Mt. Baker, ColemanDeming

Our season opener was a ski/snowshoe climb of Mt. Baker. Snow blocked the road about 2 miles from the trailhead. Doug, Dan, Pete, Jim and Mark about to hit the trail.



The weather was warm and the snow was soft. Jim, Pete and Dan snowshoeing and skinning up to camp.






Mark skinning up the ski approach.






Our camp at 6,100'. Mt. Baker in the background.






Jim above Colfax Peak and Pumice Ridge.






Mark climbing the final 1,000'

Jim on the summit.

Doug on the summit

Mark about to ski from the summit to the road

Huge blocks of ice calving off of Colfax Peak






Jim almost back to the trailhead.

Now it's time to plan our next climb!

Affording Beautiful Bicycles... and Other Things You Love

Many people who are not "into" bikes consider the cost of a new lugged steel bicycle (such as a Pashley, Rivendell, etc.) to be much too high. I sometimes get comments such as "I love your bicycle! How lucky. Wish I could afford that." These comments leave me with mixed feelings. First, because I think the person could afford it, if they really considered it a priority. And second, because statements like those imply that I must be economically privileged compared to them - which is almost always untrue. If you love something that happens to be expensive and really wish to own it, there are ways to afford it. You just need to think creatively and be prepared to restructure your lifestyle. The goal of this post is not to give advice, but to describe my own experience - which I hope might be helpful to some.



For some years now, I have recognised that quality and aesthetics are extremely important to me, and that I enjoy owning, using and collecting certain things very much - to the extent that I am quite willing to sacrifice other things in my life to have them. What was necessary, I realised, was simply to identify those items or activities I would be willing to sacrifice. Perhaps there were all sorts of things I was including in my lifestyle out of habit that did not need to be there. If I could endure going without them, it would free up funds for the things I had always dreamed of. So these are the areas of my life where I save in order to afford the things I truly want:

1. Living arrangements: We live in a very small apartment. It often feels cramped, but the rent is low.

2. Television: We do not have cable and do not even own a television set. Does not bother us one bit.

3. Dining out: For me personally, eating in restaurants is just not all that enjoyable. Also, we hardly have the time!

4. Groceries: I know how to cook things from scratch. I learned early from my mother and I can do it quickly. This skill allows me to avoid buying prepared foods and frozen semi-prepared foods. Consequently, our grocery bills are low.

5. Alcohol: We aren't big drinkers, which further reduces the grocery bills.

6. Entertainment: Our preferred methods of entertainment tend to be either free (walking, cycling, looking at stuff) or to coincide with the things that we are already doing as part of work: going on photo-shoots together, browsing art stores, etc. We prefer these activities to movies and concerts.

7. Jewelry: I am not big on owning lots of jewelry. I am more like my grandmother, who had her one "signature set" of pearls and never wore anything else.

8. Shoes: Same goes for shoes. I know that women are supposed to love shoes, and I do - but for me this does not translate into wanting hundreds of pairs. I prefer to own only a few, in classic styles and of high quality.

9. Clothes:When I was younger, I used to be seriously into fashion and would buy clothes constantly. But sometime in my late 20s, something changed and I now prefer the "several mixable classic pieces" thing. It works, it looks good, it minimises the energy I put into getting dressed, and it just happens to save money.



10. Professional salon services: I like to cut my hair myself. I do go to the salon once every 10 weeks to get my colour brightened, but that is it. Lots of women I know go every 4 weeks for cut and colour, which really adds up. I stopped being interested in professional manicures or waxing services in my mid-twenties. And thankfully, I hate massages, spas and saunas.

11. Gym: No gym. No membership fees.

12. Personal care products: Many of us, especially women, own a huge amount of various face creams, body moisturisers and hair serums. I believe that using too many products is not only costly, but, more importantly, not good for you. A couple of years ago I vowed to minimise, and have.

13. Vehicles: We used to own two cars. Now we only own one and we drive it much less than we used to.



So that is my list of things I do not spend money on. The things I choose to spend money on instead include: an enormous library (really, you might be shocked to see how many books I own!), my beloved collection of fountain pens, my vintage photographic equipment, a top of the line laptop every few years, coffee (I am a hopeless addict), and now also - you guessed it - bicycles.

