2016

My neighbor and I take advantage of the year’s waning sun to find high desert adventure across the Snake River in the once heavily mined hills around Silver City.

An oft expressed intention was finally made real as my neighbor and I got out for a ride together. For a solid five hours, I saw the world without made-up political memes. At first my eyes stung but slowly they adjusted to the lack of hyperbole.

Today is a town day. My brothers and I will resupply in Avery then return south for another lakeside night. At least that’s the hope. On this “best of” ride, tonight’s is the only campsite we’ve never been to. We weren’t able to make it last time we tried to get there.

At just a bit over π miles to the next campsite, it should be an easy day, in spite of almost exclusive single track. We’ll ride from Crater Peak to trails among the Marble Creek headwaters then around to Lost Lake, another of our original brother ride campsites.

In an ode to the early years, and contrary to previous plans, Jeremy, Joel and I begin our annual ride in the foothills of Moscow Mountain, at our mom’s house, and make our way to the first ever Brother Ride campsite on Crater Peak.

Yes, it appears to be fixed. Sadly, the solution involved no midnight elephants or spacetime rifts.

The flexible pipe between the pump and waterfall had an intermittent leak. Why intermittent? I don’t know. I dug it up and watched a few weeks and found no damp ground. But then it sprayed me when it flexed as I repositioned it. Maybe it varied with the sprinkler schedule, leaking less into saturated soil, or temperature, expanding and contracting — one of the world’s great mysteries.

I borrow Kayla’s Brazil backpack — cerulean with a yellow silk flower — so I can join a co-worker for a short hike and camp trip somewhere around Stanley.

I have had my fill of the place but I think Brenna might find Kuna Cave a fun adventure so her and Hunter join me in the little car for the short drive to dusty spelunking while Jessica is busy with meetings.

It has been a few years since Jess Jackson and I plied the lesser known riparian areas for attractive detritus. Now that I’m working nearby, a reunion was in order. Expect more.

I spent an afternoon planning a winter 2016 motorcycle loop but thought better of it as I noticed the mud I’ve been pedaling through to work. So I wrote a post about mud.