compare

i am lucky in that i have a friend at work who is into making stuff like this:

he makes all kinds of cool programs with google earth and stuff and does all kinds of crazy stuff with my ride profiles. he is sorta interested in the actual rides themselves, i think, but mainly he is interested in the data and what can be done with it.
these charts are the elevation profiles taken from google earth from the ride at Paradise and the Mt Baker ride from last weekend. they are lined up with the appropriate starting elevations and it gives a good idea on how the two routes compare. i had been freaking out about the Baker ride, so he put this together so i could get an idea of what i was getting myself into. a few miles longer but really it was only about 10 miles of sustained climbing as opposed to the 18 up paradise, but mt baker had more overall elevation gain. regardless, both were fun, both were challenging and i'd like to do both again sometime when its not 2 degrees at the top of either. paradise i would still like to shuttle down, but the baker descent, other than that first few miles down, isn't so bad.
today i went and rode at tiger mtn with april. i hadn't been there since 2004. i don't know why it has been so long, but i know when i thought of going this year i was afraid of the naked guy and the guy with the taser. we didn't see either of those guys but we did see (barely!) two dudes in full head to toe camo with cross bows and stuff. it was a little freaky to see them out there, not sure what they were up to. but man, april kicked my ass. she was on a single speed 29er and just hammered up the hill and she is an awesome downhiller so she dropped me continuosly then, too. it was really quite fun and i should go there more often. a little late now for this season, but next summer for sure. i did have a crash on the downhill. i was doing pretty well, and happy with my ability to get through the wet and sketchy roots and rocks and then bam. down i went. i think i am ok, my left knee has a big old kitten head sticking out the side of it though. we'll see at tomorrow's trail run race if and how that might affect anything. but it was fun to ride with april, i just have to maybe try being a bit more aggressive and try to stick on her wheel a little. when we were almost done with the ride i remembered a bit more about the last time i had gone. it was prolly september or so, and a girl i worked with invited a few of us out. i hadn't been on a mtn bike in forever since i had had seamus and hadn't come out of retirement yet, but i said what the heck! plus another friend was coming, too. i don't remember that uphill being that difficult and the downhill for the most part was ok, too. the one friend however hadn't ever been mtn biking, was on a full rigid and in running shorts and shoes. given that she did an AMAZING job. but then the sun went down. since we had started after work, and since it was taking a bit more time then expected, the sun went waaaaay down. no lights! pitch black!! a few of the other folks went on ahead, got some lights and brought them back, but there weren't enough for everyone, so we wound up hiking the bikes out a good portion of the lower trail. it was nuts. luckily everyone stuck together and we got out ok, but yikes!