Everybody's list of truly enjoyable things versus things they can do without is personal, and only you can decide where your priorities lie. If you have your heart set on a lovely, but expensive bicycle, ask yourself this:

What do you want more: dinners out every Friday night over the following several months, or a new Pashley?

What do you prefer as a gift for the winter holidays: jewelry, sweaters and trinkets, or a pooled family gift of a Rivendell frame?

Which is more important to you: clothes and shoe shopping every weekend over the following year, or a custom mixte?

Would you rather go to the movies/spa, or shop for bicycle components?

If you've been reading this weblog, you know what my answers to those questions have been. The point is, that you can choose. How much do you enjoy all the different little things in your life that you are paying for on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis? More than you would enjoy a dreamy bicycle? If not, then stop doing some of those things and use the money saved to buy that "unaffordable" bike. Voila. You are now as "lucky" as I am and can afford it. Congratulations and enjoy your new ride!

Bicycle approach to Confluence ice flows

Went out to check conditions at Confluence and SCII yesterday. We loaded up our bikes and gear and left the house around 7am. We decided to ride our bikes into Confluence to check conditions and possibly do some dry-tooling. I figured the ice would be a no-go since it hasn't been that cold very long. Since we hadn't had snow, the bike ride seemed like the logical way to get the flat 2.25 miles on the Rail/trail out of the way quicker. This only left the 800+ vertical gain up the hillside to the old quarry wall. It was the coldest morning of the season (about 12 degrees) I've never ridden my bike in mountaineering boots, but it worked out well. We took the ride slow and made it to the hike in about 10min. The sun was out, but it didn't seem to make it any warmer. Riding in sure did save the legs for the hill climb. It was about the easiest its ever felt. The hillside was frozen solid with a slight crust of snow in some areas. We saw the tracks of someone from what I would guess was the day before checking conditions or just trying to locate the ice. The tracks disappeared by the top of the hill and we didn't see any sign of them walking around near the ice, so maybe they didn't make it to the ice. Confluence has been an elusive place for many people to find. I've heard stories of folks hiking around for 7 hrs trying to find the place (they paid and were being guided believe it or not). Well we made it to the cliff, and as I expected the wall had ice in many places, but was in the process of being washed out due to all the water run off. Confluence, for the most part is one of the least reliable places to climb in the region. It gets direct sun and melts out very quickly. It also has old mine openings at the bottom that spew warm air up under the ice and causes it to melt out from the backside. We thought we would be able to check out some dry tooling possibilities, but there was soooo much water running, that it would've been completely miserable to even try to give anything a go. We hung out for about 30min. watched tons of ice fall on every line and decided to head back to the car. On the way out, we stopped at the old stone walls near the bottom of the hill to pick around for a minute and shoot some photos. We made the ride out and decided to go check conditions at SCII.

Rider Fatigue and Bicycle Design

While I'd heard cyclists speak of rider fatigue in relation to bicycle frame design and ride quality, I did not understand what exactly this meant until I got a chance to experience and compare a number of different bikes myself. Riding a variety of bicycles over the same routes, I've noticed that some make me more tired than others independent of the ride's intensity. I can be cycling strenuously on Bike A and really feeling it in my leg muscles, yet remain energetic for the duration of the ride and even feel"refreshed" rather than tired at the end. Or I can be cycling at a moderate speed on Bike B and not exerting myself much, yet feeling more worn out than during the more strenuous ride on the other bike.



A reasonable assumption would be that a heavier and slower bicycle would be more fatiguing than a lighter, faster one, but for me that is not always the case. It seems to have more to do with how the bike feels on the road. When a bike does not do a good job dampening road shock, I begin to feel exhausted very easily. I also seem to be sensitive to a bicycle frame's tubing, because some bikes just feel more effortful to propel forward than others, despite similar geometry, size and fit. Oddly, positioning does not seem to have as much to do with it for me as these other aspects: Some bikes I can ride for a long time in an upright position and some bikes I can ride for a long time in an aggressive drop-bar position, whereas on other bikes these very same postures begin to feel exhausting sooner.



What has been your experience with fatigue on different bicycles? Have you noticed any patterns or connections? I suspect that there is no one formula to this. No doubt it is a complex interaction between a number of factors, including individual anatomy.

