It is still great sleeping weather, this close to mid-summer! Is there a nicer pleasure? During the day, a breeze is almost as good. Strangely I instinctively dislike the sound of wind at night, as if it were still winter in the desert. Come on! Adjust to the seasons.
It is a different world here in the summer at 6000 feet of altitude, in eastern Oregon.
Where did all the brown go? The rubble, the cholla, the extreme aridity and cloudless, monotonous skies. Things are actually green and alive here. The Little Cute One is going crazy over all the rodents and deer:
They even build houses out of wood here, instead of stucco:
It is ironic how a "mountain biker" like me doesn't camp or ride in the mountains proper. You can't camp on a 20% slope, and if you bike there, you move at walking speed in your lowest gear. Then you coast back down, while turning your disk brakes cherry red.
Instead I seek out high ridgelines and their sacred breezes. A tourist might look at something like this and say, "Not bad:"
But a cyclist of my stripe sees sensibly laid-out roads that allow the cyclist to use a variety of gears. That is the key to cycling pleasure for me. (Besides having a dog along.)
Comments