Moab pleasantries

Bring up strong winds to lift red dirt into the air. I keep my mouth shut to protect my lungs. That works when I am either by myself or not riding. Oh, that was only on Sat. I took off Thursday but spent the evening with Jeff from where I met him at Fruita, he likes out off Dalton Well road that is back in no visible plant life rocky space. Jeff and I worked facts of life around searching for what would make a better way. Thursday was another batch of clean clothes.

My left leg pushed the pain buzzer. I tried a pair of the weakest compression sock but that was too painful. I thought I needed more squeeze so I wore the mid compression sock but that hurt even worse. I scored an appointment with a PA to look at my leg. She said it is what it is, she suggested keeping the area well lubricated to attempt to keep the skin supple. I grease up several times a day. In am back to using the sport compression sock as it exerts the least squeeze and pain yet keeps the swelling down.

Friday I spent the night out past wild horse not at occupied favorite spot. Wind increased over night. Sat was just dusty windy. Stayed inside.

Sunday I drove out to where Chisholm crossed the highway to ride Bull canyon loop. I eliminated 2 miles each way of the dirt road. Beautiful day. Down Get away, drop in Bull canyon, climb back out on Get away etc back to van. Blue sky and chilly temp great for exertion cooling. Weekends bring the crowds, weekdays are now almost deserted trails.

Back at the van there was a yellow paper underneath my wiper. It was from Lee whom I had been playing phone tag for several days. He and Mark are here for a go. I met them at Hood River years ago and had ridden with their group several times. We spent Sunday to this AM visiting and riding. On Monday we rode Rodeo then shared a camp spot out at N Klondike. Still a substantial fly population and I was maybe 200’ from the preferred spot which is where flies moved in the last night I spent there. At night they go dormant, when the van warms up in the morning they take to wings again.

I am working the kinks out of stove top baking of corn bread. I use a box mix per directions. I heat up the skillet melting butter and brown sugar. I put an MSR heat deflector under the skillet, pour in the batter this time included wild blueberries. I sprinkled brown sugar over then covered with foil. Next was flipping it to bake the other side. I kept most of the uncooked batter in the skillet. I stuck a dirty knife into the baking bread, it came out clean so I cleaned the other knife, the bread was done with just a nice brown crust. I shared it at last night’s dinner.

Tuesday was their route selection of Klondike trails. Over time I have ridden all these trails here and sort of had an idea which way to ride. I let Lee and Mark pick the route. Letting a less familiar person pick a route allows me a new experience. Mark rides a Turner Sultan DW link. Rare to ride with another Turner rider. And letting them ride in front of me so that they can see just the trail and make their riding decisions. Lee rides clipless which caused several standing still falls because he could not release the mechanical jaws. I spoke highly of the Catalyst pedals. Lee is starting to come around to flats.

They left b4 9 today. I geared up for my own route choices. I pedaled Dino-Flow to its southern end. This is one of my most favorite trails as it has lots of chunder interspersed with pedaling. I am now able to ride everything on this trail. Lots of upper body workout. Working on step ups. So much fun to ride this bike.

All by myself out here at North Klondike. Chilly. Forecast temps are dropping. This AM it was 21 outside and 55 inside heated by the furnace. Sun up is 6:52 but later when it clears the mountains. Sundown is just after 5. Tonight I am running the catalytic heater on low just to learn if it will start. Full sunlight did not over fill my batteries.

Thurs is another wash day. I am making it a rest day by surrendering my bike to Chile Pepper to service my rear hub and fork.

Living at 4672’.

Wed night I ran the catalytic heater on medium which was just right matching outside chill with inside “comfort” It puts out more heat than furnace. Flies liked it warm, still populating my domicile.

I stepped up into the cutting board hinge again: scalp bleeding wound. When i run the catalytic I need to put the board up because the heater burns the lowered board. This sets up my head cutting.

Bike is serviced: rear hub and fork at Chili Pepper. I have 1153 miles on the cluster and 1301 on the chain. Chain wear tool shows I am less than .5 stretch. More miles to go and $ remaining in my pocket. This 1X11 cluster and narrower chain are giving more miles than the 2X9 did.

Clean clothes and groceries.

Temp dropping into 30s at night and warming to 60s but the autumn chill is in the air. Not ready for additional warm layers.