hurronnicane

Laid out across the trail at the top of a climb. Garter snake.

Pedernales Falls on one of the last cool days for the next five or six months….

The Texas Madrones are popping!

Morning visitor right outside the door.

Not a critter exactly but cool AF anyway. And yes, that is a Dog Vomit Slime Mold.

My wife just got an e-bike and I’m unsure if it needs to come in the house during this cold snap for the sake of its battery. Currently it is indoors but in an unheated storage space.

East Texas riding. A great change of pace from my typical Hill Country haunts.

Does anyone need some Yakima Roof Rack stuff? This is probably from the 90s and I think the bar diameters have changed, but it seems like someone could still get good use of it. I will probably drop it all off at YellowBike soon.

We started at the Lake One wilderness area access point, paddled to Lake Two, Lake Three, Knife Lake and Lake Four. I saw Basswood Lake on the map but we were not all that close to it. I have read a fair amount about the area in the last couple of months. Many fascinating stories, and I had so little knowledge about that part of the world until recently.

We just got back from the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota (Ely) near the Canadian border where we did a four-day canoe trip. It involved paddling across lakes with all our camping gear, food, etc. Some days there were multiple portages. The weather was great, the scenery spectacular. We saw Bald eagles every day, saw Trumpeter swans, saw (and heard!) Loons, watched beavers swimming past our campsite, saw various unidentified ducks… We had been talking about doing this for a couple of years and had almost decided that we had aged out of this adventure when my son caught wind of it and insisted that we go. It was fun to do with him and he is at an age where he can look forward to doing similar trips many more times. We hardly scratched the surface! More than a million acres of wilderness!

It didn’t make the trip. We flew this time around so I borrowed my future son-in-law’s bike.

Two days ago, on my 67th birthday, my daughter and I had another great ride that included another section of the Arizona Trail, a wonderfully-fun, flow trail (Full Sail), and a long downhill (Schultz Creek) to our shuttle. 20 miles, 1900 feet of climbing and 2500 feet of downhill fun! Afterwards we drove down to Oak Creek (Bootleggers) near Sedona for an amazing swim. A great birthday indeed!

Rode a little piece of the Arizona Trail in Flagstaff today with my daughter.

Mountain Pink.

Yesterday I rode at Pedernales Falls State Park for the first time in a while. All the recent rains had things particularly lush, creeks flowing, stuff blooming. Jones Spring is flowing and the ferns there are rocking! I had good intentions of starting on the early side but it was 10:00 am before I arrived. Got lucky as it was cloudy and breezy, and didn’t seem that hot till the final 30 minutes. I did run into a couple hiking and one of them was having heat-related stress. They were a long way from the parking lot, and though they didn’t ask to be rescued I told the park ranger and it sounded like they were going to send someone out there to see if they needed help.

I promise I will quit talking about this bird soon, but I have one last update. Today I got off my bike and snuck up to the nesting site, slow and quiet. After a few minutes of eye strain I was finally convinced that the bird was gone and the nest is unoccupied (no eggs). I lingered a few minutes thinking about the eventual trail re-route around a fallen red oak tree and all of a sudden the mama bird comes flying out of the brush about 10 feet from where the nest had been. She then does the elaborate broken wing, flailing-on-the-ground act as she limps away trying to get me to follow her away from the (just guessing here) newly hatched chicks. I quickly moved away from there and slunk away, sorry about having disturbed her again. A few minutes later and 75 yards from there I saw what I’m guessing was her mate checking to make sure I was really leaving. This critter sighting just won’t end! On a less fun note, it appears to be horsefly season. Not a fan, though it is satisfying to smack one of those suckers.

Yes. They are! The adult sits on them to incubate them and is incredibly well camouflaged. Here are two admittedly poor photos of the mother(?) on the “nest”. I initially found the nest while using the chainsaw to clear a Red Oak that had blocked the trail. When I came back a few days later I was reluctant to get very close since I had scared her off the nest earlier.

After a lifetime of hearing Chuck-will’s-widow calls, but never getting a decent look at one I’ve been seeing them frequently, though unable to get a decent photo with my phone. One was nesting right next to one of my trails. And on a ride yesterday evening I saw two of them in a different area. Also saw a beautiful tarantula scooting through the woods.

Twistleaf yucca and Texas Feathershank (Green Lilly). Great to be riding yesterday. I love all the rain we’ve been getting but a little sunshine never hurts my sense of well being.

Back home. Nine rides in seven days. I’ve been there several times around Spring Break and a couple times around Thanksgiving. First trip I’ve been there when it didn’t rain!