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, the '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.

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 ....

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.

Family

I am honored by great and wonderful sons and wife. Avery, Carolyn, Nathan. Beauty, love, life-long learning, hard work ...


Avery and Care, graduation fete ... 6.2011.


Nate rockin' up Mount Hood ... (red jersey) ... 6.2011.


A great victory, Fitchburg ... world class ... 7.2009.

Mountain Biking and Camping

Really beautiful three-day weekend. Drove Friday to Blackwater Falls State Park, first with a stop by Blackwater Bikes in Davis for map and advice, lunch at Hellbender Burritos (fiery good), then tent set-up at campground.

Rode from camp to Plantation Trail. It didn't go very well. I crashed about five times, mostly landing in duff, but sometimes sticks and stones. Trail was very washed out due to about six weeks' rain, plus I guess I was tired from sitting in car four hours. After the ride, read in guide: "This trail will jolt you, pound you, hammer you and throw you off at times." Another: "Technical, technical and then a little bit more technical. One of the most challenging cross-country trails in the country." Huh! Mission accomplished. I got stomped. Dinner at Blackwater Lodge, then snug in my "Tundra Dome" tent.

I haven't camped for many years, last time was high in the Tetons with Nate, Paintbrush Canyon. Camping is, like, roughing it. And I've grown soft. My aim is to harden-up for Tour d'Afrique next January. I'm riding Cairo to Khartoum, across the Sahara. Except for two rest days (Red Sea, Luxor), we'll tent camp every night. This weekend at Blackwater was a test. My tent worked well (very sweet rig), and I rode pretty hard, about five hours, five hours and two hours in the saddle Friday-Sunday. Here are some pics and notes.



This is "Tundra Dome" ... an expedition tent I got on sale about half price from EMS. Very sturdy. It's mission is to keep me tight in high wind and sand in the Sahara. One thing I can't say enough good things about is the Blackwater SP campground -- great set-up, hot showers, a short ride down to the lodge for dinner and drinks (and WiFi) ... not so roughing it, but a start ... lots of ride options in and out of the park ... and only 20 bucks/night, to boot ...



This is a map of my ride out to Plantation Trail, and down the trail and such. I'd like to re-try it sometime, maybe later in summer when it's a bit dried out and I'm sharper. Again, this puppy kicked me. Here's a small bounce, over a root and a two foot drop down to the creek. And a picture of Black Lion in a tree (numerous fallen trees blocked the path) ...





Despite Friday's agony, the beauty of trails around Blackwater is immense. It lifts me up even when my legs are dead. Here's a shelter and field off the Allegheny Trail (near Plantation). And the Blackwater Canyon.







On Saturday I did a nice long loop on Canaan Loop Road, which left from Blackwater and "circled the mountain," with a lot of challenging rock, creeks and mud for about the first half, then generally pleasant gravel road by cascading streams and sharp evergreens.

My favorite ride, which would have been a better warm-up Friday, were the many trails about the Canaan Valley Institute (CVI), running out of Davis. I did a two hour out-and-back Sunday, before packing Tundra Dome and driving to DC. Here's a map of my CVI ride, plus a couple nature pics. More pics start here. This was a great out. I'll be back!

Dreams

I've written about challenges and pain. My son's recent injury. Those dying in Africa I've cared for, lives I helped save. My father wrote about my getting hit and paralyzed by a drunk driver when I was 17. I've since lived in pain, with deficits. I continue to improve.

Others have fared worse. My grandfather used to say if you all sat around a table (at a bar, I guess, he was an alcoholic) and put your problems on the table, you'd be embarrassed and pull yours back ... others are worse off. Singer Bono said something like that when he compared our world to the third world: "[I]n the Third World, the gap between an ordinary life there and a life in the West is enormous, almost unimaginable. But the gap between where you are and where I am is microscopic. It's just degrees of luxury."

