A break in the silence

Greetings from UT!  I've been enjoying a nice break at home.  The past few weeks have been spent visiting with family, heading out for some fun riding, and generally enjoying the last little bit of summer.

Some highlights:

• Hanging out with the rad folks of SKINourishment, Inc. at the OR show in SLC! After talking with her on the phone all season, I was thrilled to meet SKINourishment's Creator/Founder Polly Glasse in person!  I had an absolute blast...can't wait for Tour of Austin next week!   

Team SKINourishment: Polly & Kat!

•  My folks were in town!  Enjoyed a fun-filled week of Bee's games, High West Distillery, Utah's Natural History Museum, mini-golf, and being dive-bombed by hummingbirds in Big Cottonwood.  

Good times in the Big Cottonwood Canyon

• Tour of Utah spectating!  Managed to catch 3 stages this year.  I rushed to the capitol building after work Friday to catch the last couple laps of the circuit race.  Saturday, I joined Tiffany, her husband Steve and friend Justin, and Theresa Cliff-Ryan and her husband Gary for a ride.  Tiffany and I continued to the top of Guardsman to cheer on Jens...that was my objective at least!  Here's a video clip...I'm not sure Jens Voigt is in the video, but I was cheering for him anyway.  I just got so excited.  What a character.   

Guardsman Pass: Kat & Tiffany 

Sunday, Matt and I rode mountain bikes to the race.  We ended up watching just after they came over the final climb and started to descend down into Park City.  The ride was sweet...not the best place to watch from though...mostly because there were some zealous spectators around us and I don't mean the fun variety.  I mean the policing variety.  Some lady told me I couldn't be on or near my bike because I might try to jump in the race.  The actual police officer marshaling and I had a good chuckle over some of the ridiculousness.    

En route to the final stage... 

• I survived my first encounter with a rattlesnake. Funny thing was I started out for my ride heading up Rattlesnake Gulch.  Didn't see a rattlesnake.  Despite the name of the trail, the thought of seeing a rattlesnake didn't cross my mind.   Ironic.  After getting on the Pipeline Trail, the thought did cross my mind and I kinda lost it.  Somewhat irrationally...I essentially stopped riding because I was super anxious.  What if I saw a rattlesnake hanging out in the middle of the trail?  What would I do?  Is there a safe distance to pass a rattlesnake?  After being paralyzed with fear for a couple minutes, I told myself to get with the program and continue with the ride.  The next half hour I enjoyed the beautiful scenery pictured below... 

Then I was hammering out of the woods around a bend, and sure enough a huge a** rattlesnake is crossing the trail right in front of my wheel.  Did I scream like a girl?  If a girl screams like this...

....then yes, I did scream like a girl.  It happened super quickly...no time to hit on the brakes...it's very possible I severed the snake from its rattle.  Or the rattling I heard meant the dude was super angry at me for scaring it.   While I hoped I didn't hurt it, I was terrified and I didn't stick around long enough to find out.  I booked it super watts style down to the road.  Last mountain bike ride for a little while at least...

Tomorrow, I head east to race in the Chris Thater Memorial.  Let the end of season racing block begin!