Arroyo Lizard

26 February 2017

Stardate 2017.156

The Heat Is On
Hi folks, it appears the nice weather gods are showering us with affection; it's only mid-February. What's a lizard to do, except bask in in their exaltation and ride as much as possible. Our snowiest month typically is March, right around the corner. The trail appears to have a new friend (not the Pearl) — The Colorado Mountain Bike Association. Probably a good thing.

Hey Giant, how about a new bike for all the advertising the Pearl and I do.

Annual blow-down will stop you in a hurry if you're in a fog.

Narrow, deep and sunless, many drainages were still choked in snow. I turned around here.

Zip-A-dee-Doo-Dah,
Zip-A-Dee-Ay,
My, oh my, what a wonderful day!

That's the end of one day.

Adios

04 February 2017

Stardate 2017.096

The 2017 Mountain Bike Year Begins
Ol' man winter has allowed a handful of early rides lately. Despite some brutal cold (see earlier posts), we've had a handful of nice, almost spring-like days. While north aspects remain frozen, south aspects are opening up. Snow is minimal, but the trails all have a shallow icy surface, despite their tame look. The following pic is a view north showing the snow-free southerly aspects of Waterton Canyon, Colorado.

A joint trail here, trail 800 and the Colorado Trail look tame enough. Yet, the trail was deceivably icy.

Ridge tops and their southerly neighbors looked like this.

This corner, and a bit below, was the most slippery segment of the ride.

Certain terrain pockets are small, natural snow catchment-basins, year after year after year.

This is a common preseason turnaround point. This also is the upper Lenny's Bench you've heard me write about. Lenny was a scout who was killed while working on a service project. I think he died in this area, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

That's it for now. We're inch-worming closer and closer to spring and more fun outdoors.

Adios

23 January 2017

Stardate 2017.060

Sandstone Dreaming
What can I say? I grew up amongst the stuff. I miss it.

I can feel the rough grit of sandstone on my bare skin. I can feel the gritty, suspended sediment load in the runoff. I can smell the heady scent of wet sand, silt and clay. I can smell the earthy scent of rain and snow wetting the stone. The ultra-fragrant wet sage teases my senses. I can smell the hard-to-penetrate river-lining tamarisk. Fragrant cacti blooms catch my nose. I can feel the cool, wet wind retaining a hint of winter. The high desert spring taunts my soul...

Catching a bit of weather, four major towers from the Fisher Towers group are shown in the following pic. Left to right rise Kingfisher, Echo Tower, Cottontail and the Titan. In short, big leagues climbing on dangerous and difficult mudstones with a colorful climbing history. Look them up.

I've previously posted the following pics along the way in one form or another. Since the Moab mountain bike and hiking season begins a little over a month from now, I thought it all right to have a little tease post of one of my favorite regions. Let's start with the Onion Creek area of Professor Valley. I hope you enjoy the pics.