Staying high

Still at Swampy. Staying cooler than 2000′ below baking in the city.

Drove down Thurs to do laundry and groceries and water. Did business at my chosen dispensary. Drove back to Swampy an scored dirt spot.

As of 9/2/20 I have ridden a Turner mountain bike 2453 rides for 35,763 miles. Twelve years on this odyssey. I speak “twelve years” more frequently now. This is the first I am remarking the number of years I have been living this life style. I had visions of having my small house built and me running aground until the next high tide. House ain’t happening this winter. Mountain biking here in Bend is enjoyable and fulfilling. Been here in Oregon for 3 months, ridden 62 times for 1139 miles mostly here at Bend. Up here at Swampy I have been riding the same trails mixing the sequence at times, yet even repetition is still enjoyable. The early nastys have mellowed out and seem to be forgotten. What was once a grunt is just a hard pedal.

Sunday I rode a Flagline loop from Swampy. The Dutchman / Swampy snowmobile grunt rolled under my wheels. At junction of Middle Flagline 4 riders gathered and visited while I rested nearby.

Satiated I coasted downhill to them and bid hello and I rode the trail. In a short while they caught up to me, they were just a bit faster and I did not want to attempt to stay ahead of them. Situation is the trail is dry and loose that bike tires put that dust up into the air for those following to breathe and see thru. I pulled over and let them go by and I waited a bit for their dust to settle. Up the ways we swapped leads for me dust free air and vision. pedaled everything. High speed coast.

Forest fire smoke is blowing into air basin, Yellow, which is just below green good, has been warranted. Air has smoke haze.

Been chilly at night enough to fire the furnace up. Van is parked rear end into rising sun which prolongs overcoming the cold sink of the inrerior of van. Sunrise is around 6:42 and sundown around 7:26. 81 days ago the seemed to be as it should have been: up way earlier and hung around till bedtime.

Swampy trails attract many rigs as seen in the parking lot. However it is rare to encounter a rider and should I ride a non shuttle route trail I see no one. I have been likingRidge trail right outside my door which climbs up to Dutchman / Swampy after cuttoff trail over to lower Flagline. Bit of a grunt, it gets me to where I want to go. It is a hoot to coast down. I will even climb a cuttoff grunt climb of 2xx’ feet in .7 mile to enjoy the descent. Today I climbed Ridge. I saw an area on the map that said lake. Checked it out

Rode lower Flag to end at Swampy then worked around the S and E end of lake. On East Swampy I crashed hard on my left side, blood flowed enough to fish out and apply large band aids. Maybe a pedal strike that violently grabbed control of my bike and me with it. Smack down. I landed on my left side, as I was slowing down I looked at what my head could be hitting. I stopped just before my head hit that piece of wood. At least I don’t believe I hit my head as I have a head ache on the left side. I finished my challenging ride under full control of all facilities negating a possible head injury. I did not feel a hit. My helmet shows no damage. Could I have hit my helmeted head and this helmet is so good it protected me from the felt hit?

Forecast for today called for increasing winds as the day progressed and so they did. I finished while velocity was lower that what it became and still is. Occasional gusts rock my van. Smoke is heavy in the air. Bend moved to “orange, 2 steps below green for unhealthy. Winds forecast to die down overnight . Temp in town dropping to 37 degrees.

Need to drive back to town tomorrow for resupply, riding depends upon air quality.

My chain has stretched to the larger gap on the chain stretch tool. The chain and cluster have almost 1,300 miles on them, the chain ring has even more. Not skipping or otherwise misbehaving, wonder how many more miles? I have a new chain, chain ring, and cassette to put on when what I have on now fails.

Up here on these trails there are frequent short sight lines, some of them are on slopes either up or down. Uphill riders are to have the right of way. However, not all downhill riders are either not paying attention to climbers or have no intention of giving way. Scary. I turn my clanger bell on for notice. Today I was struggling up the big grunt on Swede ridge as downhill traffic was coming down. Each of them stepped upslope to let me pass. Last guy told me to turn off my bell as he had already yielded to me. I could not take a hand off the bar to heed his request. The bell clangs with each jolt. I ran into a guy going the other way. He was riding a Turner Sultan. We visited awhile sharing Turner stories.