Western Idaho. It has been a couple years since I rode at this marvelous place. I laugh when thinking of a tourist book entitled, "America's Top Ten Ditch Hikes/Rides." But there should be.
By 'ditch' I mean a water diversion canal that moves water from one creek to another, usually for agricultural purposes. There aren't as many of these diversion canals as you would think in the dry states of the West. I wish there was an efficient method of finding more of them.
What fun it would be to see one of these diversion ditches dug. The mountainside was steep on the downhill side. I guess they just push the rocks to the downhill side to form the levee, and count on the sharp-cornered rocks to have a high angle of repose.
Earlier I wrote my annual paean to Santa Sombra. (shade in Spanish) If She is not wonderful enough, she has associates just as divine. Santa Aqua for instance. My little honey enjoyed a delicious drink of water along the ditch.
Further upstream there was a sluice that controlled the amount of water diversion, I suppose:
What a place to be a critter or a flower:
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| A snowshoe hare. |
And there is Santa Rosa:
Of course we can't forget Santa Perrita and Santa Bicicleta:
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| "Good ol' Pops is sure pleased with his new handlebar ends!" |
Last but not least, there was Santa Tranquila. She is best revered through the ears rather than the eyes. I adore her. You must appreciate how sick and tired one can get of rocks or biking in low gears up too steep hills. To finally have level ground, smooth ground. Paradise. (I don't see how it was possible for Brahms to compose this music without being on the ride!)
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