American Fork Single Track

Wednesday August 6th, a group of us went up American Fork canyon and parked at Pine Hollow trail head and rode mane trails on the trail system in this canyon. We love the single track systems up here; they are closeby, take you thru beautiful and rugged areas. We rode trail 047 up too 157, over too summit, then down 252, then up 252 where it hooked up with 157 again. from there, we went down to tibble fork lake parking lot, rounded the damn, and back up one of the 040 or 041 trails too 157 again, looping back to where we started it all. 2.5 hours or so was the entire trip. We had a couple falls, but no real bad ones. It had rained, so the trail was wet in areas, and all the vegitation had water on it. One river crossing allowed me to get wet all the way up to my shoulders, and the wet trails allowed mud to get into crevices on the bike and myself that i never expected. Marcus didnt make it, and Kent wasnt able to complete it. We'll have to do it again, to give all a hance to experience it.

4th of July 2008

4th of july weekend. Spending 2 days on the lake. After a week at powell recently, 2 days again is tough on us all, but we bear with it, and play in the sun all day long. yesterday, we all skied, except trey. I got some great water, as most people on the lake took off for the festivities of the 4th. We stayed a bit longer than normal, and just relaxed and played with our friends, the larsens and richens. hope today is a great day as well.

Luck of the Heights 2008 rball tourney

I entered into this tournament in the Men's C division. My first game was against mallory on Thursday night. The first game, i won fairly easily 15-9. The second game, i lost way too easily. And then i lost the third game as well. Nothing seemed to work for me that night, after the first game. Odd.

My consolation game was Friday night at 7pm. I played Jesse VanValkenburg. I lost the first game by 2 points. I played way hard, but came up short. Second game, i was able to do much better and won 15-9. I figured i'd take third game, and had a 10-4 lead, but Jesse got all my serves, and came back and beat me 11-10. Tough loss for me. We ended up playing almost an hour and half. I even took some dives to get the shot, and even got up to get the next shot. My knee is still hurting, but it was a blast to get the shot. We videoed most of my games to review and learn from. I shot video of the girls as well, so they could see and learn from their games.

Kylie and Alyssa both entered the tournament as well. Both played 2 people in round robin format. Kylie played 2 boys her age, and scored well against both of them. One boy was new to tournaments, while the other has beat her before. She set herself some goals, and accomplished them, and was real proud of her performances. This is her second tournament as a single bounce player, and its taking some getting used too. She had a private instruction with Roger Flick last month, and he taught her a great serve. She used this serve and scored some great points. She took third in her division, winning her a container of new balls.

Alyssa played as a multi bounce player against two girls playing as double bounce. Lyssa has some mean serves for 2 bouncers to snag. She scored a lot of points, winning her first game, and doing real well the second game. She took second in her division, winning her a new glove.

Paintball 2008-03-01

JT paintball organized a woodsball event and invited anyone to join. When Kevin and I showed up, there were very few people, but soon we had two teams of 8 or so playing. We got up to payson canyon area, and there was still snow in the mountains... more than we had thought would be there... the field was a foot and a half of snow, crusty on the top. In places, you could actually walk on top of the 18 inches of snow... however, ususally, you broke through. So each step was an interesting adventure, and running was almost impossible. So combine new equiptment, with unknown footing, and snow everywhere, and you had one heck of a game area. We played many different types of games. Each time, you wanted to be on the team that stayed put, because the trudge to the other side of the field wore you out, with half or more of the steps breaking thru the snow.
Needless to say, by the end of the 3+ hours we were there, we were cold, wet, tired, and thrilled with our first time out this year. Everything was wet. But we had a blast.
Paintballing is a blast. You run and duck and run again. Its such a kick...
I spilled my hopper of ammo out, and spilled a bag as well. Live and learn. Need to be more careful in the future.

January 2007 rball tourney

I played 19 games of rball last week. Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday day.
I entered in 2 divisions, D Singles and D Doubles. I played with Charles Conklin in doubles.
The tournament ended up being a Round Robin format, with a lot of games. I had hoped to win more than I did. I expected to win more singles games, but had a tough time winning. I came back in a lot of the games, and won the second game, then thought I would take the last game, but failed to execute. In doubles matches, we won one fairly easily, but had to fight the rest of them to the end. Some games we did really well in, and one many games, but not all.
The tournament was for charity, for breast cancer. We participated in the silent auctions and won a pink backpack for Alyssa. Both Alyssa and Kylie helped out a bit, with washing dishes and other chores. They also played a lot with friends, and even helped coach me in most of my games. Kylie is getting an eye for the game, and enjoys watching and helping me. I truly appreciate her input and assistance.
The tournament was fun, but not as much a success as i had hoped for. Its only the second time i played doubles with Charles. We learned a lot, and hope to do better next time.