The Smith family: 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

LOTOJA September 8, 2012

Plans and preparation went on for months for this year's LOTOJA race.

For Darren, anyway. I was riding it as a relay team with three other women.

Darren was going for the win.

Two years ago he could have done it, but his support missed him in Afton costing him 10 min. The winner beat him by 5. I was that support.....I couldn't beat the traffic.

He trained and raced all year getting ready for this.

He even had an excel spread sheet with calories per hour, how much liquid, what foods at which stop, etc.

He has it planned right down to the minute. He plans on 9:30.

We stayed the night at Syd and Lee's and at the traditional pasta dinner, talked the traditional pre-Lotoja talk. Swapped stories about Lotoja pain and Lotoja glory.

The story about Lee letting the hitchhiker drive his van in to Jackson while he finished riding with Tanner is always a favorite.

There was a pretty big fire not too far outside of Jackson, and really close to the road.

My team.

Heather, Tara, me and Jamie.

My leg was Montpelier to Afton. 45 miles. 25 of climbing steep lovingness.

I loved every minute of it.

I found people to draft with. I lost my best big guy at the top of Geneva when he stopped for a bathroom break! Bummer.

So I took off down the pass as fast as I dared. I saw 43 mph. Just when I felt like I was going as fast as I dared and that I could die any minute...I hear what sounds like a motorcycle coming up behind me. It flies past me like I am standing still. It is another rider and he looks familiar. It takes a split second and then we recognize each other. It was Darren! I know he is in race mode so I don't expect him to slow up for me. Soon his entire group comes zooming by one by one.

I am NOT about to miss THIS train! I can't climb with the fast boys but I can downhill with them. I'm either brave or just plain stupid. Or maybe I am just resourceful - I know that I have to make up time where I can. As the road levels out the group settles down and I am able to make my way to the front and talk to Darren. I can't hang on the side of him outside of the draft at that pace, so I say I'll see him later as I drift to the back again. Later he will tell me that he felt bad not letting me in the draft, but that he was too tired and needed the draft. I didn't even expect him to - this was about him WINNING! At this point he still had over 100 miles to go!

A while later I decide to talk to him again. I ride up to the front and he is shocked that I am still with them. He introduces me to a bunch of the guys.

I notice that the group he is racing against is a bunch of young guys. He is in the Open class, which means all ages 20 to whatever. He is one of he old guys!

I hang on the back until the climb up Salt River begins. I can't hang on at their pace. I drop off.

I am hoping so badly that he continues to feel good and makes his goal.

I stop for a drink at the top and run into my riding friend Terry. This is his 25th lotoja, since they've been keeping track....so more like 30ish? Incredible.

I zoom into Afton on the tail of some guys doing 28mph. I finish in 1:59. I hadn't ridden more than 30 miles all summer. It felt great.

Now to hoping Darren reaches his goal.

He backs off a little on the steep Salt River climb and let's some of the guys pass him. He sees them stop at the top for water and food. He keeps going.

They never see him again. He has planned all along to skip the feed station in Afton. It's a wise choice. Afton is hard to get to as a support vehicle, and it is complete chaos.

His spreadsheet has been figured so he has enough fuel to get to Alpine.

I keep calling Chris to see how Darren is doing. He says he looks strong and was just a few minutes off his time.

I never see him cross the finish. He beats us there.

He calls. He is finished. 9:31. One minute off his planned time. Wow! I am so excited and ask if he won. I don't know he replies non-chalante like. Shoot!

When I run into him he hasn't checked final scores yet... I go check! FIRST!!!!

He is a stinker. He totally knew. He is just not the kind that would ever say it.

Funny story. Not too far from the finish there is a stream. A lot of bikers sit in it afterwards to soak their legs. He is sitting in the stream with a bunch of the guys he raced with. They are talking. One says "Whatever happened to that little guy?" They didn't even recognize him! He was kind of shocked because he knew them and had just spent a lot of time with them! They obviously weren't keeping too close an eye on him!

One person died racing this year. Another died a month later from an injuries sustained in a crash while racing. Two months later his grand daughter is shot in a school in Connecticut. Heartbreak that is unfathomable.

Because of the death during the race they do not do the awards ceremony as usual. They call everyone up in silence.