Greetings from Arizona!

Thursday, December 1st - - The drive through Las Vegas was mostly uneventful. There was some rain and considerable wind, with gusts up to 40 mph. I'm not a fan of Las Vegas so had no intentions of spending time there. I really just wanted to get south to where I thought it would be warmer. But you know Mother Nature! Always changing things... I spent the night at Cattail Cove State Park south of Lake Havasu City, Arizona. The winds had dropped considerably and the sun was trying to come out from behind the heavy layer of clouds. It was rather cool but at least it wasn't raining!



Friday, December 2nd - - It seems that the winds that came through on Wednesday night also brought cooler temperatures with them. Daytime highs hadn't made it into the 50s and the lows were well into the 30s. A check of the weather on the internet for several places indicated that it was about the same all over southern Arizona. So much for finding a warm place to stay!



I continued south and stopped at Picacho Peak State Park for the night. I had been there at least twice before in my travels through Arizona and knew that it was a nice spot. They had made improvements to the campgrounds and all sites now had electricity. I arrived just before sunset and the clouds had broken up a bit so I decided to go for a walk with camera in hand. And I'm glad that I did!

Another Rose

Tour of Homes

A friend and I went on the Blount County Tour of Homes. Ticket sales help fund grants and special projects for local schools.

This year, I guess they had a hard time finding people to open their houses. Out of the five "homes", one was a church, and another was a tea room.



It was fun anyway, and the refreshments at The Ruby Radish were so good that I doubt people would mind them being on the tour every year.



The photos here are all from the same house - the smallest one on the tour. (I haven't processed the other photos yet.)



I'll never live in a house this fancy, but I enjoy seeing other people's homes... their doodads, their decorations, their dishes, and so forth.



She had a large collection of nutcrackers near the fireplace.



"Nutcrackers are scary," says my husband.



Shiny festive mantel.



An abundance of matching candles.

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The schools need help because Blount Countians tend to spend their money in Jefferson county, where most of them work, rather than in their home county, where their kids go to school. It's a problem.

All that lovely new paving on Hwy 75 is thanks to stimulus money, by the way, not local tax money.

Woodsy idyll

The kind of thing you think you'd be geting away from out in the woods

Going Crazy With Scanning...

It has been a month since the last update on my scanning project, and I'm sure y'all are eagerly anticipating this update ;-) At that time I had completed scanning my personal photographs and had a good start on Mom's pictures, which netted a little over 3,800 image files in a three month time period.

The prep work for the most recent group of pictures has taken considerably longer than the actual scanning. I didn't keep track of the time, but it consumed a lot of hours. However, in the past week I've scanned another 845 family pictures! With that, the albums for my two brothers and myself are done! Done, I say! Yay! That's the good news. Bad news is that the pictures for my sister's family still need to be scanned - they are being sorted and organized by my niece. My guess is there is a couple hundred pictures yet to be scanned. Big Sigh. But the end is in sight! At least, for the pictures… genea documents are still waiting.

While sorting the family pictures I came across a bunch of photos from Phend Reunions. Those were pulled out and put with the Reunion albums. Then I organized the Phend Reunion papers from the 1960s through the present day and put them in the albums with their corresponding pictures. Scanning the papers and pictures resulted in 615 image files. (The Phend-Fisher Family Reunion Ledger which covers the early years had been scanned, transcribed, and posted to the blog in the latter part of ...)

Then, as I was rummaging through a box looking for something I came across my grandmother's genealogy "book" and realized that I had never scanned it in its entirety. Most of the pictures had been scanned at one time or another but not all of them, and not the family group sheets. The book has a "post-hole" type of binder that easily comes apart so it wasn't a problem to scan each page individually and then put it back in its proper place. The pages are just a little bit larger than legal size. Placement on the scanner was critical so that no data was lost. There were 90 pages with 116 pictures, ending up with 206 scans for that project. I went ahead and scanned all of the pictures again because I wasn't really happy with the previous scans from several years ago.

And, as reported in my 3rd update for the Genea-Blogger Games, I scanned 74 newspaper clippings on the Phend family that were in the Whitley County Historical Museum's "family clippings" files. I've since created a name index of the clippings for reference purposes.

