Thanksgiving in Kentucky

So for Thanksgiving I flew into Louisville, KY for Thanksgiving with all of the Reese's. This was my first chance to meet all of Sarah's family and considering the wedding is the next weekend, the pressure was on. Luckily for me she has an awesome family. They are all really laid back, cool people who are easy to get along with. Sarah and I both flew in late Wednesday night and stayed through Sunday. On Thursday morning, the Reese family has a tradition that everyone runs a 2.5 miles Turkey Trot around their block. I put in the old college effort and came is a distance second place to Sarah's sister Caitlin. Next year I may have to actually train and I MIGHT be able to close the gap a little.

For dinner Michelle Reese maid like 8 turkeys (smoked, cajun, regular...) and had a spread of food that could feed an army. By the end of the weekend I probably gained 5 pounds.

Saturday night Sarah and I took off by ourselves and went down town Louisville for "Light up Louisville" which is an event where they light the town Christmas tree and have a bunch of bands playing holiday music. It was cold as crap but really cool to see all the lights.

Penitente Peak

So this weekend Sarah flew into Albuquerque, and since we hadn't gone hiking together in a while, we decided to throw together a trip to a local peak. Since three of us hiked in the Sandias the weekend before, I suggested we head up toward Santa Fe to do one of those peaks. Sarah and I have previously done Santa Fe Baldy, so we decided to hike Penitente Peak near the Santa Fe Ski Resort. We end up departing the trial head around 9:30am and start our 14 mile trek, with our dogs, Bella and Taboo in tow.

The trail starts out in a pine forest, but as you quickly gain altitude, the pines give way to aspen forests. Eventually we make it to the saddle between Santa Fe Baldy and Penitente Peak. After a short break we turn onto trail 251 and start the climb. The views from the top were incredible. There is a clear view of Lake peak to the south, Santa Fe Baldy to the North West, and far to the north you can see the Truchas Peaks and Pecos Baldy.

The trip down the mountain goes quickly and me make it back to the car at 4pm. All in all we did around 14 miles and 2500 ft of elevation gain. What was most impressive about this hike though was the energy level of Bella. Even carrying her backpack, she was constantly running ahead of us and then back again. She easily did well over 20 miles, all while carrying 2 liters of water. Pretty impressive for a 35 pound dog.

Here are the pics of Flickr.

A weekend in Abq

So I was left all alone this last weekend, since neither Sarah or I were traveling, so I was forced to entertain myself, which can often be disastrous. Luckily, Joe and Courtney stepped up and called me at the butt crack of dawn and asked if I wanted to do a short hike in the Sandias. They trail they picked travels through a clearing the runs north-south across North Sandia Mountain. Apparently they wanted to build a road from the peak to the town of Placitas, but the protesters got the better of the city and they cancelled the plans before the construction could start. The clearing has since started to fill in with Aspen, which thrive in the sunlight provided by the openness. The hike ended up being about 6 miles round trip, which was just perfect on a crisp autumn day.

On Sunday I had my last outdoor soccer game of the fall. We played a team that is at the top of the table, but we only had 10 people and they had like 15, so we spent most of the game on the defensive. Then in the second half Joe broke his ribs, again, and BJ broke his nose. If you're good with the math you'll notice that we are now down by 3 people, against the top team in our league. Luckily we have a stellar defense and we still held them to a 1-0 final score. Considering they usually win 3-0 against full teams, I was happy with my defenders.

Here are the flickr pics.