Wed was a recovery day. Eric serviced my fork and opened a few bad news issues. Needed new seals, OK I can accept. He test rides the bike. He comes back marking disheartening comments about my Chris King headset, again, the last remaining original part. The upper cap and the lower crown race needed replacing. King warrantied the upper. Now the front end does not creak or rock. Walked up Main st just seeing what i could see. Found a big patch of salsify weed just needing pulled. i was wearing my riding glasses and my prescription glasses were loosely held in my shirt front pocket. I pulled lots of weeds making a small dent in the population. I walked away; I padded my shirt pocket to check on the glasses. EMPTY!. My glasses fell out in the weed patch. Searched the patch and finally found them in the last place I looked.
Drove out to camp spot on Democrat Gulch. B4 arriving @ my spot I saw a snake writhing on the road. I straddled it, passed it and stopped. I grabbed my camera and walked back hoping for a rattler shot. Was a dying rattler suffering from a fatal drive over. I cut its small rattle off.
Rain squall passed over @ camp spot. Watched a SSS rider heading up Lamb’s Gulch. I believe that he had a wonderful ride w/ just right temps and a spritz to keep the dust down.
Thurs evening is Sun Summit South (SSS) shop ride that I plan on riding. Did my wash 1 day early because Fri will be a drive day to Boise then get too busy for wash. Eric who builds custom hard tail frames and works 2 days a week @ Chip’s shop worked on my bike. Wed night he took a nasty fall resulting in 10 stitches to close a wound on his forearm, big gravel road rash all over, and a smashed helmet. He rallied to come to work to finish my bike.
Chip put together his new Ti 29er hardtail that Eric built and rode it Thurs. Ride was another lung buster climbing up Mahoney, then Lodgepole, drop down to Greenhorn, climb up and finish up and down on Imperial Gulch, 15.63 miles in 2 1/2 hrs climbing 3277′. Mostly last the entire uphill but not too far behind the 2nd to last guy. This is a guys only ride. Riders sort themselves out by ability. On the downhill I was ahead of 4 riders and right behind the pack. That felt good. Seat dropper.
Kyle made the ride having just flown in from Boston after a 2 week visit. Great to see him. I have some good friends here. SV is definitely a lilypad on my travels, good vibe places to hang.
Hung out drinking beer and surviving the on slot of mosquitoes. I used eucalyptus base repellent that seems to work OK. Drive out to camp spot arriving about 10:30. Late night p-butter sandwhich and some tomato soup.
Fri AM it was up and on the road for Boise. Nice low key drive. GPS located LinCare to pick up blood test strips. Parked in the store lot and set up the test process. I don’t produce a big drop of blood after the lancet puncture. I went thru 4 test strips. 2.1 INR.
Drove to Sierra Trading Post outlet looking for a special shirt. Hardly a small size population then the fit is huge, could hide me and a watermellon. Then drove down the road to the new Performance Bike shop managed by Matt whom I met in FT Collins. A familiar face.
One clerk was tripping over himself to tell me about rides then finally asks Matt for the rest of the day off to guide me. Cool, a local to show me around. We met down in Hyde Park @ Harry’s just 2 blocks away from TH. He is Bob Anthony who is the weekend meteorologist for a major Boise TV station. He humped me on a climbing trail working our way up to trail high point. Trails are out in open. Boise has less dense sage cover. Non technical. I stayed on Bob’s wheel on the uphills but smoked him on the downs. He rides a Turner 5 Spot like my previous Spot. The city is built right up against the foothills. We looked down on the state capital rotunda.
Finished ride on old town city streets to Harrys for post ride recovery drink. Bob grilled me and took notes.
Finally broke away after sunset to drive uphill into the foothills on 8th ave extension to camp @ a TH. Late sandwich and soup again.
Today is the drive to Bend as I do not see the joy of another grinder ride day. Drove hwy 20 across dry eastern OR. Up and down. About 20 miles east of town I broke over a rise to see a snow peaked skyline of the 3 Sisters, Brokentop, and Bachelor ski hill. Even shorty Tumalo is snow covered. Back on Pacific daylight savings time. Sundown will be more sensible 8:47PM.
Found that I saved the community center in Bend for a shower on the GPS which put me in the parking lot. Need to reacquaint myself w/ Bend again.
Drove out past Phil’s to spot where I normally stay. Empty. Wet spring as h2o is still in the big mud puddles nearby. I saw several vultures gliding down to a big puddle. Looked over and counted almost 20 vultures down on the ground perhaps for h2o. They started taking off one by one then searching for thermals to get them up. Several 4X4s have been playing in the other mud puddles just over a bluff from me. Mud bogging.
Going to hang here for several days, maybe leave from here for Oakridge. Comfortable temps.