inaugural doughnut ride

welp it's 10:30am and my celebration of doughnut day is through.
i'm not sure if i am supposed to thank the doughnuts or curse their existence. who am I kidding? no cursing will occur.
i will thank them.
despite the slight rumble and discomfort in my belly and the over bearing sugar content in my mouth.
let us start at the beginning.
i have a personal motto that states "i go nuts for doughnuts!" that said i am not trying to have a doughnut every day, shit, every month seems a bit unnecessary, but sometimes opportunity presents itself. today was one of those opportunities.
my first thought was "i am going to eat sooo many doughnuts". of course i had made a rule last year that did not allow me to eat doughnuts here in reno unless i powered myself to get there; walking, running, biking, ect. that is when it struck me to set out on a tour of the doughnut shops and try some of the places i find myself driving passed and ogling at.
the ride was mostly a success. during a 22 mile morning ride i was able to squeeze in 8 doughnuts and 2 glasses of whole milk and really good wod today at battleborn crossfit. the only downside was that my final stop, the creme de la creme, the frosting on the cake, the cherry on top, the planned grande finale of devouring peanut butter logs at doughboy was thwarted by everyone elses immense love for (pb)logs, cuz they were out. Side note I find it quite fitting that peanut butter logs can be referred to as "(pb)logs" since pb also stands for lead on the element chart. i am not convinced that this is merely a coincidence since (pb)logs are quite dense and most ppl probably feel like they have lead in their stomach after eating a couple.

official promotion banner for national "donut" day

2 crumbs from "best in town"

really enjoyed this today; glad i only had two doughnuts in me

jelly doughnut not only 24/7 but also offering bacon maple

my reliable black steel steed

"donut bistro" a new one for me, cookies and cream, along with the classic fritter

the substitute for (pb)logs 

some changes

i am writing this from my bed. thats right, my bed. not a sleeping pad in a tent, nor a foam mattress on tipi floor, not even a good friends wooden floor with a light sleeping bag. my bed. i packed my mattress in storage back in march 2010 when i decided that i was going to ride my bike down the coast of california from santa cruz to santa ana. after the ride i spent time in baja california. then a month and a half in a tent in truckee. then traveled all over eastern asia for a couple months. upon my return i was a vagabond. living out of my car visiting friends and family as far north as yaak, montana and newport beach, california in the south.during this time i was convinced, rather easily i might add, to live in a tipi for the winter, IN TRUCKEE. by the time march 2011 rolled around i had yet to take my mattress out hiding. spring and summer were unable to afford me any opportunities either. there was more tent time and car time and floor time. oh and alaska to top it all off. but finally the time has come. my name is in the dotted line. i am permanently here for 8 months. permanently sounds a bit strong. lets say that i have a mailing address for the next 8 months. and with that; a mattress. but also: a closet, refrigerator, shower, power supply, internet, and of course as goes without saying, bills. 

my mattress and buffalo. my bed

connor and i have moved into an apartment together. its a newer place in northwest reno and pretty affordable. the main draw was access. access to trails. from the door i can run up the road a half mile and hit dirt. not any dirt though. dirt that takes me up. up to the summit of peavine which is 3000 feet above the apartment. both connor and i have talked about being able to get ourselves in a healthy routine where we would trek up and down that mountain all winter long, hopefully without too much snow but even if there is a lot of snow we will have a trail broken and it wont be an issue.

we are prepared. i think

view of peavine from my bed. its taunting me

keeping in trend with changes. i chopped off the beard. kinda regret it. but it was time to give it a fresh start. im hoping with a few weeks of daily shaving the new beard will supercede any gentic issues i am facing and grow in thicker. thats the old wives tale anyway. shave it and it grows back darker, faster, and thicker. in the mean time i look like this, ha.

the hot straight shave was great

depleted

today connor and i made an attempt to find the origin of peavine road. its not that it is that elusive, it is more that we are looking for way to connect with it from keystone canyon trail head. The reason for this is that despite the fairly dry climate of reno there is still a good gathering of snow on the ground, most of it untracked. the road that goes from top to bottom is an exception to this. vehicles use it to get the radio towers that are the summit.  peavine is a brutish mtn to play on. it is an individual peak that rises up alone. it is not part of the nearby by sierra nevada range. there are essentially no trees on the entire thing. it has a seemingly healthy wildlife population given its proximity to an urban scene. its base at the truckee river is close to 4000 ft elevation and its peak rises just over 8200 ft. so even if you start in the neighborhoods above the river you get about 3000ft of vertical gain. running on the graded and groomed road is something of a training tool during the winter months.

photo cred: Lilloarts

so today the goal was to drop a car at keystone canyon then drive to the top of robb drive. trudge our way up to the road then just head down until we ran into something familiar. it worked; we went from one car to the other. we just slightly underestimated the time and effort it would take. we finished our exploration in just under 4 hour hours. connor is adamant in saying we did about 20 miles. i feel like with the wall we hit (no food or water carried with us or consumed beforehand) that we were closer to 15 miles. so in reality a happy medium of 18 will be put down for today. Either way it was a solid four hours on the feet trough snow and mud with climbs and descents. 
furthermore and probably the coolest part of the day was the complete seclusion that was felt by both of us. it was as if we had entered a time machine at the top of robb dr and went back 400 years. i say this because there was a fog that blanketed and hid all of reno and its casinos roads and sounds and left us looking down on a valley of white clouds and radiant sunshine all around us. it was spectacular! we had been weaving our way up the mountain following game tracks and trails and finally turn around to see the city had vanished. i often find myself wondering what it would be like to see california or the west before it had been inhabited by the US and all of its citizens and sprawl. today was a glimpse of that.
now i am just sitting trying to make up for some of the lost calories and liquids and warm my body back up. thankful for a day depletion. It always makes everything feel so rewarding and rich, even if its just a can of beans and a cup of water.