On balance, I believe, pain or no, poverty or not, we live for dreams. Maslow wrote, we live for ourselves but, once we meet basic needs, we can turn to help others, our community, our children, make the world a better place, attain a sense of love and belonging, the substance of dreams.

Jack Wheatcroft, Bucknell poet and professor emeritus (and one of my academic advisors), taught that we are myth-makers, we create stories to explain the world. I suggest our myths need to reconcile with facts and adapt, or we become stupid, irrelevant. We've seen the crude myths of gods and thunders evolve over the millennia, to science and precision, at various levels. My wife, a molecular biologist, is squarely in the precise paradigm, where I am more coarse, prone to creative conjecture, fresh product designs that decompose to software bits.

I also have high dreams that are more often whispered. The future of the Africa clinic model, certain cyclists, a software product line, heat in the Nubian desert, my left leg. Dreams are larger than the big hairy audacious goals I described last week. They're the entire ether. Much stuff fitting together, elaborate and delicate, assiduously tuned, revised -- abandoned when necessary. Some dreams make it into pictures.





Other dreams are accomplished. (Venga!) On we go.

Tour d'Afrique 2012

In Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, Collins and Porras write that Big, Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) can be key to greatness -- and sometimes failure. A favorite icon, Steve Jobs, worked to make Apple Computer "insanely great." He set audacious goals -- "the computer for the rest of us" -- and tightly controlled product architectures. Apple is now the planet's most valuable tech company.

In December, my bicycle-racer son, body wracked by an errant truck driver, plotted from his hospital bed to ride and race again in Europe. This March, he's off to Belgium (France, Italy ...) to ride with Team USA. My father, at age 70+, embedded in the Marines in the drive to Baghdad. (A no-fear war correspondent, George initially asked to embed with the Iraqi army.) My namesake, photojournalist James Ricalton, walked across Africa three times, 1895-1908, across Russia and more. When I was struck by a drunk driver, comatose, paralyzed, folks counseled that I'd probably be institutionalized, never walk again. Five years later, I'd graduated from Bucknell and was skiing with the governor of Virginia, helping write and enact drunk driving legislation. I founded and sold a tech company, did some interesting work, wrote a book, and blew-up on the back side of the dot-com bubble. I co-founded a maternal and child health clinic in Ethiopia that has treated 3,000+ indigent patients since inception in December 2009.

Difficult goals and steadfast pursuit. Sometimes messy.

I suffer from central pain syndrome, have been diagnosed with dysautonomia, slow failure of the autonomic nervous system. I have bad days. I'm risk averse -- I take extra caution not to hurt myself, am somewhat slow and methodical, spend a lot of time anticipating danger. Since 2001, I've been a consultant and, now, director in the banking regulatory sector, building software. (My products will help drive the new Consumer Financial Protection Board ... helped make TARP successful.) Steady, conservative gruel.


So what's this Africa business? It's another balancing act, between the imprint of my father's audacious bloodline and my mother's disciplined, engineer-led style. (Pictured above is pole-vaulting George and mom's dad, GM chief engineer H.R. Gibbons.) My BHAG? I'm going to ride a bicycle from Cairo to Capetown. In January 2012, I aim to ride the 2,000 Km first section, Cairo to Khartoum, from the pyramids, across some miserable desert, along the Red Sea, then up the Nile into Sudan. If things work, in 2013 I'll ride the nasty, mountainous Khartoum to Addis leg, perhaps beyond. Camping in tents. 12,000 Km all told. Run by a top notch firm, Tour d'Afrique (TdA).

Why? A lot of reasons. Life is short. I've been repressed by injury. I love Africa. I will live longer if I keep my body in shape. I'm an avid photographer ... there will be good pics. I have obligation space -- the kids are in college or nearly so, our house is in order, my wife is supportive. I'll probably align to help charity. It's less dangerous than Everest. Ricalton was there. My vaccines are up to date. It could be fun ...



