Under sunny skies and unseasonably warm, 55 degree temperatures, after a long I-5 drive and handfuls of holiday cookies later, we eagerly grabbed our mountain bikes and headed for some of the Pacific Northwest's finest single track trails in Olympia's Capital Forest to go for a muddy holiday ride...

Armed with our new Santa-delivered, action cameras fresh out of the boxes, we clicked in and excitedly mounted up to see what kind of adventures we could film over 10.5 miles of ups, downs and rooty arounds...

*Includes fast & fun, expert rider Jim views, testing out his new Contour ROAM camera bombing down narrow sections at speeds near 20 mph! And Nadja with her new Nikon pocket waterproof camera! = :) + :) !!

Additional holiday gift appearances by a couple of our nation's most well-known volcanoes surprised us and enhanced the clear cut views when majestic Mount Rainier and neighboring sleeping giant, Mount Saint Helens appeared on the eastern Cascade mountain horizon, with possibly a sleigh and reindeer overhead...

~ Happy Holidays 2011 from us at Island Paddlers! ~