Bike back under butt. UPS 2nd day, 1 day shop repair, 1 day air back. OTE put all the pieces back together and I put final touches on. Bike pedaled well in the parking lot. Very windy and late mid afternoon decided Sat for my next ride. Dinner at Hot Tomato, finally able to visit with Jen and Ann. A couple beers at Copper Club their award winning amber ale. Spent night same town spot down wind from sewage lagoon. Brief hard sprinkle fell driven by strong winds. Parked sideways to the wind lulled to sleep by rocking van.
This AM I arrived at an almost empty Kokopelli TH. I listened to Wait Wait while letting sun warm things up. Geared up. Pedaled up Wranglers connecting to Mary’s loop to Lions turning up canyon wall to Mack Ridge finally dropping down to Marys for the ride back. On Mary’s I encountered 2 older looking men standing trailside. One said they finally get to meet JP. I stopped and we visited for many minutes. Turns out both of them are readers of my blog. Glen has been on the road for 20 years, Jeff is a student of this lifestyle. A connector trail joins Lions with Mack ridge climbing and dealing with tech features that continued to put me on my feet.
Wonderful fall ride day. Back at TH Glenn and Jeff were hanging. We visited without holding up bikes. They shared a closer in camping spot that I chose to join them at for the night. Living on the road was our common thread as we swapped stories. Windy and chilly drove us into our respective mobile living quarters.
Spent 2 nights out above Rabbit Valley where I usually stay. One day I hiked out from camp spot then dropped down thru breaks in rock bands. I followed the wash down stream with out water then looked for a route back up thru the rock bands. Just below topping out I heard voices above me. I hollered to inform them I was climbing out. I faced the front end of a truck camper. Guy walks up to me and greets me by name. We visited this last summer at Oakridge.
Monday Mac Daddy will replace a thermostat / fan. From there I will head to Moab.