St. Lucia was a nice diversion from the mountains--or I should say, a nice diversion from high altitude mountains. The highlight of the trip was a run on "Tinker's Trail", a short but steep jungle ride endorsed by the man, the myth, the legend, David "Tinker" Juarez. For those of you who don't recognize the name, Tinker is a mountain biking legend, having excelled at the sport for over 20 years (not to mention earning himself a spot in the mountain biking hall of fame).
At 45, Tinker still rocks (0% body fat and whale-lungs are good for that) and he's a very cool cat off the bike as well. In the photo above, he's the red-adorned fellow in the center. The eponymous trail we rode with Tinker, is a steep, 700 foot climb (in under a mile!) that ended up being a hike-a-bike for all of us except, of course, Tinker. The descent was wet, muddy mayhem but gosh, was it fun!
The rest of the trip was great--the other journalists and our PR dude were all good company, sharp, witty, and fun to be around. Beside eating like kings and queens, we also snorkeled, zip-lined through the jungles, and toured the south western side of the island. Despite some epic flights (back to back 5 hour doozies), I've returned to Colorado ready to hit the hills again. Today was a necessary rest day as I need to reacclimate to the thin air before traipsing up to 14,000 feet again. As an "off" day endeavor, I did the 3 hour tour of biking up to Ward as a maintenance road-ride. At 9,600 feet I felt fine, so the trio of hikes on tap for this week (Chair Mountain, Red Cloud/Mount Thomas, and Treasury Peak) should not be too bad.
Thanks again for everyone who continues to donate to the Mountain Project by the way! I'm updating the donation page soon! Until next time... :)
