Eight Random Facts

Sherrie over at Brush & Barren tagged me with the Eight Random Facts meme.

Here are the rules for Eight Random Facts:

• Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

And here are the eight random facts:

I think by now folks know I like birds and bird photography. But did you know...

1) In 1999 I completed the Leadville Trail 100 (mile) endurance mountain bike race in 10 hours, 13 minutes. Besides bragging rights, I got my LT100 silver belt buckle to commemorate the experience!

2) Now I ride a Chris Holm mountain unicycle.

3) When I'm not out birding or riding my MUNI, I teach middle school science at Centennial Middle School in N. Boulder, Colorado. I'll be starting year 15 there in August!

4) I also like to garden. I specialize in plantings to attract hummingbirds (surprise, surprise) and tomatoes. As of today (July 4), lots of green 'maters are set- won't be long now!!

5) I also like to run rivers by raft or canoe. I rowed the Grand Canyon on a private trip in October, 2002. I'm scheduled for another Grand trip in April, 2011 (I kid you not.)

6) For a while I was into cave photography. I once rappelled 280 feet into a New Mexico cave (appropriately enough, called Deep Cave) on one such expedition. That was easy, but ascending back out was a bit tougher. I've got to scan my cave slides someday so I can get them on the web...

7) Another outdoor adventure sport I used to do was telemark skiing. In fact, I got my lifer Boreal Owl on a backcountry trip when I flushed one from its day roost alongside the trail- a majorly unexpected benefit of breaking trail!!

8) And, the day after I graduated from high school (been a while), my best friend & I drove my van to Alaska. To fish. On a whim we drove all of the way up to Prudhoe Bay- this was before the haul road was open to the public and we had to sneak past the southern checkpoint in the wee hours of the early morning, and once there we had to ask around to find a fleet operator that would sell us gas to fill up for the return trip- there were no public gas stations up there. At each end was a sign saying "Speed Limit 45, Next 460 Miles." While I tallied Willow Ptarmigan, I weep at the birds I missed in a summer of driving around AK. I did catch some King Salmon as long as my leg, though!!

OK, now who shall I tag?

How about:
Bird Chick
Jeff Bouton's Leica Birding Blog
Tom McKinney's Birding Diary
WildBird on the Fly
Mike's Birding & Digiscoping
Peregrine's Bird Blog
Woodcreeper.com
and, Jeff Gyr Blog