To prepare, I'm reading a lot. There are a number of very good blogs by folks currently riding TdA (e.g., 1, 2, and 3). I've bought a suitable bike, a Specialized Evo 1x10 hardtail 29er (above), and I'm riding a lot. Next year's Cairo to Khartoum segment is not too bad, about 15 days riding 80-110 miles per day, flattish, with a day off on the Red Sea and a day in Luxor. The harder thing for me will probably be the heat (up to 120+ degrees F), grime and tiredness. I'll do long base miles on the C&O Canal towpath, with some overnight camping interspersed by off-road agility work to improve balance, some heat work to acclimate to desert, and mountains as my weight drops. Yoga, stretching and core workouts will help with 'pretzel' pain. I'll probably drive my weight down from 195 to 175 pounds (a bit more than what I usually do March-October).

There you have it. A first draft. My next BHAG. It may not work, but I think it will. I look forward to sharing thoughts on TdA and learning from everybody. Want to ride?

Take a look at this compelling video ... more vids here.

Salut, Salute, Salud ...

February 14, 2011, National Airport, Arlington, Virginia.

Nate heads off to Boulder, CO, then San Jose, CA, and Belgium (France, Italy ...). (We see him for a day when he has a medical visit, as he passes through on his way to Belgium.) Training, racing and racing ... CalGiant and Team USA.

Balancing Act

It is difficult to hold your son’s hand, after receiving a phone call and flying across country overnight, to look at his misshapen and lacerated face, eyes filmy, conversation disoriented, perseverative, a gurgling cannula sucking blood from his mouth, oxygen in his nose, multiple IVs.

On the other hand, it’s not difficult. It is exactly where you want to be, your every fiber seeking to draw out the pain, heal the tissue, do the right thing. Eighteen hours ago, he was laying on a Tucson street, bicycle broken like matchsticks, hypotensive, airway filling with blood, dying; the victim of a negligent driver. Eighteen hours before he was a joyous teenager, a top of-his-game espoir, bound for European races and national team slots, working ardently at winter training. Prompt EMS, suction and IV saved him, opened his airway and restored circulatory volume. Open reduction surgery with internal fixation by titanium plates and screws would rebind his jaw, fractured in a dozen places, eight teeth knocked out across the top of his mouth, right condyle snapped and dislocated, fractured left subcondyle.

This I balance five weeks post trauma. He’s had a remarkable recovery. His legs are strong, as are his lungs. His power is up, exceptional watts per kilogram. Six hours today on the bike, riding out from our house near Washington, DC. "Let him go, be the wind at his back" -- I tell myself. This I will do, but it is hard. When I was about Nathan’s age, a negligent driver ran a red light and hit me. At the time, January 1977, my own father wrote:

As I stood there in the hallway outside the Emergency Room, I saw Jim standing vibrant, healthy and loving in the family room and cursed myself for not putting my arms around him and persuading him to spend New Year’s Eve at home with us. He was close to doing so – if I had only held him at home. If, if – there were so many ifs to ponder as I waited for the double doors of the operating room to open … The doors finally parted ... [Jim's surgeon] talked briefly but directly. Jim was in grave danger. It would be several more hours before we knew whether the brain’s swelling would reach fatal proportions or stop … They wheeled Jim out. His head was a white turban of bandage. Tubes were in his arm and nose. We tried to touch him as the attendants wheeled him past us on the quiet rubber wheels of the stretcher. I probably called out what I had heard and said dozens of times on the battlefield but seldom believed: “Hang in there. You’ll be all right.”

With this, I work to balance the eerie burden of repeated history. I wasn’t as lucky as my son, my injuries deeper and harder to compensate. Where does a parent draw the line? My two boys began bike racing at ages 10 (Avery) and 13 (Nate). For us, it was the next stage beyond youth soccer, basketball, lacrosse and whatnot pediatric sport mayhem. A phase. But cycling became more, a unifying principle around which our family organized our lives, travels and passions. And the boys became good, very good. Racing around the country and internationally. Cycling is the main thing; both boys wish to become professionals, have guided their college selections towards physiology and sports. Who would have thought? This from a family of scientists, software geeks, lawyers, writers and school teachers?

