weather and good ride convinced me to keep going. I battled even more hills than we encountered on the earlier section but still managed a pretty good pace all the way to work. In total my ride was about eighteen and a half miles and I walked in the door just shortly before nine.

Here’s my route:

We had quite an adventure over the weekend. After work on Friday we drove down toward Colorado Springs and then over toward Cañon City and just a bit past that to our campsite for the weekend. We were joining a group of close to 150 others with the primary goal of whitewater rafting Saturday morning and afternoon. Nothing terribly exciting happened the rest of Friday, but that was definitely made up for on Saturday.

I will admit that I was a bit nervous of the actual rafting for a few reasons. First, my ankle was injured a couple weeks ago and is not back to 100%, or even close really. Second, the Arkansas River is the highest it’s been in over ten years due to a huge snow pack that is now melting. Third, I had never rafted before and wasn’t really sure what I was getting into. Add this all on top of the fact that the original section we were supposed to raft, Royal Gorge, was closed due to the extreme conditions.

So instead of doing the Royal Gorge section, we did a section called Bighorn Sheep Canyon, which is typically rated at class II/III (out of six classes) but due to the conditions was more like III/IV. Our group of six was fortunate to be led by one of the owners of the company, who has been rafting the Arkansas for years. That’s not to say that all of their guides aren’t great, but I felt added comfort in knowing that we were in especially good hands.

The trip started off easy enough, as we learned the commands the guide would call out the rest of the day when going through more advanced rapids with names like Shark’s Tooth, Double Dip, and Kamikaze. The first big rapid we ran into was called Three Rock Falls, and our plan was to stay on the left side of the river to avoid the namesake three large rocks. But as I soon learned, not everything goes as planned and we actually ended on the far right side. Our guide said that we probably came the closest to flipping possible without actually going overboard.

From that point on the guide felt we were capable enough of having some fun and hitting some of the bigger stuff along the way. He said that sometimes he gets very timid groups who want to avoid everything possible, but our group was all for going after the big stuff. So the rest of the day was spent steering into the heart of the rapids and having a blast! We never lost anyone out of our boat, despite it slowly leaking air and taking on water at times. However, we did get to see three other boats flip and participated in the rescue of those sent swimming.

I really enjoyed rafting even more than I thought I would, had no problems with my ankle, and cannot wait until we can do it again. Since this year is such a good year to do so, perhaps we will take another trip later in the summer back to the Arkansas for round two. If we do, I will be sure to bring my camera even if I can’t take it on the boat. I regret not having any photos from our weekend this time, but will be on the lookout for other group members sharing theirs.

I thought I was completely past this, but I hurt my stupid ankle again last night. The culprit this time was hockey once again, but I didn’t even make it into the game. I was skating around the rink during warm-ups when I suddenly lost my edge when circling behind the net. I slid on my butt into the boards, and my foot actually hit a gap in the boards left by an open door. It didn’t hurt at first, but as I continued skating around I quickly realized that the damage was done. I wasn’t able to play a single shift in the game and I am back on crutches again today.

These injuries have been going on since last February, and I’m really sick of it. The only positive thing is that I’m working from home yet again. I really don’t want to go into the office on crutches, that seems like a huge pain. Keep your fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

Kim took a flight out to Utah this morning, and since I’m not joining her on this trip like I did last year, I decided to take my bike on the light rail with me this morning. Since I can only take the bike with me on days I’ll be using the light rail for both ways of the commute, I haven’t really done it too many times. However for my trip home today I’m considering skipping the train and biking the full 20+ miles home. I’ve mapped out a ride combining two bike trails to make it nearly all the way to our house. I’m just not sure if this is too much to do after work figuring that I’ll be in jeans and a polo shirt still. I guess it will depend on how I feel as the day nears its end.

Update: I only made it about half way before getting on a train for the rest of the ride. It was a little hotter out than I originally thought. Next time if I decide to do this I should be prepared with a change of clothes at least.

We had another game in our summer hockey league the other night, and once again another loss. That’s three in a row for those who haven’t been keeping track. Though it’s true that we are still learning to play as a team, I would have figured that some things would have started clicking by now. Many people are blaming it on our goalie, but besides our second game we’ve only scored one goal per game. If were going to win any games it’s almost guaranteed that we need to score more than once. Honestly, we looked as outplayed as the Penguins did against the Red Wings in the Stanley Cup finals, which ended last night with Detroit taking the cup back to “hockey town” once again.

Saturday we went out for a little bike ride that eventually took up most of our day. We headed out around 11 with a quick stop for some breakfast/lunch at Einstein Brothers. From there it was my goal to make it out to the Cherry Creek Reservoir and State Park by following the Cherry Creek trail. Along the way there we made a couple of quick stops at the Cherry Creek farmer’s market and later at the bike shop so we could get our bikes looked at and adjusted for the first time since buying them a couple of months ago.

Around 3:30 or so we finally made it out to the reservoir. I’ve often seen the dam walls that create the reservoir, but I had never actually seen the water before. I was surprised to find a fairly large sized body of water complete with a beach area, and a marina that offers rentals of all sorts. Now that we know this is so close to our house, we’ll definitely be back to enjoy it more often.

Now that we made it all the way out it was time to make the trip back. I wanted to mix it up though and take a route different than what we used to get there. I consulted a local bike map that I have to route us back along a few different streets and the Highland Canal trail. We only made one wrong move which probably added a couple of miles, but overall this route was just as enjoyable as the way out.

We stopped for a couple of drinks and dinner as we got closer to home at a place called Reiver’s, which is just on the opposite side of Wash Park from where we live. The menu was full of many good looking sandwiches, and the two we tried were definitely tasty. I’m sure we will head back that way in the future after a long bike ride or possibly just a short ride across the park.

Kim estimated our distance at thirty-two miles, and after mapping it out online she wasn’t too far off! The route I drew out measures at thirty and a half miles, and I think I got most of it pretty much exactly as we followed. I guess that would help explain why I’m fairly sore in the legs today. And I also have some pretty good sunburn on my upper arms and the tops of my knees. It was all worth it though, at least I think so.

Our second game of summer hockey went better than the first, but it still provided another loss for our team. This time it was just a 6-5 loss, and we easily could have won the game if we played the whole game like we did in the third period. I scored one of our five goals and likely should have had an assist or two. I’m sure once we all adjust to playing with each other we will start doing well. Hopefully some more things start clicking in our next game.