Inventing Your World

Invent your world. Surround yourself with people, color, sounds, and work that nourish you. Sark

Sun, Wind, Rain, and Ice (Hail/sleet)

Friday night was the BHFTF Welcome Social. Saw some of the folks from last year. Sat wth the guys from MSP. Lots of SWAG given out. Pretty good social. I was tired, left once the raffle was over.
Yesterday was the second day on the Mickelson Trail Ride. The guys from MSP (most of our ride group) wanted to delay the start, so it was almost 11 by the time we got to Hill City and the bikes off-loaded. I stayed with the vans over the first section.
At The Mountain Trailhead (near Crazy Horse) I joined the ride, the goal to ride to Pringle (17+ mile). Most of that section is downhill. We stopped in Custer for lunch.
For some reason, my bike computer changed from MPH to KPH. Called Zach from our lunch, got most of it changed. At least it was reading at MPH. The prolem that my odometer was way off. Last night, using my log, I got the bike miles reset. (Have 184 miles on it so far)
Back to the ride --- The hill and wind out of Custer amost did me in. For basically the first 3 miles I was at max heart rate. Stopped once at a driverway to bring the heart rate down. Once the trail was downhill again, I was good to go. The wind was still rough at times. It would cause my speed to drop from about 15mph to 7mph, and everything between.
After a brief stop at the White Elephant Trailhead, it was on to Pringle. Just out of the traihead it started raining. that wasn't too bad. But then some kind of ICE came out of the sky. With the wind, rain, and ice, it was not pleasant. The support vans stopped along the road as the storm passed. Asking if I wanted off the trail, I said - I'm heading to Pringle". Only 2 miles to my goal for the day -- I made it.
I and several others called it quits at Pringle. Four kept on. A very strong squal came through. We picked up 3 riders off the trail. the last one made it to the Minnekahata trailhead (as he saw us leaving to pick up the other riders. Everyone made it back safe.
Last night was the viewing of "Seasons", the new film by The Collective". Lots of fast riding, jumps, awesome riding, and crashes. Over the the Firehouse for a beer and needed purchases for the Beer-Muda Triangle.
A great and tiring day. I felt good about making it through some of the worst weather I have ridden in.

Verbena Bonariensis

My blooming Verbena bonariensis.

Thai Dragons

'Thai Hot Dragon' chile peppers on my single plant. This plant has grown fast and produced many peppers.
There was a bit of a mystery concerning this plant: some of the peppers had absolutely no heat at all (they're supposed to be 8 times hotter than a Jalapeño). I discovered it was because those peppers were drying on the plant and not ripening.
The other day, I tried a plump, juicy red pepper. After chewing for a few seconds, I was running back into the house hollering.
The heat lasted about 1 hour.

Stairway to heaven

Saturday was an extremely memorable day, the kind of thing that I'll likely still remember when I'm 83 years old sitting in a retirement home somewhere. As usual, I was a little later getting started on the ride to O'Reilly's than I'd planned, but the 15 minutes was fairly easy to make up, most of it was gone by the time I reached Canungra (after riding through the beautiful gorge) and started the 900-metre climb. The views up here are great, but what I really came for was the walk to Stairway Falls with the Gold Coast Hiking group that I discovered on the Internet a couple of weeks ago.


They turned out to be a great group. Friendly, adventurous and supportive. The walk itself involved a descent into a valley to the Blue Pool, before a trek along the rushing Canungra Creek to the falls and back, and a total of 12 unbridged creek crossings. There were, of course, the obligatory leech attacks (which caused some rather interesting reactions from Louise, our "fearless" leader), and a few obligatory falls in the creek (one of which cost me a pair of sunglasses), but it was worth it in the end.


On the ride home I was left to reflect on the day, and realised just what this experience meant. I don't know if any of us would have been able to follow the "track" and make it to the falls individually, but collectively it could be done. Sometimes it's also nice to find people with whom these experiences can be shared, and this day really had everything. I plan to make this the first outing of many with this group. There's talk of a climb of Mt Cougal next month -- all I can say is "bring it on".

