Red Badge of Courage

Today was a great day. I met the McMillans for brunch at Alta Lodge in Little Cottonwood Canyon in the early afternoon (it's SE of Salt Lake and 2 hours for me to drive). We had a huge brunch buffet that even included creme brulee! The McMillans and the Bakers (friends of my cousins') had biked down to the lodge as they were able to get there before me. However, they decided to go further down so I joined them mountain biking. I've never really gone mountain biking before so I was psyched...with a healthy dose of scared. A guy at the lodge gave us directions for an "easy" trip and we set off. We ended up working our way up a gravel road that was steep and not what any of us classify as easy. Apparently we took a wrong turn or failed to make a turn somewhere because we were not on the bike trail the guy had talked about. Nonetheless, everyone made it up the mountain including the younger guys (2 are about 10 years old). Of course we had to walk our bikes a ways but we still got there. Since we were on a ski mountain, we took a gravel road down that runs where a ski trail is during the winter. It was rather steep in parts and very gravelly. I'm quite happy with only falling once and not getting too scraped up. The cool part is that it's so dry and dusty here that the blood clots faster and, I think, better (don't worry, there was only a little). Ati also fell and Heidi (his mom) fell trying not to hit him because her shoe was stuck in the bike and she couldn't stop. Luckily no one got very hurt and we had a successful ride. Although it's a bit harrowing flying down a gravel road and manuevering the curves like we did, I had a lot of fun. Definitely need to check out the trails around here as I know Logan Canyon has some.

On the way home I stopped for gas and to check my bike. Since I was near Layton, I decided to call my friend (who had flown out Thursday to move there) to see how she was. We talked for awhile and caught up as much as we could. Even though we won't be able to spend a lot of time together, it'll be fun when we can. Look out Utah State Fair! hehehehe....

After cleaning up a little when I got home, I headed over to the Newman social that was after the mass, which I missed because I wasn't back yet (went Saturday anyway). It was nice to get to know a few people and generally be in a social atmosphere again...since I've been a bit of an introverted recluse this past week (not all the time but overall at least). I even met a guy who is working on his MS in the same college as I am (Natural Resources) and he said that there are a few more people that are in it as well. Now I love all my friends who aren't science majors but it is nice to have other science people around. Can't wait to meet others in my department too...maybe find some hiking/biking/skiing friends....:-)