Although I had never heard of the guy before yesterday, it still made me sad for multiple reasons. First of all, I never want to see someone die just before they have a chance to perform in the Olympics, the world stage of sport. Secondly this makes me said because this slider was very young. The guy was 21. He potentially had a long life yet to be lived.

There is another thing that makes me sad and incredibly disappointed which is the response from the IOC. The IOC made a statement effectively stating that the accident had nothing to do with the track. I consider the entire even to be the accident, not just the part where he missed the turn and flew off his sled. To me the accident also included the follow through and what happened to the slider after he came off of the sled.

Although I cannot find a link to it, I also saw an interview on the nightly news yesterday evening with a member of the IOC stating, in essence, that the slider was too inexperienced to be on the track. This is a completely unacceptable statement. The guy didn't just show up out of nowhere with a sled. He was an Olympic athlete. He had to qualify for the event. This is a track that is being used as an Olympic tack. By definition an Olympic athlete is experienced enough to be on an Olympic track.

As everyone who has been paying attention to this event has seen, a barricade has been erected blocking the steel beams that Kumaritashvili struck which caused his death. In addition to this the starting point of the men's event was moved further down on the track. So I pose this question: If there was nothing wrong with the track then why did the organizers feel the need to take these precautions? Is the track suddenly unsafe for Olympic athletes?

You can make your own conclusions. As you can see, I have made mine.

We had decided to leave from the Axton Boat Launch and head up river to the falls and back again. Cindy and I were paddling in my in-law's kayak while my in-laws take my children in their flat-backed canoe with a motor on it.

It took Cindy and I about 2.5 to 3 hours to get almost 7 miles up the river to the falls. When we got there we landed our kayak and we were watching the kids play in the water. I looked over and saw some really nice kayaks that had been there since we arrived:

Once we got through with our lunch, the owners of the kayaks came back from looking at the falls. We spoke with them a little bit and then they went on their way back down the river. Once we were done with lunch, we headed back down the river as well. Cindy and I were going much faster on the way back, but still got passed by my in-laws since they had the motor.

When we got back to the boat launch we landed and the people that we had met at the falls were there. They let us know that my in-laws had gone by about 15 min before we got back, cut the motor, and kept going on by the cove where the landing was. We continued to talk to them for another 15 to 20 minutes about their kayaks and about kayaking in general. We had suddenly became more interested in kayaking during this trip. As we talked to them they told us that they were from a group called L.I. Paddlers.

After they headed off, we waited a while longer and decided that maybe my in-laws were not just trolling around to kill time and that I should go looking for them. I headed off on what would be a two hour venture to find them. They had missed the cove and didn't have any points of reference that would let them know that they were lost.

We are very, very thankful for the kind people from L.I. Paddlers. Without their information we would have been clueless about which direction to search.

Next time we are in Long Island we will definitely look them up.

made me wish that I had brought my climbing shoes with me on vacation. The only problem with these ones in particular is that they're surrounded by water that is 8 ft deep on all sides. Based on my current skill level there is a good chance that I would have!

After 4 days, I was feeling pretty good about my goal. I had ridden two rides of 20 miles and one ride of 40 miles. I missed one day, but I was still on par for my goal. Then day 5 came...nothing. Day 6? nothing, etc.

I was frustrated because I obviously was not going to reach my goal. As the days wore on, I was finding excuses to not ride. Then, one day, I had a few minutes to reflect on the excuses I had been making:

1. Day long downpour: not much can be done about this.
2. Rode a 40 mile route that I thought was 30: I had the route information wrong. I was really sore the next day. That's fine with me.
3. Spent my free time paddling through the Floodwood Loop with some friends: Hey, that's exercise!
4. Spent my free time paddling down the Raquette River with my in-laws: Also exercise!
5. Spent a day driving through the high peaks with my family: Isn't this why we go on vacation?

It occurred to me that all of these excuses are either exercise related or family related. So I didn't make my goal, but I'm happy with my vacation and I'm only slightly disappointed that I didn't reach my goal.