Nate @ 22

Here's to Nate, age 22, racing in Europe, living the dream.
Our wonderful son who has risen above, ever stronger.
May the wind always be at your back.
Happy Birthday!

L, Mom and Dad

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Nate Bontrager Kit, 3.2013 ... Nate training, 1.2011 ... Nate and Avery, Block Island, 8.2001 ... Care and Nate, Saint John, 10.1991 ... Day 1, Arlington Hospital, 3.29.1991.

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Vacaciones ...

Vacations are difficult by criteria. We like to go new places ... it's unlikely we'll go back to the same place, certainly not temporally. So I dig planning and detailing it, sometimes only Walter Middy concepts, a lift from the daily grind. It's hard but important work -- work hard, play hard, get the details right. Capture deeply what you do, live for the experience, and enjoy. Embolden and empower your children, your passions.

We've done many different things, some gifts, some hard-earned. Gift: Flew Concord to Paris, a week in Hotel du Crillon, Opera House w Rob and Nicolete, our honeymoon. Not gifts: Traipsed Cairo slums, refugee camps in Gaza ... bicycle ventures on Route Verte (Quebec), Bend, Olympic Peninsula, Mallorca, New Mexico, Sundance, Val d'Or, Valloire, Sonoma, Santa Barbara ... touring Prague, San Francisco, Tetons, Cozumel, Saint John, Nova Scotia, Granada, Chamonix, Berlin, Smokey Mountains, Block Island, La Jolla, Athens, Madrid, New York, London, Marbella, Ibiza ... others ... My favorite was two weeks in Ethiopia, quietly occupying a desk in a small office with three social workers, documenting patient care in a maternal and child health program ... HIV site visits ... I was never so engaged, content.



This vacation in Los Cabos has been pretty cool, tho' I'll be light on details. Root cause, my 80-something father has been pretty lonely, most contemporaries of his are gone, one way or another. So he proposed a 'bonding' experience, where I could get to know him better. First idea was a sailboat cruise in Greek isles, conceptually cool, but pretty pricey, and truthfully I wasn't terribly keen on spending 8 days in a 2 berth, 1 squatter no WiFi sailboat w Ol' George and a bunch of National Geographic types. Call me picky. Recollecting an impractical notion he had to take his wheel-chair bound high-school girl friend whale watching on the Sea of Cortez, I proposed that (w healthy me). My initial target was Loreto, a Jacques Cousteau-lauded place about mid-Baja, very uncomplicated, essentially eco-tourism. Great idea, but 'we' didn't get our act together, and all airline seats were booked (only Alaska Air flies there), so we settled on Los Cabos, specifically San Jose del Cabo (SJC), on the eastern tip of Baja California Sur, the Sea of Cortez.

I've loved SJC, a lot of wonderful art galleries, restaurants, a scenic preserve/estuary, lovely people, whale watching at Cabo San Lucas. I've read a couple books, swum, enjoyed fantastic Latin jazz, meshed with internationales of many distinctions, improved my Spanish ... hit the local brew pub, ate and drank liberally, enjoyed tremendously Hotel Tropicana and Latin jazz performances there by passionate chanteuse (and new friend) Rosalia de Cuba ... ¡Todos! George met a former journalist of sorts (Dad was pretty famous, in his day, at WaPo); she a divorced, wealthy 40-something (with two children, age 2 and 4, in tow) ... so they headed an hour north to Rancho Leonero, a fishing camp on the Sea of Cortez. Sounded wonderful, but I chose to stay put in the Tropicana, to enjoy more jazz, art, pool swimming, reading and relaxing.



Overall, a good trip. I think given the evanescent excitement for George, mission accomplished ... (I'm reminded of W's aircraft carrier banner 'post' Iraq ...) ... I certainly had some fun, enjoyed local culture and artistry, saw some whales, and took a few good pics (above and below). So it goes ... !




More: http://images.jamesrwilson.com/loscabos

Artist as a Young Man

Avery drawing, 8.2000, Jackson Lake Lodge, WY.


1.2013, by Avery. High-res http://images.jamesrwilson.com/afghangirl.


Getty Museum, Avery (L), Nate, 8.2001.

Son is the Father ...

