Washington State CX Championships...and a Silver Medal

The Washington State Cyclocross Championships were this past Sunday at the Kitsap County Fairgrounds. A lot of rain leading up to race day created some sticky mud. The curvy course led you through and around barns, into the mud, and down a fast singletrack, wooded descent. We are proud to report that Brandee captured a silver medal on her single speed and earned a place on the podium! Eric had a respectable ninth place finish in his race (for a 35 year old-ouch!) An overall fun day. Belgian frites or Freedom Fries?

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Eric's Sprint Start - notice who has one speed versus who has gears

The Podium and Champagne

Carmen and the Silver Medalist

Through the Barn

Typical 'Peanut Butter' Mud

Puppy Rescue Update!

Update on the 7 pups we rescued back in September:

They all ended up having coccidia parasite (a common but tough parasite to beat). Five of the pups responded well to medicine and antibiotics, but the two smallest pups were just too weak to survive the sickness and were put down about 2 weeks after arriving at NorthBeach PAWs No-Kill shelter. The pups were taken great care of and all recieved names after M*A*S*H characters.

The five surviving pups have now all been placed in wonderful homes: Colonel Potter went to Vancouver, B.C.; Klinger to Newport, Oregon; Winchester went to a family in Ocean Shores; Houlahan went to a single woman; and Hawkeye (the Alpha) went to a family where the father is in Federal service and has trained service dogs - perfect for an alpha like Hawkeye.

I hope to see pictures of the pups went they are grown up. I think they'll be amazing dogs!

Here's a recent picture of Colonel Potter. What a cutie!

...and a recent picture of Wrigley (a.k.a. Houlahan)

Fort Flagler CX Weekend

In what is now a tradition, we had our second annual Fort Flagler cyclocross weekend. Again, we rented a cozy cabin on Marrowstone Island with Brandee's dad. Sadly, Carmen couldn't come with us and had her first sleepover with Canyon and his pack. With the exception of Sunday's bone chilling wind, we had some really nice weather. Two days of racing, two different courses - one on the lower part of the park, and the other up above that ran through old bunkers and barracks. Aside from a stupendous crash that Brandee had on Saturday (she still finished her race), we had some great racing and a lot of fun. Eric had his best races of the season - finally. Believe it or not, Port Townsend has some pretty good Thai food, too.

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Brandee descending from one of the bunkers

Eric riding the Sandpit on the lower course

One of the Run-ups

A view from our cabin - we watched whales blow just off that point

Celebrating a fun weekend - Brandee and 'the Captain' outside of our cabin

Seattle CX Race #5 Donida Farms

Carmen is always there for moral support before and after each race! She loves us no matter how we place.

This was a tough run-up!

Had to show this cool pumpkin that I carved at my friend, Julie's Autumn party. The eyes were jelly candy so Carmen kept trying to eat them.

Brandee Hard at Work

This picture was taken at Potholes Reservoir near Moses Lake, Wa. I'm holding a nice Walleye. I'm studying pesticides in the reservoir and our sampling includes fish tissue, though I threw this fish back!

A couple more photos of Wonder Woman

Our friend Donna took these great action photos...