Cycling is the path that is before my sons, their passion and desire. It is a beautiful thing, their choice. Their hard work and success will bring not just individual victories, but will also lift others seeking joyous and healthy lifestyles. While I urge caution, the Tucson experience is a stronger caution than any can imagine.

Will I feel bad at the next accident? Of course. And we will be there, with every fiber and talent we possess, as we care for those we love, gently enabling their passion, the next podium, the beautiful slice through the sun and air.

Addendum

On December 14, [2010] I posted a Christmas Letter, with thoughts from the year. Six days later, much changed. My son was hit by a pick-up truck while riding in Tucson, Arizona. It was code red trauma, life threatening. Thankfully, he has come through strongly. He fractured his jaw in about 12 places, some dislocation, communition and crushing, lost eight teeth, had reconstructive surgery, and is moving forward.

Our family has done a good job rendering care, love and support. We assembled an A-team of medical and legal experts. Nate will race again, for Team USA in Europe in a few months, and Cal Giant across the season. He is an incredibly tough, smart and fast rider. By many graces, things are going well.

Christmas Letter 2010

Christmas letter. I'm not religious. I've been disappointed by religion. I have a lot of faith, but those who try to organize faith, too often, mess things up, undermine natural, in-born talents for sensitivity, growth, love, what's right. Ask the mothers of kids who are sent on violent jihad, or the boys servicing a priest ... measure the richly jeweled who cry 'hosanna' ... messy stuff ... keep the faith, but hold your own mind.



2010. This was a great year, dramatic. I don't think I've had such a year since 1977, when they opened my skull and cut the dura, saving my life, throwing me down a deep crevasse. This year, with partners, but principally my design, I launched and structured a health care program in Addis Ababa. We treat 200-300 indigent women and children each month, folks who subsist on $100 US per year or less. I worked there in January, and bonded. The program in Addis is excellent. Painfully, I found the collateral effort in DC misshapen, and stepped away.



A friend said I'm an enabler. But not like a supporter of negative addiction. I take pride in enabling folks to hit their goals. My friend opened a shop to support a healthy lifestyle, kids and adults bicycling. It's going great. In turn, she, Sue Hefler, helped my boys hit high marks, we established the dominant junior bike team in the mid-Atlantic ... my old boy (19!) Nate rode for Kelly elite amateur and Team USA ... did Vuelta a Guatemala in October, will tour Europe with Team USA this spring ... 16 year-old Avery raced across the country, from Battenkill, NY, to Bend, OR, to Bunny Hop about DC. Avery's nailing his senior year, diploma in three years, sharp, then he's onto an incredible gap year, Machu Picchu, bike races around the US and maybe across the pond.







I had fun biking, started mountain biking on a single-speed 29er, 'Sparky' (below). Epic rides in the Cascade, Olympic and Appalachian mountains, the C&O Canal, full length, up and back ... I find the mix of biking in wilderness and photography relaxing and energizing.





At year-end, work is interesting. I'm helping with the merger of two agencies, reshaped by Dodd-Frank. Good work, smart people, building something new -- systems integration, data, large complex stuff. First time in years I've slept well.

My incredible wife, Carolyn. September 2010, 25 years ere we wed. Wonderful! She's achieved much, professionally and personally, and been my lift, a rope out of the crevasse. Beyond top scientist, Care is a great fitness acolyte, stronger now than any other time ... dropping me on the climb up Mount Bachelor.

A new, wonderful dog, Soot, completes our team ... so many good things ... On we go.



Neighbor, friend, beloved. It's been a wonderful year. You've been a part. Thank you. Now we look to 2011. 2011 is a prime number. Let's work to make it great, a prime year, marking what we do, making the world a better place.

Much love -- Jim and family