"The child is the father of the man," Wordsworth wrote. What this means can flow in several directions, the primary being that our antecedent, sometimes more perfect, childhood shapes adulthood. I'm going to take it more directly, that your children shape you, the parent. This is a powerful and good thing.

My wife and I poured ourselves into our sons, with imperfect reticence. I headed a solid U19 bicycling team. My job was to enable the youth's success. I'd tell the parents, "To be good at cycling, to win, your children have to work so hard, that no parent, no coach, can demand that type of effort and discipline: It has to come from within." The kids have got to want to do it, and our job is just to enable participation and engender enthusiasm. Avery (now 18) and Nathan (21) worked monstrously hard.



The boys are enthusiastic about many areas, great learners, cyclists -- now in college, or more. Both travelled during the year. Avery to Spain for three months, Nate in the Alps with Team USA.

Recently, I pulled my paintings (pastel and pencil) and writings from college to share with Avery, who is prolific in both mediums. I was humbled when I compared my work to his; but the circumstances, my battle was different. In college, art was a cathartic, and coarse, as I recovered from severe injury. No matter; I marvel at the precision and detail of Avery's work, and the breadth of his intellect. He is teaching me, and I am an eager observer and learner. His work exposes insights from a vast array of disciplines, physiology to physics and sociology. Avery will make the world a better place. I'm confident he will find great work at the center of his passions.

With Nathan, I feel a rushing stream of grace as he connects ever more largely with the world. He is incredible. Nathan was about killed two years ago. That was a struggle, a severe dialectic. Nathan is disciplined. Through reconstructive surgeries and procedures, he often forwent painkillers. Nathan almost always finishes races, even when he's had a crash. One tough guy. Thankfully, we finished medical and legal matters this fall. After more races in Europe, and winning three stage races in the US during 2012, Nathan is edging into the pro peleton. He has a great season abroad and domestic ahead. May the wind always be at his back.



Care and I are loving life. Work is challenging and full -- she guides biomedical research; I direct a software engineering team. Care is also an awesome athlete. I'm less so, but edging my way towards greater fitness. (The office gym recently opened, and I now find myself cycling to work at least once a week.) I remain passionate about photography and enjoy many hikes with beloved Soot. Care and I plan to travel next year, probably to the Tour of California and the Alps. My father George is well, an avid hiker, travels a good bit, and continues his book-writing. So it goes ... nicely!



I didn't start this as a Christmas Letter, because my last one suffered unhappy amendment. This I hope finds you ever strong, curious, and happy. Moving forward in this complex world, making it a better place -- for many.

Allbest!

Alps (and L'Avenir)

Had a wonderful trip to French Alps, August 26-September 6, 2012. I wanted to recount for fun and to share, so others can enjoy. My mission was tagged to watch Nathan compete in the Tour de L'Avenir, a prestigious race for under-23 cyclists, a 'baby' Tour de France. The race was great, and drove my exploration of places I wouldn't have seen. But my focus was to enjoy and relax, and that I did. This part of the world is among the most stunning I've seen.

Flew overnight from Washington Dulles to Geneva via Amsterdam on KLM. On arriving Monday, drove a back way to my lodging in Valloire. My path took me 26 Km up the Col de la Madeleine, a famous stretch for the Tour de France. On Monday, the hills were green, gold and granite. Several days later, on Friday, August 31, the pass was coated with snow (below), and the Tour de L'Avenir stage over the Col had to be re-routed. Nasty for August!



The bike race week was mostly rain (or snow), but for me it was mellow. I lodged at a ski hotel in the smallish village of Valloire (about 12 restaurants). Slept in a lot, ate breakfast at patisseries, hiked or biked 3 or more hours every day, soaked in incredible scenery, and caught-up with my son and his teammates as I could.

The mountains and hills in the Alps are gorgeous, special light, verdant, awesome ... many adjectives fit. I liked several hikes I took in or after light rains, like a 12 Km trek about Lac des Cerces, the Col, and other features (top pic, below). Or the crags above Col de la Colombiere, another TdF landmark (middle pic). It was all great and sublime, stretching the lungs and, for me, soothing the soul. After the hike or bike (bottom pic), I'd settle into a nap, a great meal, and wine or beer. Surprising thing, except for the airfare, it wasn't too expensive ... my lodging was usually under 100 Euros, and meals weren't too pricey ... particularly in the rural areas.