Fountain Foolery after the Fun Match

You can biggify Hank's picture - he's really very cool about being in the pool!
I had to do obedience performances last Sunday in Hayward. I'm not wild about these things, but this Fun Match was held in a pretty area of the college campus there. When most of the classes were over, a few of us doggies ambled around searching for some fun and look what we found! A cooling-off place with sprinklers! Wish I'd had my kong, but it was Hank, the bulldog, who showed me this place - a few other pups came and joined us, but we didn't get their pictures. Hank is very advanced - in obedience that is. His mom, Jean Marie, is very cool.See ya 'round!

Frostflowers

White crownbeard - Verbesina virginica
Before I knew the real name of these plants I called them Ice Plants. I'm a flower nut but mostly a springtime flower nut, so I haven't studied fall flowers very much.
They have small, somewhat coarse white flowers. There's a lot more leaf than flower to them, so sometimes they suffer from the "it's just a weed" syndrome.
It seems like half the time I ask wildflower experts the name of something, it turns out to be beneath their notice, and they'll say "I don't know, it's just a weed!"
Anyway, this plant is called White Crownbeard, frostflower, or frostweed. Here's a site that shows them in bloom.
The most interesting thing about these plants to me is what happens after the flowers are gone. The first time I saw it, I wondered if loose cotton had somehow blown into the edges of the yard.

It only happens after a really hard freeze. Although the plant remnants look like dry sticks by the time it freezes, they somehow produce all this ice. One website I visited said that they are drawing the water from the ground.
The first time it happens is the most dramatic, and forms the most ice, but it'll happen again several more times when we go through cycles of warming up and then freezing again.
So what makes it happen with this plant, but not with others? I have no idea.
After I wrote the above, I searched a little more on Google and found this page that explains more about the phenomenon. (And has lots better pictures than mine!) The frost from plants he found was very thin. On the plants here it varies, but is usually thicker.

Bicycle Trails Calendar

I have published my first calendar. The calendar features photos I have taken while riding my bicycles around the country. Contact me if you are interested in ordering one.

Adjusting to colder water and weather

Lake Michigan's surface water near Chicago dropped about 10 degrees over the past week. This morning's 19-knot winds beckoned, but the water temperatures whispered, "Bring your neoprene caps and poagies."

We suppose some people don't hear things like that.

After weeks of warm water, we were somewhat sad to find the lake back in the mid-50s. But hey, this is Chicago. And besides, our west coast friends consider temperatures like these normal.

We surfed and played a bit, then tried to convince one of the denizens of the doggie beach that we weren't deep sea aliens come to steal his tennis balls.

It's important, we figure, to get out on the water as the temperatures drop to soften the shock of winter's arrival. Poagies and all.

Going to hell

One of these days I promise to actually get a post uploaded right away. It won't be today however. In this case, I'm around nine days late in documenting what was one of the best rides of the year -- to a place called Hell's Hole, hidden in Mt Jerusalem National park. This day was made special because of what came before I got anywhere near the destination, and started with a climb over Tomewin right on sunrise. What followed was quite spectactular and totally unexpected.


I descended into the Tweed Valley, into almost freezing temperatures (4 degrees C on the valley floor), and into a thick mist and a southerly wind blast that came out of absolutely nowhere. This route passes the bottom of Mt Warning, but the mountain might as well have spent a morning at the beach for all I knew, as visibility was only around 200 metres or so. I was actually pondering whether or not the condensation in the air might clean some of the dirt off the bike, so thick was it. Yet by the time I started the next climb to the national park, it was all but gone.



There are some really stunning patches of rainforest in Mt Jerusalem National Park, but Spring is also the wildflower season. The flowers seen in this area don't seem to make it to the nearby Lamington or Nightcap national parks, but here they find a home. Today I was meeting some friends at the top of the final climb for the final walk to Hell's Hole itself, and the waterfalls that surround it. This is a truly beautiful area, and one that I only discovered, believe it or not, last year.


Today a few members of the group got even more ambitious, and tried to descend to the big rock pool at the bottom. Nobody made it of course, as I understand it has to be approached from a track on the other side, followed by a scramble along the creek. I've since looked at a topographic map of the area, which suggests that it may even be a different creek, but that's an adventure for another day. While this effort didn't make it to the rock pool, it did yield a slightly different view of the waterfall at the end that drops right into the Hole itself.


