Yesterday AM the sun shown. Several of the yellow and green patterned hot air balloons livened the morning sky. Drove off to MBH for 10ish ride. Rama didn’t show and didn’t answer his phone. I deemed trails too wet anyway. After while I drove over to Soldiers Pass TH to hike over Soldiers pass. System trail that weathers the wet, several bikes rode thru. B4 the wilderness where bikes are allowed, the bikes went thru the muddy spots, the hikers worked around the edges actually making the hole larger. After the pass the trail turned less slickrock, more soil & like small boulders. Ground was saturated, h2o mostly ran down the trail, poor design.Biker made trails don’t have that problem as our trails are built to get the h2o off quickly. Nice day, warm.
Back out to Deer pass camp late afternoon. Just after dark I heard scratching in the engine compartment again. Pack rat return? Put on the headlamp & headed out to check under the hood. Opened it and the rat ran back & down from engine. Chewed pile of sound insulation from somewhere on van lay on the top of engine. Bits of wood & a few juniper berries. Cleared out the nest, shut the hood & crawled back inside van. Short time later heard scratching again. Checked engine and there was a small pile of insulation started. Damn, who is going to win this squatting battle? What tools do I have? I propped open the hood to make it less nesting hospitable. decided to set the mouse trap on the engine. The trap was too small for this critter. Concern was that if the rat got caught by the trap and wasn’t killed that it could crawl away w/ trap attached to die and stink. Or that the trap would scare it off. Today i checked under the hood to find the sprung trap and no rat, more importantly no chewed nesting material. I won last night.
Today I was swarmed by 4 balloons.
Drove down to Hilton for morning shower. My contact leaves @ 1:30. I hoped that B & B would have an afternoon ride which would dirt up my clean body. I needed the shower and would wash the sweat off. Hung @ B & B but started feeling queasy, almost sick. I wasn’t feeling well enough to ride. I decided that I would go out to Beaverhead flats and rest to see if I would get better before 2:30 ride. Parked @ my spot. Nice day. At first I stayed inside the van doing stuff. i noticed several rigs drive by. Sunny warm day outside. I set up my chair and sat in the sun reading. Several more rigs went by. One jockeyed & pulled up. Driver stuck his head outside and asked if I wanted to have some fun. I had been propositioned @ gaydar. Sat night this place will be the camping spot for the AZ Spring Fling. So many guys so little time.
My heart felt like it was pounding in my chest, I suspected my blood pressure was up, I was concerned about being able to ride. Drove back to West Sedona to Urgent Care. BP was OK, heart fine. DR said my feeling could be from not riding for several days. Don’t think so but he wasn’t going any further. This Thurs I have an appointment w/ a gastro dr down in Scottsdale. Suspect that gut problem is source of health issue. Flag is closer but their next appointment is early May as they are the only gastro facility in northern AZ.
Went for solo ride. Late afternoon. Saw 2 riders. Finished in long shadows of afternoon. Still comfortable 60 degrees. Trails are dry. Heart didn’t restrict effort, heart pounded from exertion. Downloaded the heart rate data to see that I had high heart rates.
Sat is the Spring Fling ride in Sedona. Place will be packed w/ Flingers and weekend riders. Slight chance of showers