Seasonal Affected Riding

Which is what I have. I am either going to favorable riding conditions riding area or fleeing from somewhere when conditions become less desirable. Or, how willing am I to tolerate conditions to remain or have few choices of desirable conditions. Prolly no vaccine to prevent or cure my malady. Winter drives me to the desert, heat drives me to cool. It’s what I will tolerate for the benefit of a location. So far here in the SW corner of Utah the temp has not dropped low enough to wear winter riding gloves or tights. Weather check after Sunday’s ride from Gould’s the temp was 63 degrees under cloudless skies. Just right. So SAR.

It is what it is and I am what I do. (Duh?). My body sends signals the next day after a ride that it feels wear. I take a day off, the next ride my body relishes the work. So I ride the next day, like 2 on, 1 off. Today my knees are barking. Last night a brief intense rain fell turning dirt to glop, now I have another reason to rest.

Late afternoon light low angle sun produces sights that the camera can not capture. That light can also be blinding as looking up puts that light in my eyes. I spend more time looking down versus far ahead.

Yesterday I rode from corral to end of Gould’s, crossed the highway to upper JEM TH descending namesake trail to junction with Chinatown wash, down to Cliff trail which offers blue level tech challenges, then climbed Crypto, then big climb of Dead Ringer to JEM TH finishing back on Gould’s. Cloudy means trail visibility. Saw just 2 riders entire time. Oh, 1 other rider on an ebike, who passed me at the top of Dead Ringer, and he was wearing ear buds. I watched him just rocket away from me, just too fast.

Yesterday I visited at OTE, I chatted with Pierce. I asked him his age, he said 23, I told him that I was 73, reality: 50 years of living difference. Recent college grad, he prolly remembers book learning.

Repetition and familiarity. Once what was exotic is now common place just like a local. Local is a term that defines, well, a person who lives in immediate locale. Used for us wanderers to perhaps establish credibility of their knowledge. I am not a local but I have stayed in places for enough time to figure out where I go to meet my needs. Long enough for like scenery to be just another day of same ol beauty. At present I am in SW Utah desert which is certainly exotic to a person say from the east coast where sight lines are limited by tree trunks and green.

There are days of cloud cover to change views, mostly conditions are per pic, at least for my annual November visits.

I mix my rides between riding per above on less tech trails, more about pedaling, and the chunky that I will ride such as Barrel Roll etc. The Hurricane Cliffs trails  have some connecting trails to make for possible shortening a ride because my eyes were bigger than my legs when I planned my ride. Recently I rode to the end of the JEM trail along and above the Virgin River gorge. I saw official BLM carsonite posts with one way stickers on them. The intent is to make this part of the JEM 1 way to eliminate user conflict at sketchy places. A new return trail named Carne Asada stays on wide open terrain climbing back out. Trail is aptly named to what is wanted to do to the ecological destroyers: grazing cows. Dead Ringer trail fits in the scheme. The tread here is rough from cast in cow foot prints. The jarring is from the tire dropping into the depression then hitting to far side edge. They are just foot prints, it’s the sheer number of them. Seems cows chose the path of least resistance of a cleared path. I spoke with a BLM range manager, I expressed concern about what those cows would eat and if they were meeting terms of grazing contract. He said yes, end of discussion.

Back to familiarity is me not capturing images digitally.

Yesterday I drove down to Santa Clara to ride barrel Roll etc. I park at the bottom of the Cove wash access, the ride starts right out punch in the gut climb. I am having some success on mitigating my drive to match my breathing which lessens my speed but lengthens my time on my bike. I climb techy Precipice to junction with Side winder and Barrel Roll. Sidewinder is an up then turn around down. I was passed by ebike riders who were not the said target audience of older riders keeping up with their younger rider buddies. This is BLM land and ebikes are not allowed, but if there is no enforcement, what the heck, this motor eliminates dehydration from exertion sweating.

Becoming older is not for the weak as the effects of years of wearing the body increases intensity and frequency of reminders of past decisions. The Garmin computer I use calculates number of recovery hours before next abuse. As an example after yesterday’s 7.99 miles climbing 955′ pedaling for 1 hr 16 mins was 31 hours. I will ride the Cliffs today inside the recovery time. I should abide. My bdoy does not jump out of bed any more, it is a more slide over the edge of the bed putting weight on my first leg down and gently increasing weight while listening to signals of discontent then the other leg then standing up. OK so far legs have worked, now take 3 steps to front of van. What’s barking, will getting moving make the bark (s) go away? I am not riding as frequently as in younger years, I have strung 2 days of rest betwen rides to my body’s benefit. Some pains go away, some remain and I ride because that’s what I do. I am letting sunshine warm before embarking on upcoming ride out on Cliffs.

Reading Kingsolver’s newest book, Devon Copperhead. She was inspired by Dickens David Copperfield.

Monday morning after Thanksgiving break for all, some are still nose to grindstone and others with worn down nose wanting the former at work to support us.

I made Fri and Sat rest days anchored up off Goulds on other side of road from corral on a turn out. Land around cow corral is littered with years of glass fragments from target practice. Chilly, well below freezing before sunrise, then sun crests massive between us and warms the rear of the van finally telling thermostat that it’s full and shuts off. As the sun warms up the outside it seems that the outside is warmer than inside. So I hung inside my 66 sq foot home. Takes practice to consume idle time.

Yesterday propane needed replenished to keep me warm, my food cold, and later cooked. Burning about 1 gal per day. Took on sink water at OTE then out to Church Rocks ride.

Temps get to mid 50s under sunny skies, hardly a breeze, mostly ideal riding conditions. The trail head has been improved to add horse trailer parking, horse riders are considerate that they do not clean their trailer into the parking lot. For a sunny Sunday not many non horse recreators rigs present. Geared up still wearing mid weight wool jersey. Pedal up wide  and getting wider access trail to connect with Prospector trail that runs N and S, I turned S towards Church Rocks. Prospector is a mix of rolled firm dirt, small rock features, mixed with sand that doesn’t roll firm. Pedaling deep sand stalls forward progress as my front tire and rear tire want to take different lines.

Church Rocks is a sandstone monolith, a trail climbs up one side, goes across the top then descends making a loop. Place to go for rideable tread when other trails are weather affected. I wanted to ride here as a get back on the bike ride after 2 day recovery from not feeling well. I keep working on keeping my effort inside my breathing. Age affected shortness of breath.

Just a beautiful day. The trail is less than a mile away from busy and noisy I-15 assaulting peace. Hard to linger. Drove to Quail Lake camp spot. I scored the tucked away site and positioned the van with the back cross wise to rising sun.

Bike brakes: your rear brake is your friend, the front is your lover, one knows what you need and the other knows what you want. Judicious use of both keeps a rider’s control under control.

Letting sun warm up Lakeside trail before heading out.

Zags are being bested by teams, they are not the dominant team of past years. Purdue spanked them but Purdue won the tournament by spanking Duke. Zags struggled against Xavier to take 3rd place. Zags will prolly plummet in rankings.