Ancient & new

787 Dreamliner finally flew today to great satisfaction. Viewed Petroglyphs from ancient ones.

Today was a rest day. Propane fill up and blood pressure check ( where it should be). I was settling down in a parking lot preparing to figure out this new Core watch when my phone rang. It was Dan whom I met yesterday. He hurt himself badly crashing his mountain bike. He was killing time while his computer was downloading all sorts of stuff @ OTE using their wireless. He offered to show me the Anasazi ruin & petroglyphs outside of Santa Clara. Cool. I can hike to see these signs.

We walked up to fractured rock cliff while he stayed up above as he was not sufficiently nimble to crawl thru the rocks. I made my way over & around rocks to view & phot a bunch of carvings. They all faced west. Just down the ridge was an site that today’s people believe was a food storage site as there were several shaped depressions in the earth. Off road vehicles had traveled thru & over the site for years before it was excavated in 2006, 07. How would a site be identified dug into the earth?

a popular rock
a popular rock

No Kokopeli glyphs.

Dan showed me a place to camp down the ways.

Drove back into Santa Clara for strong internet signal and accessed Boeing site and caught the press conference w/ the test pilots after their 3 hour maiden flight of 787. I planned a whole bunch of the plaster ducts for the environmental control system. Yes, I felt pride.

I bought oranges from a roadside stand. Guy drives a semi down to someplace in CA, buys tree ripened oranges, drives back to here and sells them roadside. Tree ripened sweet, picked when ready. He did say that oranges will get sweeter later in season. Bought a bag. I ate a large one that was delicious.

Back @ campsite near glyphs. Hiked up and viewed the excavated site.

Tomorrow I plan on riding Barrel roll trail system just down the river from here. I rode it previously back in June.

Temps are in 50s and just above freezing @ night.

Met another Dan on MTBR.com who is planning a S AZ trip. I am cogitating my involvement.

PUSH digs the new Turner Spot and the Rock Shox 150 mm Revelation fork which takes a 20 mm axle. I will need a new front wheel for the larger axle, have it PUSHed ( custom tuned), and the shock also PUSHed. Lots of bucks, little over a grand plus the frame cost. How good will Santa be to me?

Rim ride 2 days after snow melt

50 degree dry skies days.

Grant  & I rendezvous @ 10:00 at shop. DJ suggests we ride early to ride on frozen before thaw; freeze thaw glop. Hurricane rim trail out to Chinatown wash was mostly mud free but soft which sucked speed and energy. Hit Chinatown wash for climb up to join JEM trail for down to end. Rode a lesser ridden dirt trail out of wash. Ride was in freeze thaw mud that stuck to wheels jamming my wheels and weighting the bike. After awhile we had to push our bikes. The wash climbed just a bit and we got on hard dry stuff for final out. Only miscalculation for day.

muddy & smiling. Check mountains over right shoulder
muddy & smiling. Check mountains over right shoulder

Ride down JEM was mostly mud free except low spots in 2 washes. Going down hill required pedalling. Finished back on rim trail. Grant split for LV to catch a flight home. Trail is drying out, perhaps better riding latter in day after freeze thaw has dried up? Next ride.

Picked up mail. Sorting out medical expenses.

Drove to Washington rec center for a $4.00 shower then back to OTE for socialization, dinner, and computer stuff using OTE higher speed wireless connection.

JEM trail part 2 days after 3" snow melt, note strat layers in butte.
JEM trail part 2 days after 3" snow melt, note strata layers in butte.

Favorable weather reappears

before sunup the winds blew violently rocking me and the van. A few sprinkles, the wind died down, the sun came out and the temp shot up into the 50s. Mostly clear skies.

Hung @ OTE for an afternoon ride allowing as much time for evaporation while getting the great part of the day for riding. While waiting for the right time a guy walks in. We learn his name is Grant and he is from Canmore, BC down on a riding exploration for a place to hang late this winter. Dave, Quentin, & I engaged him conversation. Dave & I  invited him on our Church Rock ride.

Grant is a chemist. I asked him to explain relative humidity. Short answer: the dryer the air and the higher the temp the greater the evaporation. The desert lacks the vegetation of say the leafed out deciduous trees on the Appalachians which transpire ground water up into the air drying the ground. There is more moisture there than here. Ever been in a humid desert?

Met up w/ Dannie, a local rider riding by herself. We globbed her on. Fund day riding pieces of slick rock. I rode a few more places today. Confidence and days of healing are liberating my reticence.

Yesterday was Over the Edge (OTE) bike shop’s 2 year anniversary. Dave wanted to throw a party for the store after our ride. He had a non Utah bottle of wine and he wanted to share it at the shop. We crashed the store and enlisted a receptive Quentin to the party. I provided munchies for Dave, Quentin, Dannie, and myself. We saluted the anniversary. Party was opened to public, we were it. Dave said that red wine & chocolate taste good.  I Bought a bag of  baking chocolate chips, 63% cacao. Wine was gone. I mentioned that chocolate & scotch taste good. Dave concurred. I brought out Scotch. The chocolate was gone before the scotch was corked.

Enjoyed hanging here. I would like to glob onto other riders going to Gooseberry & Little Creek. Weather is warmer & dry. Want to ride more of the trails before I leave.

Church rock to left
Church rock to left
Dannie cleaning slick rock. Dec 13.
Dannie cleaning slick rock. Dec 13.

Back @ same parking lot.

Grant & I are going to ride part of Hurricane Rim tomorrow. Should be snow free and mostly dry.