I tried to ford the river, but my oxen died

Sometimes you do things that people think you're crazy for. Kind of like riding your bike across the country. This past weekend was one of those times.

See, awhile back, a group of us decided to go backpacking on the Eagle Rock Loop in Arkansas this weekend. We did not, however, realize it would be the coldest weekend of the winter thus far.

Boy were we in for a treat...

Four of us out of the seven left Ruston early Friday morning, drove up, and hiked in to set up camp. As soon we hit the trail we started the longest, steepest ascent of the weekend. We were all reconsidering our motives by the time we got to the top, but luckily that was the hardest part of the hike. We made it about 7 miles in, and set up camp early enough to collect firewood and not make the rest of the group hike too far in the dark. That didn't really go quite as planned.

See , the other group had class, got held up a little, and didn't get to the trailhead until 8 o'clock. Needless to say it had been dark for a while before they got there. They hiked until 1:30 am before they finally got to us. We had figured they'd just stop and set up camp themselves, but they toughed it out and made it. Oh, and the low that night was 20 degrees.

We got up the next morning, and spent it playing around in the mountains. Dustin and I climbed a huge bluff that looked out over the mountains. Words can't explain how amazing the view was there. You really felt like you could reach out and touch the sky.

Since the other guys hiked so late, we took our time packing up camp and decided just to go a couple miles and spend the day relaxing.

We had to ford the river a few times, and it didn't up so well for a few of the guys. After a few really wet river crossings we reached one of the trailheads and decided to set up camp not far from there. The guys who got wet tried to dry their clothes, and Dustin and I decided to hike up towards Albert Pike.

We were able to move pretty quickly since we didn't have our packs on, and made it most of the way. When we went back to camp, the guys were still trying to let all of their stuff dry out. The temperature hadn't gotten above freezing all day, and with the fire not cooperating things weren't going as planned.

With low going to be in the mid-teen's and a chance of snow, we decided it was best to go ahead and head out that night.

Casey, Dustin, and I made the 3 or 4 mile hike back to the cars, and got there right as the sun was going down. We drove back, packed up, and headed out.

On our way home we stopped in Arkadelphia, AR and ate like kings at Western Sizzler.

We had a lot fun, and have already made plans to do it again in the spring when its a little warmer.

This last picture is the whole group, from left to right:

Dustin, me, Cody, Chris, Casey, Josh, and John.

It may not have anything to do with biking or building, but we sure had a lot of fun.

I spent the last two days with eight 8th graders as I led a Disciple Now at our church this weekend. We didn't get much sleep, but it was awesome weekend.

We spent Saturday afternoon at a Habitat house that we've been working on as a church. I was impressed that a group of junior high kids was able to insulate the entire house in just a matter of hours (with the leaders only having to follow up with minor corrections). It really got me excited about the construction we'll get to do this summer on the road.

I've also included a few pictures from my duathlon last weekend...

The first one is me running my bike in after I the flat.

This second one is of me coming in at the end of the race.

Flat Tires

Last week I was pulling out of my parents driveway to head back to school and realized I had a flat tire on my car. I put the spare on had it changed, and it put me back a couple of hours.

A few days later I had a duathlon (run-bike-run) that I did in Shreveport. Not being much of a runner, the first run (2.5 kilometers) went fine, and I got on the bike ready for the 12 miles. It was really flat, and after a couple of miles into a head wind, I was able to hold a solid pace around 23 mph. My bike split was definitely making up for my limited running ability until about 10.5 miles in. I took the last turn on the ride, went down the only hill on the course, and my front tire popped. With 1.5 miles left to go, I decided to run it in to the transition area instead of quitting and waiting on the sag-wagon. I had to do this barefoot since I was wearing bike shoes, and they're not really designed for anything but pedaling. I got passed back by just about everyone I'd passed plus more, but got a lot of laughs as I made it back to the transition. The second run was slow since I'd already done all the running I cared to do, but I made through fine.

I'm glad I'll carry a spare tire with me this summer. And I'm really glad I decided to bike across America instead of running it.

This summer I'll defintely