They can stand on the podium afterwards for a picture. Darren won't do it!

I wanted a podium picture!

He was sick of his bike for a while after the race. Actually he was sick of his bike a week before the race. I told him that meant he had done all he could to prepare for the race.

Just when you are done and think you will never do that again, they give you a free entry to next year's race to defend your title! A blessing and a curse!

Monday, December 10, 2012

We Found Snow

First ski of the season. Brighton had great snow, plus it snowed all day.

Snow is hard to find right now!

Had fun skiing with cousins!

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

One of these things is not like the other.

Disneyland

We were so lucky this year for Spring Break. Grandpa and Grandma H took us all to Disneyland!

I think they mostly took pity on Paige who has desperately wanted to go to Disneyland for years....but has a dad who isn't very hip on the idea!;)

This was our kid's first ride on an airplane, and this alone was excitement enough!

We flew into Long Beach. This was where I was born and not too far from where we lived. We went on a drive to see the old house. 14 or 15 U-turns later...we found it! Things have changed!

The beach was one of our first stops. I think we could live there. Just out on the sand, next to the water full time!

Tea cups

Darren chose the Senior Citizen tea cup.....sorry mom and dad. Not into spinning, he said.

I turned 40 at Disneyland!

Paige would not stop riding Autopia. Each of us had a turn taking her....over and over and over again.

We had so much fun at Disneyland, even Darren admitted it was way better than he ever thought it would be!

We loved California Screamin', and Star Tours was a blast! We waited in line forever for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and it was sooo dumb. We like the Haunted Mansion.

We went on Tower of Terror, and that is exactly what it is! Can't decide if I liked that or not. I screamed A LOT.

I still crave Disneyland Churros! MMMMM!

We had a hotel right across the street which worked awesome for coming and going as we pleased.

Besides the beach we went to Sea World and La Jolla beach.

Darren and I both thought that all the fast walking and standing in lines was way more exhausting than riding 100 miles on our bikes!

What a great family memory!

We're Pathetic

Justin was on a double date. They came over to do the zipline. No explanation needed.

Friday, November 30, 2012

Lower Salmon August 2012

Lower Salmon to the Confluence of the Snake.

We decided we could make our own reality TV show called the "Ducky Wars."

Oh love love love

Justin keeping Josie on track while she was on the oars.
Scott brought an extra boat so Josie and the kids could get oaring experience. We kept it light and they had a blast on it. Nothing happens by chance, it was meant to be that we had an extra boat (this is foreshadowing).

Paige made a new best friend for the week.

At home behind the oars.

Derigged at the confluce. Waiting for the jet boat.

Side surfing at Kelly's Whitewater park in Cascade. It's a tradition to stop here on our way to the put in for the Lower Main.

Paige making sure Max gest to the shore. She is such a good kid.

If more girls did more of this, the world would be a better place:)

Paige crawled out and made Darren jump first. We never thought she'd do it, but finally

She did!!!

So did I, but HOLY CRAP it was scary getting out there!

This picture deserves the story....
We are in the tent just waking up and hear rustling nearby. Pete is waking Justin and Brady, who had slept under the stars just outside our tent. "Hey, your dad's boat is gone." I hear this, but don't give it any thought. The night before we had sat around the campfire talking about all the pranks the guys have played on each other over the years on river trips....."No, I'm serious, it's missing," Pete is saying.
More rustling. "Dad, your boat's gone."
"I thought about that during the night...." Darren says. "Justin, run up river and see if they tied it around the corner."
They have to be messing with us, but I can tell that Darren only half thinks so.
We camped at a huge eddy, but an IK had been tied up to the back of our boat. Tug, tug, tug all night long and off goes the IK and the boat.
Justin runs up river, nothing. So he runs down river, scuttles up some rocks, looks long and hard. Nothing.
The reality sets in, the boat has gotten loose. How long ago? How far could it have gone? It is nowhere to be seen around the next corner and all the way down the next canyon.
I am laughing, Darren is not. An hour later I am not laughing, I am actually searching my soul to see if there is braveness in there...

In hurried frenzy Darren and Justin, aka Lewis and Clark, pictured above, set off on a boat finding adventure. Would we see them later that day? How far could have boat have gone? Would it be flipped? We don't tie anything down at night.