After all this it was time to retire to the cafe in Uki for (in my case) a double-serving of lunch before the ride home. If there was one sad thing to come from the day, it's looking at what the Tweed Shire Council have done to Urliup Road, as they appear to be preparing to seal what may be my favourite dirt road in the world at present. This would, of course, be a tragedy for all of mankind, but I guess it was inevitable sooner or later. Still, this would be an opportune time to remind the Tweed Shire Council of what happened last time they upset me. They have been warned!

Capture

I have a new computer that's taking a little getting used to. The pros are obvious: My m and n keys are no longer worn out, the case isn't cracked at the seams, and boy, is it zippy fast.
Really the only con is that many things work differently. As an official old person, I think I'm obliged to resist change. Or whine about it a little, at least.
Photoshop Elements will do so much more than my old mini-featured generic program. I couldn't resist the urge to make my bug photo look like a cartoon, as you see. But the features aren't intuitively obvious, and they're not much like the old Photoshop 3 I used to know.
You people with wide-screen computers were so sweet not to tell me how off-kilter I've been. I like my new screen, but some things (mainly my blog header) appear centered incorrectly. I haven't figured out how to fix that yet.
The screen is also very bright. So I may have trouble getting the photo levels right for a while.
I have a spiffy new Bluetooth mouse. No cords, it's great! But it has a bit of a tendency to drift to the left all on its own when I use my usual sofa-pillow-as-mousepad.
I will figure it all out eventually.

Surprise Pressie

Mom tried to help me paw out our address, but it sure is messy! However, check out the cool address label! Wow!
Look who I got this neat package from! Huge woofs for this pawesome card!!! And look! I've already got my snooter deep into the box!
Oh sooo cool! I love this squeakie stuffie!!! I love it so much that...
... I immediately carry it two rooms away to my bed before I investigate the rest of the box! That's stuffie love!
Dad lures me back to this amazing-lookie box and you won't believe what's inside! Yumzers smell!
Ohhhhhhh! Cookies!!! Not only that! They are homemade by Sedona's Girl Twin! Givemeonegivemeonegivemeone Dad.... Please?????
Aren't these gorgeous? I don't know how she made them, but they are delicious as well as bootiful! She oughtta go into bizness hehee! And here's a movie of me sampling a couple of these exquisite petits-bones! Thank you so, so much Sedona and Girl Twin! xoxoxoxoxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qls3o7h2xjc

Day 3 - BHFTF

And now for something completely different...
I took my time getting to the festival yesterday morning. The trail runners were just leaving - no time to get there to take photos. But, the group was organizing for freeriding.
We carpooled to Storm Mountain. The group started with hike-a-bike up the mountain. About a quarter up the trail (from one of the riders) I decided that was high enough, There was a good, rock decent there and 2 jumps.
Spent nearly 2 hours there shooting riders at this spot. The light played havoc with the camera light meter. Hope I can touch up a couple more of the photos.
Since I was in the area, and it was that time, lunch as the Gas Light.
Stopped HQ to checking my receipts and claim tickets for Beer-Muda. i was sure the Gas light was one of the sponsors, but they are not this year. So I only had the receipt for Friday lunch at the Firehouse.
Napped and did some stuff in the room. Then off the watch the Strider demo race. The Tri-athalon was just about to start at so stopped to take some photos of the start.

The Strider race was probably the highlight of the races at the festival. Big boys racing downhill on little bikes. The only way to describe the was by a photo.
The day ended with the BBQ. Grilled burgers of beef, venison, buffalo, veggy burgers, and chicken with all the fixin's. There was music and beer, sopped off by raffles.
A couple of glitches there. In interest of time, they started drawing winning tickets before everyone got their tickets. I was finishing in the food line when the raffle started. (I was fortunate to win cycling shorts - and they even fit me!)
Once I had some time to get over to get my beer (2 tickets came with your dinner), the keg was dry. Luckily, the Festival purchased a second keg. When I went for my beer, I took BOTH of my cups, lest they run out again. (They did but the party was almost done). When one of the workers of the festival said he was pretty sure the one group of raffle prizes were all there was, I was disappointed. There seemed to be more swag for the racers than raffle prizes. Alas, we were wrong there were another general raffle, Finally Beer-Muda Triangle raffle.
By the time everything ended, I was tired, cold, and my brain was fried from the noise. Took me some time to settle down to sleep.

