Forecast was calling for possible thunderstorm in a time window. How wet could you stand and maybe accept possibility of being struck? Carry a rain jacket and manage the time. Which is what Doug and I understood as we set out for our ride from bottom of Canyon of Fools. We pedaled along on his concocted route. Notable trails were Mescal and Aerie. Might have been Steve who suggested starting at bottom of CoF as it is in bottom of Dry Creek, everything went up or traversed meaning the return ride would not finish on a climb. Aerie is a suspension appreciator as it is rough on descent. On to Cockscomb then social decisions. We were watching the weather system approaching and measuring time required to be off the trail before the storm would hit.
At a crux trail intersection time and distance were calculated to chose which trails for return. We picked the shorter length. We made it back to our rigs in the dry. I drove away maybe 20 mins later entering the rain line of the predicted thunderstorm. Rewarded for risk taking.
Thunderstorms usually short duration and might dump intense amount of water. Should my ride expose me to a T storm I will switch the wind shell for the rain jacket in my hydration pack. If call is for showers might not ride. If for rain prolly not. Each precip event is tempered by probability. Riding here I am never very far from my van.
We rode Cockscomb from its start at Aerie. Another view of massive.
NCAA men’s basketball championship has started. Zags earned a #5 seed. Thurs was their first game in which they crushed their opponent moving them to the next round to play Kansas at noon today. I parked at the outlet then walked maybe 2 blocks to PJs to watch game. I stayed after the game to watch another game because I didn’t want to go home. Struck up a conversation with fellow patron who managed food concession at Museum of Flight in Seattle. I was able to connect. As he was leaving he bought me a glass of wine which would be my second of the night. I stayed to enjoy the keg Chardonnay. Night had fallen. My return route was in the dark. I walk facing traffic. The streets do not have sidewalks, a white outside edge line is on pavement right at edge of pavement. A car approached me as it climbed out of a wash aiming its headlight up into my eyes. I was wearing all dark clothes. I decided I should protect myself and maybe spare car damage by stepping even further off the pavement. I was unaware of the step down. Left foot went down about 2″ on to the lower level. I fell face first resulting in nasty wounds on my left forearm and knee. Back at van I cleaned wounds and applied bandaids.
Yesterday I rode from outlet to start what I call my Llama route. Popular with hikers.
Night time temps are warming enough to not need to run the heater. It is thermostatically controlled. It turns on when cold then shuts off when it reached the set level. When off there is silence. Maybe my ears hurt in quiet. I taped a single layer of cheese cloth over the heater intake that is stopping fuzz from entering heat exchanger. Heater should remain healthy.
Zags play at noon shortly. Noon time glass of wine.