Image files created from scanning in the past month: 1,611

• 845 family pictures
• 206 pages and pictures in Grandma's Genealogy Book
• 486 Phend Reunion documents (sign-in sheets, announcements, flyers, etc.) and pictures
• 74 Phend Family newspaper clippings

Total number of scanned image files created since mid-April: 5,434

Maude Wise Brubaker Yontz, aka "Mama" or "Grandma Bill", with her grandchildren. About 1933. From the Genealogy "Book" of my grandmother, Hazlette Brubaker Phend, which is now in my possession.

Double Portrait - Robison Family

Inspired by Tim Agazio's family portrait with pictures in the picture, I thought I'd share this one from my grandmother's files (though his is much more interesting!).

It shows Lucy Strait Robison and her husband, Henry Robison Jr. The pictures on the wall are of their daughters Ella and Ida. The photo of Ida has what looks like a lace cloth draped over one corner - Ida passed away on November 22, 1899 at the age of 27. The picture isn't dated but it would have to be early 1900s since Henry died December 7, 1904 and Lucy passed away on January 26, 1907.

What is of most value to me about this picture though is the caption that was written on the back. "Uncle Henry and Aunt Lucy Robison my angle Mothers brother" - "Malissa" - and upside down "My uncle & aunt Henry & Lucy Robison"

"Malissa" is Malissa Joslin Brubaker, my 2nd great grandmother, and this is the only "link" we currently have to the parents of her mother Lydia Robison who married Lysander Price Joslin.

The parents of Henry and Lydia Robison were Henry and Anna Robison. The death record for Henry Jr. gives his mother's maiden name as McMorron.Henry Sr. and Anna came to Whitley County, Indiana between 1840 and 1850 from Champaign County, Ohio. The will of Henry Sr. dated August 8, 1851 only lists three children: Eliza Jane, Henry, and Emily but census records indicate there may have been five children; the two older children were married at the time of Henry's death, probably in 1852. Anna "disappears" after the sale of their land in August 1855. More research (a lot more) is needed on this family!

Putting it all together.

I love a good collage, who doesn't? All those pieces somehow related but somehow not complete.

That's S'matt up theremaking sense of a wild collection of very cool moves.

(click to enlarge)

Superba Progress

Ta-da! Look what I found sprouting up amidst the grass after the snow melted. Okay, not really. But I thought this would be a good time to update on the progress of the Bella Ciao Superba. I've already been told how nice the new frame colour looks, but this is actually the same colour as before - it's still my bike, only with different components. The colour does look different with the cream tires and brown accessories; less beige and more green. The production frame colour will be one step further in this direction: Imagine a mix between the shade you see here and that of my Roya H. mixte.



Some aspects of the prototype are still in flux, but this is the basic idea of how I envisioned the bicycle: Fully equipped, yet classic and very simple - inasmuch as such a combination is possible.



As I had hoped, the Sturmey Archer 3-speed hub works nicely with the overall design. Not only do I prefer its functionality over Shimano's (just a personal preference), but visually it is more in sync with how I see this bicycle. One of my favourite parts of the Bella Ciaoframes are the elegant fork-ends with the chain tensioners. And to my eye, theSturmey Archer hub - with its glorious indicator chain - integrates perfectly with these elements. I think I drove everybody a little nuts making sure they order the specific version of this hub I wanted, but I am comfortable with that.



The classic trigger shifter frees up the handlebars for a larger gripping area and looks very natural here. For the brake levers, I decided to go with the retro city levers from Velo Orange. They are long, providing good leverage from a variety of gripping positions, and I find the curvy form to be delightfully ergonomic.



The grips pictured here are just placeholders to match the saddle; I am not sure yet what the grips on the production bike will be. It's a tricky one, because I know that no matter what I choose it is likely that the new owner will replace them anyway with their own grips of choice. Therefore I wonder whether it is even worth it to focus on this aspect too much. My personal choice would actually be a set of hard classic plastic grips. But the Portuguese natural cork grips from Rivendell may be a bigger crowdpleaser, so those are a possibility as well.



