An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

Ahhh, SK102, a tradition in my life (on and off) since 2001. I took a long break after my first few visits, but have been a regular attendee as an instructor since 2013 - except, of course, for last year which I had to skip for health-related reasons. This was the 20th SK102 and over the years it had grown from a handful of people to a rather large event before being intentionally scaled back in size last year. While the raw numbers aren't that different (maybe 10% reduction), the smaller size did feel more intimate. Also, with the passage of time there's been some turnover of the volunteer crew and it to me it seemed a little strange strange to not see some of the old familiar faces there: Greg and Jenny, Rich and Sue, Dave I., Rob, Tom, Frank, and so on. Another thing that seems to have fallen by the wayside is what I call the CPA letterman jacket. In years past, CPA would give out little kayak-shaped patches known as "rockers" to people for various kinds of volun...

I just looked at when I joined Geocaching.com: Christmas Eve of 2006. That seems about right - I started doing it as a way to get outside with Teddy and David way back when. I've been away from it for a while; other than picking up one or two while traveling, I haven't really cached since 2015. Ted has persisted more with it, including finding some really ingenious geocaches out in West Virginia. He's been saying for a long time that he'd like to show me some of these clever caches, and we finally found the time to make a trip out to West Virginia. I picked Ted up at around 7 AM. I figured I should drive - riding as a passenger with Ted on Friday the 13th would have been tempting fate a little too much! It was one of those anomalously warm 80 degree days in April, and the sun was shining as we headed for Martinsburg, where our first stop was the Visitor's Center, located in the historic home of famed Confederate femme fatale and spy Belle Boyd . The center wasn...

The Vasaloppet  is a famous ski race in Sweden. It has absolutely nothing to do with bicycles, and so naturally every spring since 2007 the Swedish embassy in conjunction with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) has hosted the VASA bike ride in tribute to the Vasaloppet and the coming of spring. Yes, it makes no sense. Unfortunately, it's a tradition that's coming to an end. After last year the Swedes decided they could no longer host the event (no reason given - perhaps diplomatic ties have frayed). This year REI stepped in to host one final VASA ride, so my first VASA ride will almost certainly also be my last VASA ride. I had registered for the ride last year, but it was held the day I was released from the hospital, a day when I was in no condition for a long bike ride. With the change of hosts came a change of venue - the ride started and ended at the flagship REI in Northeast DC rather than at Sweden House. Rather than bike the ten miles from home to RE...

First they said the cherry blossoms would peak really early, around St. Patrick's Day. Then March was cold and they pushed the forecast peak to late March. Then early April. Then later in April. Admittedly, the peak bloom forecast always moves around, but this year's particularly unsettled weather made it really hard to pin down a date for a cherry blossom kayak trip. I suggested to the PoG regulars that we do a cherry blossom paddle the last Thursday in March, but after the peak bloom was pushed into April I opted to delay a week to April 5th.  In all the confusion I lost some of my original group, but the PoG stalwarts showed up: Tom, Rob and Larry. The best place to see the blossoms from the water happens to be the little Tidal Basin inlet directly across the river from Columbia lsland, so we started our paddle by crossing the river to the blossoms. Cherry blossom season always yields interesting sights, in this case some Asian women doing a fashion photo shoot and what lo...