After the bike race first week, I saw my son and his teammates off to Belgium (with a shopping bag of homemade cookies and ice cream), shifted gears and headed to Chamonix for a few days. Chamonix is at the base of Mont Blanc, and a hiker's / extreme sport aficionado's paradise. Everyone is rightly decked out for an Eddie Bauer or Yves Sant Laurent ad, it seems. I enjoyed my time immensely. Comfortable hotel, off the main square, hiked 3 to 7 hours each day (did some major pain, 5,000' descending off the massif). Hiked main routes, bookended by cafes and cold drinks, high altitude sun (up to 12,500') ... astounding views. I could spend a month in Chamonix and be half finished.







That said, my favorite place was an extraordinarily comfortable and nicely appointed country chalet, in Les Plens, above Le Grand Bornand (which, itself, is a bit east of Annecy). I was only here two nights / three days, but this was so comfortable, I could have spent my entire trip here (and drove to the race locales, Mont Blanc, etc.). I slept 11-12 hours, took long baths, and mountain biked or hiked to great satisfaction ... ate big meals (pizza like you've never had, local beer, and Genepi digestif), tuned in bike race stages ... repeat ... repeat ... repeat ... When things move to stress back in good old DC, I look over pics of these mountains, and the chalet, and settle back to what is, what will be ... so nice.




Resources listed below. Allez!

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• Hotel Valloire -- La Pulka
• Hotel Grand Bornand -- Chalet Les Fermes de Pierre et Anna
• Hotel Chamonix --- Chamonix Park Hotel Suisse
• Favorite resto -- Ferme du Pepe, Le Grand Bornand
• Munchie -- favorite resto in Chamonix, healthy
• Chamonix Mountain Adventures hiking guidebook
• Lac / Col des Cerces hike
• More Pics - Slideshow

Elk River

Time to go off-grid, about literally. Earlier this week, drove down to Slatyfork, West Virginia, for a few days rest, mountain biking, reading, photography, the like. My job's been intense, with a few 24x7 pinches.

My wife and I are pretty active, support bike racing with our boys. Care will do one trip -- Nationals in Georgia ... Cascade in Oregon, -- and I'll do another -- Battenkill in New York ... New Mexico's Gila (and many more ...) ... We flip dog-sitting with soigneur duty ... sometimes we do joint ventures, like Vermont's Green Mountain, which is fun, the best ...

But, it can be haphazard and tiring. This brief getaway exceeds expectations. Lodging and dining at Elk River Inn is great. A comfy room, lounges, porches, farm fields, hot tub, in the midst of killer (road and mountain) bike rides, scenery and nature ... only $65 a night, private room and bath ... sumptuous dinner, fine wine extra ... $50 if you sleep in the farm house (shared bath, just fine ...) ... or your can camp along the Williams River or Tea Creek Campground, $5 or $10 / night ...

This sojourn I've bootstrapped some fitness work, bike riding each day 3+ hours. Since new job, I haven't been able to ride as much. I've thickened. I also delight in the opportunity to read freely, take pictures, and sleep. I found great beauty at the Cranberry Wilderness Botanical Area.


As to 'off-grid', this is real: because the area is near the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, we're in a 13,000 square mile National Radio Quiet Zone. To better hear the aliens, and catch the detail of distant exploding nebulae ... no cell phone towers in southeastern WV ... I carry my Spot emergency tracker, should the unforeseen root catapult my mountain bike towards infinity, deep in wilderness ...


Here are a few photo and resource links ... Gil and Mary Willis have a great program, only four hours from DC ... this is an easy, enjoyable escape.

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Cranberry Wilderness, large arena of this adventure

Elk River 2012 photo gallery ... Wilson shots with pocket cam and a few SLR ...

Elk River Inn and Restaurant ... Gil and Mary Willis proprietors; also fly fishing, mountain biking, cross country skiing guides and support

West Virginia Mountain Bike Trails ... Trails marked Slatyfork, Richwood, Cranberry, Snowshoe ... are in the zone ... there are hundreds of rides in this area ... I only scratched the surface (using my mediocre riding skills ...) ...

There are many great road rides, also, which you can find using MapMyRide ...