Jurassic Way 1 - Banbury to Chipping Warden

Theoretically 11 miles, nearer 12.5 ( the garmin took a little while to pick up the satellites in this new area). We should have set off earlier in the day to give ourselves more time to explore Middleton Cheney and Wardington. Weather mostly fine, coolish, a couple of showers - the heaviest of them while we were having lunch. With Marta.









From the car park in Banbury, via the shopping centre for a quick coffee, and a visit to the Tourist Information Centre to pick up another map, we made our way south along the canal, from Banbury Lock, in the direction of the water's fall, past various narrowboats and a few sculptures.

the canal

Long John Silver or Captain Hook? I shoulda blurred out the background.





The start of a new adventure - with Banbury Lock in the background, the Jurassic Way starts - though we couldn't find a sign for it.





Someone's made a real effort with this waterside garden.

We're on the correct path. Just as well.





At this bridge the Jurassic Way leaves the canal and turns left, north-east heading towards the Cherwell, and the M40. The bridge crossing the Cherwell has a plaque.

Just after crossing the bridge the path goes alongside the river and under the motorway.

We could hear the noise clearly for quite some distance afterwards, as we walked across fields, over a railway bridge and past some agricultural buildings.




We're still on the right track
At a minor road we turned right, then left towards Warkworth. In Warkworth, we turned left to a footpath opposite Manor Farm. The path took us towards Overthorpe, passing a church at some distance on our right, then skirting Overthorpe along a tree lined path from which we could glimpse some splendid gardens. We then turned right towards Middleton Cheney across fields and past allotments, down to cross a stream and up into the large village.









We turned left and went across the by-pass ( A442) and into the High Street where we found the Take Thyme cafe and conveniently by-passed the worst shower of the day while we had our lunch. There is a heritage trail, but we had no time to follow it today.

I hadn't realised Middleton Cheney was big enough to have a secondary school, or so many small shops. According to the village website, there are plenty of ghosts in the village as well.





From the cafe we went along Church Lane, and found the footpath between houses. Soon after leaving the village, we crossed a field before walking alongside another one with llamas and sheep, and a tree surrounded by fallen apples which from a distance looked like unseasonal yellow flowers.

Onward and across the B4525, over more fields, where the way is pretty clearly marked, then through a wooded area. The map was useful to check where to cross a narrow section of wood before turning right along the edge and past Chacombe House before arriving at the village itself. The path climbs up into Chacombe through some woodland where signs are very clear. You leave the village from the junction of Silver Street with Silver Street North. You can see the church across the field, and there's a picnic area and a large stone.





From here the route as far as Wardington was straightforward, leading under the railway then uphill and across fields.

under the railway

some curious sheep





We had a small problem finding the way very close to Wardington, and came out about fifty yards too far along Thorpe Road, but it was plain from then on, as the path led us round the village, but at one point (in the Close) there was a sign simply saying footpath. We asked a local resident, who almost sent us back round the village, but finally showed us the nearest path, between some houses, and luckily the Jurassic Way was signposted at that point. Then there was one occasion when a sign was actually pointing ahead instead of left as it should have done. This made us walk all of an extra couple of hundred yards, but finally the route to Edgecote was clear. if we'd looked at the map instead of blithely following signs, we'd have been fine.

We met the road where there are a couple of cottages, then took the road to the right and followed it until it turned to the left into the village of Edgecote, just after the church.

From here we took a track, through a gate downhill to cross the Cherwell ( very small here), then up a gentle slope and into Chipping Warden.

Rain on lens again!

pdf fromNorthants C C - Banbury to Ashby St Ledgers

A video of this section - by voxley19 from August covering many of the same landmarks.