I’m parked in the shade here in HR wrestling w/ my lack of patience and desire to kill this….. computer.
Friday I drove down to Renton North Westy to have Propex heater installed. Took 6 hours. It works, blows heated air. Install took longer than I estimated thus I drove south to Graham and Trish’s house in Puget Sound rush traffic. I will never, never, complain about Spokane. Just absurd. Enough said.
Made friend trish’s house well past normal dinner time. SHe did feed me. I met Trish and her friends back in 1982 when I provided technical support to their one peak a year crowd. We climbed all the majors plus a few shorter ones mixed in. We shared memories. I ran the heater and I was toasty.
Sat I bid adieu and drove down to Hood River, OR again fighting a traffic jam on a Saturday. I stopped @ Dirty Finger. Plan is to meet up w/ Ian from sedona out on road 44. No text or cell reception. Cluster mess. We finally connected and established a meeting place @ Surveyors ridge TH after my ride.
I rode from 8 Mile XG up to High Prairie then down, big ride, 19.49 miles climbing 3187′ in pedal time of 2 hrs 46 mins. Hot & dry and dusty trails. Still fun riding while beating me down.
Ian is pulling a camper trailer. We drove to my favorite spot to share w/ a car camped group of hunters. Trailer camping allows for luxury items but takes minutes to set up. Way more cumbersome than my simple van life. Almost full moon looking @ Hood. Sunrise lit the mtn up.
Monday we rode from camp picking up Surveyors over to newly built trail climbing paralell to rd 17 that I helped build last summer, even more was added I found out. Hot and Dusty. Ian rode 8 mile creek descent first and when I caught up w/ him his face was cramped in a smile of enjoyment. Our dues was the climb back up to the ridge. Ian was being rung out leaving no desire to make another climb. He convinced himself to swoop down Knebal spring trail where a worst case he could spin back up the road. Again he went first w/ same result. Big smile. I climb better than him so I could not see his expression. Tough day, we ran out of water. Plan was to refill @ Knebal spring but it was hardly a trickle. I shared some of my h20, we finished w/ just a survival swallow a piece. New trails have been built to keep us off the roads. Great concept and work. 21.28 miles in 2 hrs 57 mins climbing 3265′
Road 44 area is a mountain biking trail system w/ no motorized traffic. Pretty cool.
Last night was a full moon and we sat outside basking in the glow telling stories. Warm and no wind.
Today I drove back down to HR for supplies and a shower. No cell or text connections up @ camp.
Forecast is for more of the same stellar early fall weather. Driving back up there for the night and 15 mile creek ride tomorrow.