Week 1 Complete!

Today marks the end of week one of P90X! I survived yet again! The first few days were hell... I was sore in places that haven't been sore since my last round of the workout over a year ago. Even though it's just been a week, I already feel more energized and just good all over. I'm excited to continue the workout and hopefully feel (and see) some more results soon. I know you guys probably don't want to hear about my workouts on a weekly basis, but by blogging it I feel more motivated to finish and workout even harder to get better results. 

Now that the soreness (well, most of the soreness) is out of the way and my muscles are getting used to all that moving around, I can push it further in my workouts and make myself sweat even more. 

Enough sweaty talk...

The snow is flying at Eaglecrest and I can't wait to get some altitude on my splitboard. Dustin is working late tonight and helping make snow. Eaglecrest only has a handful of fan guns, but every little bit helps and the more we can get on the lower mountain, the sooner we can open up terrain. There's a good amount of snow up top, so I've heard... I might have to check it out myself tomorrow :) I have a 'rock board' just itching to get some early season turns. 

The moon is nearly full tonight and it was nice and bright out, so I went out to test the night settings on my camera again. I swear, one of these days I'm gonna get a decent aurora photo! Here are a couple shots that were surprisingly impressive coming from my little point and shoot Canon camera.

This was take on Fish Creek Rd (the Eaglecrest road) on North Douglas. No, that's not the sun, it's the moon. Really!

Shot of downtown Juneau from Douglas Island.

Snow, Orcas, Sunsets, and Sitka!

Wowzers, it's been a while since my last update. I've been super busy but have had a TON of fun the past few weeks. My friend and I decided to go hike Eaglecrest Monday afternoon since our tour was cancelled due to 8 ft high seas. It was amazing... we hiked and hiked in the sunshine, finally making it to the Nest at the top. After a quick break and snack, we strapped in and had some magical turns down the mountain. The snow was perfect... soft enough to have some fun, but firm enough to grip and rip. Here are a couple pics from shreddin'...

After that adventure, well, actually during that adventure, I found out I would be going to Sitka with my crew to work a couple tours. I was excited to be going somewhere I've never been on my birthday, but kinda bummed that I couldn't spend it with Dustin. We had a 6:30 crew time Tuesday morning, which was my birthday, and wouldn't return until Wednesday night. Sitka was a 6ish hour boat ride from Juneau. We had one tour Tuesday morning in Juneau, then as soon as the passengers departed we were on our way. We were on the St. Aquilina, which is a slightly larger than our normal boat we work on, and it's a good thing because the seas were intense the first couple hours. It literally felt like a carnival ride... the seas were super rough and it was hard to walk anywhere on the boat without flying all over the place. Eventually the waters calmed down and we just enjoyed the ride. The scenery was absolutely stunning the entire trip. Southeast Alaska has got to be the most beautiful place on the planet. After what felt like forever, we finally made it to Sitka around 8:30pm.

After a few birthday drinks we all crashed out since we had another 6:30 crew time in the morning. Woke up, did two tours, seeing all sorts of awesome wildlife. Sea otters, LOTS of sea otters, humpbacks, eagles, sea lions, and even brown bear and her two cubs on a beach were among the critters we saw. After working those two tours, we got the boat ready to head back to Juneau. We didn't end up leaving Sitka till 4:30, so it was 11pm before we got back to Juneau. The trip back was so awesome! The views were just as stunning as before, and we got to see an amazing sunset as we got closer to Juneau. We came across of pod of orcas and we stopped to watch them for a while. We all went out on the bow of the boat and got some good pictures of them. I still can't believe how beautiful it all was... cruise ships in the sunset, orcas swimming all around us, the moon was so bright and beautiful. Wow. It was amazing. Simply amazing. I took a ton of pics on the trip, and you can see them all by clicking HERE, but I will post my best ones below :)

 

Tomorrow holds another adventure that will be EPIC! It involves a helicopter and my snowboard. :) I will post about that trip tomorrow night. 

Peace.

Beech Update

The past couple weeks have been fun but depressing. Last year by this time, we had the entire mountain open with a hell of a base. Now, we have technically 5 runs open, but it's really just one run from top to bottom. Bare spots. Grass. Mud. Rocks. NOT FUN. But the past couple days of cold weather have allowed us to make some decent snow. We'll be lucky to have another run open by Christmas. The weather forecast calls for rain by Tuesday night. There goes all the snow we're currently making. It's 20 degrees and sunny right now, just wish it would stay like that all winter! Well, in addition to a few good snowstorms :)

My riding has definitely improved since I got my new Smokin' board. It seems so much easier to ollie and pop off of nothing. I feel more stable on rails and boxes, and even landing small jumps feels much more stable than my old board.

Currently I'm sitting on the couch guzzling hot tea and taking Zicam. Thanks to whoever exposed me to the big bad cold that I now have. Didn't work yesterday and I'm taking today off to just rest and try to get better. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so hopefully I can get out and teach some lessons and ride tomorrow without feeling like I'm dying.

Here's some pics from the past couple weeks of riding.

^ LOVE this one!

^ locking down my frontsides

^ this waterpipe rail is fun!

^ an inspiration on my palm

Photos & Update.

Here's a sweet pic that I just have to share with the world.

Photo credit goes to my boyfriend Dustin.

Spring park rules! Ha. Finally learned how to hit a rail from the side. Well, sort of, I tried 4 times, landed 1 of them. Nice bruise on my legs from the other 3 attempts. At least now I have a feel for it, and I'll have some more time to practice before the snow melts :)

Here's a couple more pics from the last few days.