The extra boat. We have never had an extra boat on a trip. Yay!  For an extra boat. We haven't been loading it with anything heavy, so there is plenty of space for all the gear that would normally have been put on the missing boat - kitchen box, table, tent, all our dry bags, water, etc.
Happy about the extra boat so I can get our stuff down the river without having to somehow fit all of that on the other already burdened boats. But...

Justin is the only one who didn't hook his lifejacket to the boat that night. He had carefully tucked it down in his kayak. Darren borrowed Scott's one and only extra lifejacket. That means Brady, Paige, Donna (Darren's 73 yr old mother), and I don't have lifejackets.
  Not too far downriver are the big rapids. Snow Hole.
Two lifejackets are produced. Donna and Paige are covered. I had realized this a while ago. That for sure I wouldn't have one. Which is fine....except for Snow Hole!
As I was trying to shove down breakfast I was producing an article for the paper....."Ironman swimmer drowns...." So ironic that it just might happen. Sorry to be so dramatic, but that is exactly how I was feeling!

I borrow extra straps from others and Brady and I begin rigging the boat. I am shaking inside. I can handle a boat with this much gear on it, but I want it as light as possible becuase of one thing - Snow Hole!! with no life jacket. Brady also has no lifejacket. That worries me even more. Snow Hole is a fun rapid, but has a definite hole that gets bigger as the river drops. The river is extra low.   Snow hole is just shallow and nasty filled with rocks. So this is the soul searching part.

I am going through the motions of running straps through dry bags and around dry boxes. Inside I am thinking how really there is no other choice but to just do this. There is no one else in the group to take this boat. The boat has to go downriver. Darren is not here, nor will he be coming back. I start to get mad at him. Why didn't we think to leave Justin with me? I trust him more oaring through the rapids than I trust myself. I wouldn't be half as nervous without a lifejacket if he were oaring. But it was up to me. Somehow I seem to find myself in these situations where I just have to dig in, there really was no other choice.
So looking back, this all seems so dramaish....but in reality I didn't know when or where we would find the other boat and Darren. This river is really not a big, scary river. But I was responsible to get this boat and Brady through the rapids and neither of us had a lifejacket.
All rigged, we send Paige and Donna to get on other boats. As we set off Donna says that I should take her lifejacket, that she is old and can die, that I am young. OH more drama! NO I am not taking your lifejacket.
So off we go. Brady and I oar into the current and just look at each other. "Well, it's just you and me bud." We talk about how we would handle swimming a rapid without a lifejacket.

OK enough about not having a lifejacket. We oar around the corner. No Darren and boat. We oar through a long, flat, section of river. How in the world did the boat get down this? We come to another corner.....a long canyon, no boat. Crap. More slow flat water. If the boat got through this, it must have gotten loose early in the night and who knows how far it is!
Next corner....waaaay down there, a tiny blue speck. The boat!   Relief!!!
What took us so long? Darren and Justin want to know. They decide they will do this more often, they didn't have to take down tents, clean up breakfast, load boats.

I will live another day. :)

Darren will never live down the fact that he didn't tie his boat up good enough. Darren, of all people. He is the total go to guy on the river. Funny thing, everytime since, even on other river, Justin goes over and ties Darren's boat to his own.

Table doubles as diving board I actually did a small stint on my high school diving team. It's true! It came naturally because of my gymnastics training. That was the year I got mono and hurt my wrist... so it was just a short stint.

On the last night we camped right below the confluence on the Salmon and Snake rivers. Across the river is Oregon. Oregon was burning. We watched as this barely crept up over the ridge, and quickly started burning down the mountain toward the river. We sat in lawn chairs and watched with more intensity than we would the most suspenseful movie at a theatre. The smoke was overwhelming. We didn't feel in danger. There was a huge river in between the fire and us. The jet boat company that was to pick us up the next morning would be aware of the fire and know that we were there. But Wow! We saw a bear that was obviously fleeing the fire and had come all the way down to the river. Darren and the boys slept outside the tent with baby wipes over their mouth and nose. Sometime in the middle of the night the wind shifted and the fire seemed to stagnate, the smoke went the other direction.

Exciting trip to say the least!