We are camped in the national forest right on the route of the recently completed Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race. The other day we rode a forest road up to the foot of Mt. Elbert, the tallest peak in Colorado. The most pleasant surprise was the marvelous, hard-packed, sandy texture of that particular forest road.
I couldn't get the word 'orogeny' out of my mind. What a beautiful word. It means mountain-building. Of course the opposite of orogeny is just as important. Erosion is one way to look at it. As detritus is swept down the side of a mountain, to the valley, the small stuff should drop out last, at lower altitude. Indeed we were benefiting from that today on the ride.
The forest was a lodgepole pine monoculture. If ever a tree was aptly named, it is the lodgepole pine. The forest was as bland as you can imagine, but it wasn't as dark and depressing as a spruce/fir forest. When I stopped pedaling and held my breath, I could hear nothing--no wind, no birds. Did anything live here? It was as empty as the Mojave Desert.
Finally we got to the end of this marvelous forest road where we could see faint trails going up the ridges of Mt. Elbert. With binoculars I could see a group of twenty peak-baggers descending from the just-vanquished peak. They were 3500 feet above us. You really have to stare at these ants to tell what direction they're moving.
Looking down at the little dog I could tell what he was thinking. The smaller the fuzzball, the bigger the dreams. That recent Thirteener has whetted his appetite for his first Fourteener. Before he had any more time to think about it, I turned us home.
Is it really fair to curse the ugliness of pine and spruce forests? Some of my favorite western scenery is the Palouse of eastern Washington, which consists of rolling hills covered with wheatfields. But how attractive would that be to a mouse? And that's the problem. A man is too small to enjoy this lodgepole pine forest. If he were 150 feet tall and walked here, it would be gorgeous.
This seems like mere whimsy--playing Gulliver in the Rockies. But maybe it explains the great appeal of an outdoor sport like hang gliding or parasailing. Getting your eyes above the clutter allows you to appreciate the land's contours and texture.
I couldn't get the word 'orogeny' out of my mind. What a beautiful word. It means mountain-building. Of course the opposite of orogeny is just as important. Erosion is one way to look at it. As detritus is swept down the side of a mountain, to the valley, the small stuff should drop out last, at lower altitude. Indeed we were benefiting from that today on the ride.
The forest was a lodgepole pine monoculture. If ever a tree was aptly named, it is the lodgepole pine. The forest was as bland as you can imagine, but it wasn't as dark and depressing as a spruce/fir forest. When I stopped pedaling and held my breath, I could hear nothing--no wind, no birds. Did anything live here? It was as empty as the Mojave Desert.
Finally we got to the end of this marvelous forest road where we could see faint trails going up the ridges of Mt. Elbert. With binoculars I could see a group of twenty peak-baggers descending from the just-vanquished peak. They were 3500 feet above us. You really have to stare at these ants to tell what direction they're moving.
Looking down at the little dog I could tell what he was thinking. The smaller the fuzzball, the bigger the dreams. That recent Thirteener has whetted his appetite for his first Fourteener. Before he had any more time to think about it, I turned us home.
Is it really fair to curse the ugliness of pine and spruce forests? Some of my favorite western scenery is the Palouse of eastern Washington, which consists of rolling hills covered with wheatfields. But how attractive would that be to a mouse? And that's the problem. A man is too small to enjoy this lodgepole pine forest. If he were 150 feet tall and walked here, it would be gorgeous.
This seems like mere whimsy--playing Gulliver in the Rockies. But maybe it explains the great appeal of an outdoor sport like hang gliding or parasailing. Getting your eyes above the clutter allows you to appreciate the land's contours and texture.
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