One aspect of the bicycle that I initially wanted to change, were the crank arms. The stock ones are not too bad, but I had hoped to find something more classic. Turns out that's not actually possible, as none of the retro-styled cranksets on the market are available with chain rings that are compatible with the Bella Ciao chaincase. I've put a lot of effort into researching this a few months back and short of extremely expensive options, it is just not feasible to get different cranks. At that point I had to ask myself: Will the ladies this bicycle is meant to appeal to be willing to pay $150 extra for this bike in order for it to have vintage looking crank arms? And I think the answer is "no," because even for me it would not be worth it. So fairly early into the project it was decided that the stock cranks would remain.



More recently, I have also decided to keep the stock pedals. It is no problem at all to source a more classic rubber platform pedal and remain within budget, but here's the thing: After riding with the stock pedals since October, I find them to be functionally superior, so I think that replacing them would be a disservice to future owners of this bicycle. The pedals have been tenaciously grippy with all of my shoes in the rain and snow, and they are light. Rather than replace them, I think I'd like to get a couple of more sets from Bella Ciao for personal use on some of my other bikes.



The Schwalbe Delta Cruiser tires are a perfect match for the bicycle, and I decided to go with the version with reflective sidewalls for additional visibility after dark. The dynamo lighting system currently installed is passably elegant, but needs some tweaking - I don't like it that the headlight partially obscures the headbadge and sits so close to the headtube. The simplest and least expensive solution would be to place the headbadge higher - I think there is room to raise it maybe another inch without it looking too weird. I am also trying to find a mounting bracket for the headlight that would place it further forward. Looking at other Italian city bikes, I see that many of them have the headlight installed higher up, mounted above the headset. However, this presents the additional problem of routing the wires for the dynamo lighting. Yet another possibility would be to ask the framebuilder to add a braze-on to one of the fork blades and mount the headlight there, but this would increase production costs, and might look a little bulky on this particular bicycle. So... I am still thinking about this one.



And finally, the rear rack. To be honest, this has been a more challenging endeavor than anticipated, and I do not as of yet have a finished prototype that is financially feasible for the production bikes. I thought carefully about whether I should even post pictures of the rack, lest it be a disappointment if in the end it proves impossible to offer the one shown in the pictures. But I decided to go ahead, because I would like to document the experience of working on this bike - including instances where "Plan A" ends up not panning out. I will eventually write a separate post about the challenges of rack design and production, but for now I am trying my best to get it done while fitting into the timeline and into the budget I have to work with.



It's funny, because I have been warned against taking this project too personally - but have been unable to heed that advice. I do take things personally when I am passionately involved in something; it's just how I am. As with everything, this experience has both highs and lows, and perhaps I take both to heart more than I should. But when I walk past this bicycle in our apartment now, I pause every time and think "Oh my God, this is my dream bike!" - so I think overall that's a good sign. More progress reports to follow, and if you have questions regarding availability please contact elton[at]harriscyclery[dot]net.

Beaver Creek Resort in Gaylord, Michigan

We really like this park, so I grabbed a few pictures to help us remember it in case we are back this way again sometime. The staff is top notch and the facilities are great. The internet in the lodge is the best we've encountered so far.

Cypress Swamp Trail

I love this trail at Highland Hammocks Park. It is a really unique trail, winding through a swamp with Cypress trees. My favorite part is the catwalk/boardwalk type of path that you walk along.



It starts out as a wide path, big enough for two to walk along. Then at some point it becomes more narrow and only has handrails on the one side. It spans some creepy dark water where I hyperventilate if I think about it too much.



If I have not shared this yet, I can sometimes have a pretty serious water phobia. Or to be more accurate, I can be phobic about bodies of water that do not allow you to see what creatures are inside of them. I cross this section pretty quickly if at all possible.



This trip I reminded Nathan that I like to move quickly here and he stopped and blocked the walkway to ask me if I want to go around him. I think I shrieked something like OMG...keep walking! I am not going around you where I could fall right into the water and who knows what can get me...are you trying to kill me or something!?! I think he smirked inside but he was smart enough to keep walking so we could get past this part.



There are benches where people leave their mark.



There are areas that have me thinking surely the faeries live here!




Most of the areas get you so up close to your surroundings, it allows you to fully experience what exactly is in this section of the park. All of the areas are beautiful. It is just a really cool way to experience nature.


Even with the creepy part, I really do enjoy this trail for a nature walk!