Ed Soehnel

Our road trip over Christmas included a 1 day 17 hour drive to California to the parents house - 4 days there - and a 3 day return trip through the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Arches National Park. Photos and a Google KML map below.

Colorado to California

California

Grand Canyon

Monument Valley

Arches National Park

Click to download a Google Earth KML file of our route.

This past summer was not quite all about working on the new house and property.  I did take some time in outdoor activities.

Biathlon

Since the property did come with a little shooting range on it complete with timbers as a backstop, no doubt I take advantage of that little gem.  I try to get out once per week and usually take my .22 biathlon rifle and do some running and shooting.  Some targets below I scanned for safe-keeping.

From 2009_Misc

From 2009_Misc

From 2009_Misc

Rock Climbing

From 2009_Misc

I’ve owned a pair of rock climbing shows for 20 years. They have never gotten much use. I don’t own other safety equipment, so my rock climbing has always been staying very close to the ground and going horizontal versus vertical (called Bouldering). I really enjoy it and I now do it at least once per week on our big rock chimney. Maybe after I get our main barn repaired, I can build a climbing wall on it.

From 2009_Misc

Local Area

We have not checked out our local area too much for hiking and biking activities. I am slowly building a map of stuff I find via online research. In the future, we’ll start to do more of these activities.



View Local_Points_to_Checkout in a larger map

Weather

I am a weather nut and love Wunderground for all the weather data and maps it puts at our fingertips. We’ve had a very active summer thunderstorm and monsoon season, so its been pretty wild watching storms come rolling through. The house was hit by lightening twice (minor damage the first strike, but after that, we installed lightening rods), we were hit with 1 inch hail in one storm and I saw a tornado funnel cloud. It did not touch down, but was my first tornado experience. I took two images of local area thunderstorm activity from Wunderground. The little black squares represent lightening strikes. The second image shows a storm that was bearing down on our house and the purple triangle represented a tornado signature. The storm veered north and ended up missing us and also weakened.

From 2009_Misc

From 2009_Misc

Conditions: Cool and calm. 5 C / 40 F
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 40 minutes
Avg. Speed: 10.8 mph
Bike: Mountain
Device: Garmin Forerunner 205

Notes: Starting to get light again…did not need bike light till halfway through ride. Saw a lot of deer milling about around the trails I was on.

View in Google Earth (KMZ file)

View in Google Maps

Last two weeks of January included lots of work travel. I was only able to squeeze in one ride from home on January 19:

Conditions: Sunny and warm. 10 C / 50 F
Difficulty: Easy
Time: 45 minutes
Avg. Speed: 9.75 mph
Bike: Mountain
Device: Garmin Forerunner 205

Notes: Had a flight out later that day for Atlanta, so left work early. Beautiful January day with lots of sunshine and warmth.

View in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Bike - View in Google Maps






My travels took me first to Atlanta for a 3-day trade show that included 20 minute meetings with 50 retailers. The very next week, I had a similar trade show in Nashville that included 20 minute meetings with 45 retailers. Pretty grueling weeks with all the meeting and the weeks following these events are also rather busy with all the follow-up required. Both Atlanta and Nashville were cold with wintery weather more comparable to that we find in Denver than the southeast of the U.S. Did not bother me, as I spent the entire 3 days of each trip in the hotel.

Images from our plane ride to and from Atlanta are below. We flew private out of Centennial on a Gulfstream/Astra 100. Smooth flight up till Landing in Atlanta; winds were gusting and swirling, so while it made for an interesting landing in a small plane, we got down plenty fine.

From 2009_01_22_Atlanta_ECRM

I did most of the Nashville trade show myself, so flew out commercial. Flight was late getting out of Denver, but we had a monster tail wind (ground speed of 640 mph), so made up a little time. Coming back, flight late again, and we had a brutal head wind, so it was a long flight back to Denver. A few images of the hotel room in Nashville where we had our meetings are below. The trade show cleared out a hotel room for us and we setup with our product samples and poster. Every 20 minutes, a new retailer walks in for a face-to-face meeting.



From 2009_01_26_Nashville_ECRM

My flight routes for both trips is below.

View Atlanta Trip in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Atlanta Flights - View in Google Maps




View Nashville Trip in Google Earth (KMZ File)

Nashville Flights - View in Google Maps

Conditions: Cool. 2 C / 35 F
Difficulty: Moderate
Time: 40 minutes
Avg. Speed: 9.5 mph
Bike: Mountain
Device: Garmin Forerunner 205

Notes: Night ride; lots of ice patches while cruising around the roads in the neighborhood.

View in Google Maps

Download and view in Google Earth (KMZ File)

I left early in the morning from home and drove up for a few hours of biathlon practice and skiing. Conditions were mild (-5C / 25F), with light snow, breezy and cloudy. Trail conditions were excellent. I spent time on the biathlon range the first hour, working on my standing position and skiing quick segments around the penalty loop before returning for more range practice. A map is included below of the range and the penalty loop.

View in Google Earth (KMZ file)

View in Google Maps

My accuracy was about 60% overall in the standing position. Photo below of my shot pattern.

From 2009_Misc

Following that, I packed up the range and skied for 45 minutes, which is mapped below. It was pretty difficult skiing for me, not being in very good shape and simply trying to do anything at this altitude. Enjoyable, nonetheless. I took one digger and slid out onto my butt. I was descending in a curvy section that happened to have 2 classic tracks laid out on the center part of this particular trail. As it narrowed, I was trying to avoid the tracks but managed to catch one ski into a track and lost my balance.

Time: 45 minutes.
Avg. Speed: 5.2 mpg.
Device: Garmin Forerunner 205.

View in Google Earth (KMZ File)

View in Google Maps

Conditions: Warm.  12C / 53F.  Breezy and Sunny.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Time: 1 Hour.
Avg. Speed: Bike -12.5 mph; Walk - 2.6 mph.
Device: Garmin Forerunner 205.
Notes: Fabulous weather.  Rode first and then walked with the Greyhound.

View in Google Earth

View in Google Maps