While I only rode part of it, I like this beast ride from Elk River Inn, to the Scenic Byway (Rt 150), and back across Williams River Road through the fish hatchery to Edray ... lots of meaningful climbs, up to 4,500', down to 2,500' and back up again, all within 40 miles ... and great scenery ...

Simple Photos

I like taking pictures because they capture things that are dramatic and meaningful in life. I've read a lot about photography -- I had my first darkroom when I was 10 in DC, about 42 years ago; a geeky high-school photo-clubber stinky with Dektol; went to the Nikon school with my father George when I was 12; and spent a lot of time thinking about F-stop, lens depth of field, bokeh, shutter speed, film granularity, camera/lens image quality, composition, background, and lighting. Sometimes this works nicely, as planned, other times it's just dumb luck. The shot above I saw and composed, kneeling in the mud in Addis Ababa. I got about 20 very good shots that day. The shot below I mostly hit it, applied a formula, and a guy rode into it.



Shooting bicycle criteriums for me is pretty formulaic. I don't use the pro-standard 70-200 F2.8L zoom sports lens, instead I use a high-end portrait lens, my 135 F2L (fixed focal length). It doesn't have the reach of the zoom, but it does a great job capturing faces and people's emotions. And it's a lot lighter. In a crit, you basically know the pattern and flow of the race, where the riders will be. I get as close as possible to the riders and then let them ride into the frame. (I sometimes get grazed by racers, but I haven't been hit or in a crash -- yet.)

I shoot at 1/1250 shutter speed for pros (and 1/800 or 1/1000 for slower categories and uphills), about F8 if the light will have it, and ISO 400 (sometimes 800 if it's darker). I use manual focus. Typically, I'll pick a mark on the pavement like a traffic stripe or a tar blob and focus on it very carefully. Then as a rider is about to ride through the mark, I'll hit the shutter and hopefully I'll capture a sharp image. While I have a good camera with lots of automated composition and focusing gizmos (e.g., sports mode), I generally don't use that.

That's the capture phase. Most of the work comes afterwards, post-processing on the computer. I spend a lot of time examining picture detail, sharpness, contrast and the like. I'll think about the shape of the picture (i.e., what rectangle) and work to crop the picture. For cycling, I like to have a sense of movement, so I often crop to 16x9 HDTV long-horizontal format, with action flowing one side to the other. Something along the lines of the rule of thirds for the center of attention.

There you have it.

Unmoored ...

I like the holiday interstice, Christmas to New Years', to get unmoored. There's less churn at work, almost no meetings, my email drops from 100 a day to a dozen or so. The holidays bring renewed family and social connection, reasons to reflect, measure change. I read deeper things, technical or policy. This week I've been into liquidity risk ... ƒ[certainty(value, time)] ... an interest of a client. Not that I need to be expert (my job is software), but it helps to know the customer, improve anticipation.

At home, we're about empty nesters. My youngest, age 17, is off to study in Granada, Spain. His older brother is soon to California, then broadly about the US and overseas racing bicycles. (May the wind be at his back.) So, there're refined things to do, like renegotiate kitchen duties, cooking for two, not four. Care and I are taking a short cooking course to fresh-up. My Africa avocation continues to grow, albeit more complex. I've got to work to fit new government regulations in Ethiopia. Likely we'll set a new partnership, then grant and development work, while continuing excellent healthcare. I anticipate a quick trip to Addis ... Tuesday, after New Year's, we re-animate, fast train to New York, then back to DC same-day. Moving away from thoughtful waters, into slalom gates and churn ... so it goes.

Click the pics for high-res ...

Mad River

Enjoyed about two weeks in Vermont's Mad River valley, arriving on the heels of a devastating flood caused by Hurricane Irene. Many persons were displaced, long dumpster-sized piles of belongings and house-parts alongside road, in front of homes low and close to the river. Our travel was delayed because bridges and roads were washed out from the north, south, east and west. The four-day Green Mountain Stage Race (GMSR) was rerouted at the last minute and part-cancelled on day 4 due to more heavy rain. I was moved and impressed by Vermonters' resilience and appreciation for their government -- Hand-painted signs dotted the road with thank-yous to local authorities. (I wish this scaled to the national scene ...)




