Hot dry dusty sunny. Repeat. However, weatherman is tempting forecast with showers later this week. Sure would like to hold him to forecast.
Today Dave and Mikelle and I rode Soldier wash trails. Amazing we had trails almost all to ourselves just hikers. Dry and loose red dirt, Rode from city park out the road to Soldier Pass. Road is gated and locked at the TH preventing vehicle traffic which cuts down on people. Devils kitchen etc was deserted. No other bikers either. What a road closure and a non holiday winter weekend makes: no traffic back ups.We rode up the Tea Cup reroute that I helped build last spring. Sustainable trail rerouting fall line trail which was fun to fly down hucking off waterbars. New trail is a singletrack climb or descent. Loose still, not ridden hard. AZ Cypress forest.
Yesterday Dave and I rode around hogs sort of. Llama to HT to Chicken Point to High on the Hogs to Twin Buttes, down to Broken Arrow connecting to Hog Wash then down Peccary to Mystic thru the neighborhood, HT, Breezy, descending Shades. Again, mostly all by ourselves. Dave is a skilled rider, watching him climb stuff leaves me in admiration. I want to do the same but I am timid.
Been spending nights out at mp 4 on beaverhead. I walked a bit in the desert from parking. Just shriveled up plants. No green.
Hibernating animals are having it tough. Hibernation is a way to sleep thru a seasonal scare food period. Guy explained that rattlesnakes swallow their last prey in August which is to allow enough time to digest the food before hibernation. If not completely digested sepsis occurs which kills the snake. I haven’t learned desert life. But, with above normal temps which don’t drive the snake to sleep keeping them up past their last meal. The stored fat to keep them thru winter is being consumed while awake.Nature is being baked.
Forecast calls for showers starting Monday night. 14.35″ rain for the year. Last spring was wet. Dry Creek was running hard enough to discourage my crossing.
Last night there were periods when the furnace didn’t turn on. Warm cloudy night.
Sedona is much more enjoyable when tourist crowd is gone.
Friday Floyd cut my hair and beard, he cuts so well to make hair length look not cut. Look tidy. Bought a second hand hat at a second hand store. This hat had never been worn. Serratelli 5X beaver. Grayish color. Pretty spiffy. Back to wearing Bedrock sandals.