Weekenders have left. Gets crowded on weekends. My preferred spot at Phils is occupied by long time stayers. Next spot is past Marvin’s gardens trail crossing. I arrive before dinner, maybe 4 PM, to beat evening crowd. This morning I counted 6 vans out here, 1 in each spot, just vans. So many more people. You only know change if you have experienced whatever before. Why I remember I could drive out here after a town dinner and find a preferred spot open.
Sat was a COTA volunteer trail work day further out rd 41 Conklin rd. about 6 miles of washboard gravel road that I did not want to drive van on. My plan was to hitch hike to work site. I dressed in my work clothes and wore my GOATS hard hat then stood out in the side road where I stayed allowing pull over room. Stuck my thumb out. Work project was to be punctual car pool time at 9. I kept looking at the time count down for a work party rig to pick me up. Score, a minivan with Oregon bicycle license plate. Tyler and yes he was attending the party. At meet up we joined the others. Over the years I had worked with 3 attendees. Work project is building a loop trail within the Sun River system. Trail will be a black diamond. Rock work in places, rest dirt. I worked on creating the tread.
Tyler returned me to my van. I called Web Cyclery as Kevin said he had plenty of chains. Score, even the shorter length meaning I had to remove just 4 links. Drove out to plan B spot at Phils, scored a shaded spot. Then watched others arrive filling remaining spots. I sized the chain then installed and checked shifting. So far so good. I pedaled a bit checking for chain skipping on a cassette gear. No skip, meaning cassette and chain ring were not damaged by the stretched chain.
Today temps warmed up, want to get after a ride before heat of day. On weekends the forest closure is lifted allowing riding trails closed during the week. I climbed Ben’s, which is directional uphill and is open, to start of Pine Drops which is in closure. Accept the ruination of the forest after the feller buncher extraction.
Finished on Kent’s, back to van to spend another night.
Diesel is almost $7/ gal. Station pump shuts off at $95. 13 gallons.
10 PM, 63 degrees, side door open w/o screen: no insects in high desert to be attracted to lights. I saw my first Pandora moth caterpillar.
Forecast for tomorrow is 90s. Plan will be to grocery shop then head up to Swampy TH which is about 2,000′ higher and slightly cooler.