Putting the 2.1 on in front for maximum radness. Those folks at Surly ain't kidding when they say Fatties Fit Fine.
In spite of all x,y, and z...the riding under the full moon. I headed out to watch the sunset from the overlook at the end of Mudhen Express. Cuz that's a good spot for hanging out and it's where the beers are aging in the cave under the caprock. If you peek under there on a moonlit night you will see them absorbing some magic.
In my mind, the moon would be up just prior to sunset. In actuality,well after an hour or so of increasing darkness, the moon crept up as if it were an angry orange cupcake distorted by haze and distance until it grew to be an oblong pumpkin headed skull face. I used the time productively. There were several beers to be gotten through.
Visited several (4) so called bike riders on the way out there and they all declined to party with me. Call it what you want, call it what you will, but at bottom it's doing yerself a terrible injustice to skip these opportunities for incredibilitude in the moonlit woods.
Next month, find somebody with whom you do want to party and gets some!
The family went out to Horse Bridge Camp a couple weeks ago. N brought her friend, H______. It went a little something like this. Like to hear it? Hear it go:
Don't even kid yourselfs. There's a reason UB40 blew up.
Arrive at dusk (per usual) and start chatting up the ladies...it's a pattern that will stand the test of time, my son.
Next morning? Set up the rope swang.
The start of the build-yer-own-boat Race...
That's my boat there, bringing up the rear. Beaten by a 12 year old girl. Handily. And that's after I stole her idea to use willow bark as twine.
You really don't know what you're made of until you endure the justified taunting of a child.
Some cowboys showed up.
I went over to see if they needed rousting ( don't want a bunch of horse shit attracting more ruthless biting flies), but they were only staying the day. They had a packhorse loaded with iced beer and rum and cokes. I liked these guys a lot.
So did the kids.
They were just such nice fellas. We talked about hauling stuff out there, and while I came away from this with some new ideas, I think they were just being polite when I showed them my rig.
People be getting tired from all that fun. And it should be noted that L did all this with her broken finger.
Overnight in the woods with someone else's kid? H______ was gripped by fear. L had to go sleep in the 2 man tent with 2 girls to allay concerns. Mountain lions, and foxes and snakes? Throw a ghost or 2 in there as well.
Morning does come though.
Folks rope swang a little more, though we had to reverse the rope due to some wear and busting of fibers...I got my pride back by learning from my mistakes of the day before and built a boat that really mooooved. Then it was time to break camp and head back in.
We stopped the parade at the regular swimming hole for some cliff jumping.
BA- bam! Some bike rides are bigger than others. Some bike rides' mothers are bigger then other bike rides' mothers.
The boys and I took a little jaunt up the hill and down again. Lots of trails to be had. So there was that.
Recently, while riding in that neck of the woods, I came across a blazed trail which was new to me so I followed it in the hopes of finding more rideable sections, only to come across this:
Which was very surprising to me. It looked like a small scale operation, compared to some. Anyhow- what the heck is going on around here?
So It has been back to Arroyo Seco/Indians Road for bike camping a couple times lately. The rope swing has been a big impetus. Here's some photos of the most recent:
J, just before spending 3 hours in the river herding crawdads into shallow water with his feet so's he could catch them for the campers down there. They'd bemoaned their lack of crawdad catching prowess and that's all he had to hear. They ended up with 8 or so good sized for their dinner pot.
We saw a snapping turtle drift by, a dinner plate sized dinosaur with the thick long neck and triangular grey head. A similarly sized slider slid by, along with multiple 12-19" steelhead, and countless crawdads. Upon reaching into the beer cache in the evening, I noticed another 8"x4" slider parked right next to the stash. Maybe the shiny cans drew him in?
I traveled a ways up that one interesting trail. It's not so interesting after all. The surface deteriorates quickly into bushwacking, which wouldn't be so bad except that the steepness is ridiculous. And slippy. I was hiking, using the bike as a brake/support. It would be impassable with any load at all. Perhaps worth doing unloaded if someone met us at the other end, but I doubt it.
It was quite sweet to be so out there in the quiet wilderness, though. You forget how that is.
We hiked quite a waaaaays up the river. It just kept getting sweeter. Pool, rapid, pool, and on. That's a raft with a built in mask(!) someone abandoned because of a tiny hole. I brought it out and will be fixing that.
Breakfast was grilled portobellos and grits, with plenty of coffee. I love cooking on the fire! {which fire we put out. dead. out. by the way...no forest fires are welcome! When we arrived at camp, the embers from the previous inhabitants were still hot enough to ignite small twigs unaided. That is bad. Take care with fire, y'all.}
This spot is being revealed to be the jump off point for awesome river fun more and more each time we go.
...you know of 2 other words that pack in so much fun?
I submit the rope swing for a large WIN in the asskickingfuntime category. No child should go through childhood without having been involved in the set up of at least one rope swing. We got 30' of the finest Manila sisal rope we could buy and hung it up like pirates would have.
Cooked Brown Lunch riverside while the boys swang. Ate it out of cans like hobos would have.
Then we took that rope down and brought it home with us so no misguided anti-fun zealots can cut it down, like do-gooders would have.
Putting the 2.1 on in front for maximum radness. Those folks at Surly ain't kidding when they say Fatties Fit Fine.