Son Avery rode intensely in his hardest race series of the year. No podiums, but we'll be back. It was pretty rainy, so we didn't get as much post-GMSR leisure riding as planned, but had lots of fun nonetheless. We visited Ben and Jerry's ice cream factory, scrambled nasty cuts on the Long Trail, rode the gondola and hiked Mount Mansfield at Stowe, mountain biked XC ski trails and single track, lunched at Trapp Family Lodge (Maria!), and more. A lot of quiet time playing games, talking, reading, dog walks, and meals with friends was a great refresher. Mad River helped to make us un-mad ...






More pics -- GMSR and Mad River, FB with notes.

Favorites:

Lareau Farm Inn / American Flatbread ... awesome ... Vermont local produce, organic, great beer ... classic !

Our wonderful cottage -- convenient to GMSR, biking, hiking, dining ... someone should grab it for next year (we'll probably be in Steamboat ...) ...

Trapp Family Lodge -- a great place to mountain bike, dine, pub, amble ...

Long Trail -- many great hikes, shelters ... legendary ...

Stowe ... great hiking, shopping about town, skiing in winter, biking ... full-on nature ....

Postponed

Not surprisingly, I've postponed my Tour d'Afrique adventure because of responsibilities of new job ... I have the time owed, but taking a month out in the first year doesn't fit ... Alas. Maybe 2013, or big ride with Care in Swiss or Hawaii instead ...

Relaunches ...

I wonder how this year will turn out. Much has changed for the better. New job. My older son survived a bad, bad situation (hit by a truck while biking). My younger son graduated high school. Both boys are doing great racing and pursuing their dreams. I'm re-engaging the medical charity in Ethiopia and riding my bike like hell, training for a trek in Africa.

This is a lot of stuff. My mantra is to keep things simple. It ties back to Grady Booch's principle: "A ruthless focus on simplification, minimization and clarification" is essential to (software architecture) success. I say this, but when things are spare, I tend to add things to get to a level of stress, requisite complexity (variety), I think I can manage. In this I perseverate, iteratively considering and adjusting, finding the right load.

Looking forward, the load looks like this: (1) Job. I'm a new director at a federal agency. My value prop is to help the agency move from a contracted-out software development model to one that is more strongly in-sourced, strengthening core capabilities. I've done this before. The place is a billion-dollar enterprise. My horizon is five years. (2) In April 2010, I resigned from a healthcare charity I developed in Addis Ababa due to missteps in DC. In June 2011, the program ran out of money, and my colleagues in Africa asked for help. I wrote a check, and I'm working voluntarily to strengthen development and in-country partnerships. (We serve 200-300 indigent women and children per month in Addis. We're also partnered with Save the Children to vaccinate 30,000 children in southern Ethiopia.) (3) For fitness and fun, I've signed-up to ride the first leg of the Tour d'Afrique, starting next January. My trip will cover 2,000 Km in under three weeks, riding from Cairo to Khartoum along the edge of the Sahara desert. My weekend training rides, sometimes 8-12 hours, are strenuous, usually in Virginia and Maryland's countryside.

A good time to clear the mind and find simple paths.

Selling my beloved Kona 29er ... $350.

SOLD - SOLD - SOLD

I'm selling my beloved Kona Unit 2-9, single speed 29er mountain bike. I bought it about two years ago (new), and put it through normal paces in the DC Metro area (e.g., Wakefield, C&O, Elizabeth Furnace) and in mountains out west. Unit is dinged per normal usage, but no issues. Great fun, simple, light and reliable. (I've moved on to a Specialized Evo 1x10.)

Size is 19" (I'm 6'1"), with stock components (Avid disk brakes), plus Time Atac pedals and both road and mountain tires. Here's a spec for the 2011 version: http://www.konaworld.com/bike.cfm?content=unit ... Pictures of my bike below.

If interested, please email jamesrwilson@gmail.com or call (6-9:30 PM) 571.239.6772.

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The bike's palmares, such as they are, include rides up to Broken Top, Tumalo Falls and various loops in Bend, round about Sisters, Oregon, Seattle bike parks, Olympic Peninsula, a couple times up and down the length of the C&O Canal, lots of single and double track around Boulder, Colorado, and various ventures about DC and Skyline Drive -- and a Spokes Etc. best 'photograph-your-bike' award ...





Thank you.