Yeah, right! OK, I guess it has been warming but the drying part is going to be a slow process.
The day before yesterday I got to get on my bike for the first time since Death Valley. I went out in the valley near Standish and went for a short ride... 13 miles. That's about all I could take, my butt has to get used to my bike seat all over again. I hope this starts off the bike riding season of 2008. 13 miles is a short ride for me normally and this one was all flat so no challenges. Still it was great to be out and it was nice weather-wise.
Yesterday I tried to take a long walk up the Bizz... not a good plan. I ended up going a little over a mile up the trail but I had no tracks to follow except the cross country snow skiers tracks, and I was doing my best not to destroy their trail by walking in it. See Chris? I'm learning.
The snow is still over a foot deep and it's heavy and full of water and is tough to walk in. Anyway, I found a nice patch of pine needle duff under a big yellow pine that was dry enough to sit on and ate my lunch there. On my way back down I stopped at the second trestle and was looking at the river when I noticed these bolts had been tampered with. Someone has taken the nuts off of most of them and has removed some of the long bolts. I'm not sure what this does to the integrity of the bridge railings, but they had to be there for some reason and removing them can't be a good thing. Tomorrow before leaving town I'll try to notify someone to go out and look at it. I'm not sure if it's the County, City or BLM. Kind of pisses me off that someone is doing this kind of vandalism. It would sure be nice to catch them doing it.
Think Spring!!
Well, I'm over in Fortuna right now, until tomorrow, and spring is starting to show. For a guy who is starting to dislike the long cold winters in Susanville, this has been a welcome break in the monotony. The color green has come back to my life. Yesterday Tracey and I went out to a creek in the redwoods near here and had a marvelous time with the dogs, taking pictures and laying in the sun. Since it's still mid February that was a really nice change from the cold, white, slushy, muddy mess that is the outdoor experience that I have been used to lately.
