Fence lizard?

I guess it's a fence lizard since it was sitting on a fence post. Had a visit today from an old friend so I had such a late start bike riding that I just had a short 8 mile ride up the Susanville Ranch Park trail system. It was nice, a little windy but nice and cool and I didn't see even one person. I love that, being so anti-social and everything. Since it was a Saturday I really expected to see somebody, but I guess there must be a football game on or something, nobody was out there but me.

Tomorrow it's off to my 30 mile ride up on Diamond Mountain. I love that one and by the time I get home I'm usually ready to get off of my bike for a while. Go figure!

Crystal

Crystal Peak, that is. Yesterday my friend Chris and I did a little bike ride from Frenchman Work Center up to Crystal Peak and back. It was a pretty good climb, around 2000 feet from the lake level to the top of Crystal Peak. The weather was about perfect for that ride, a little windy but cool enough so that the exertion didn't overheat us. Crystal Peak is right on the escarpment between the mountains and the desert. Nice views in every direction. Of course the downhill part was pretty cool, and a nice payback for the climb.

Ya just had to love a day like yesterday, and needless to say, I did.

Wildlife sighting!

Ok, it's not like I don't see my share of wildlife when I'm out and about. I came around a corner on the Babcock Peak road a while back and there was a bear walking down the road about 100 feet away. I stopped my bike and said "whoa" out loud and it stopped, turned and looked at me for a minute. Now I've seen bears in the woods before and I usually try to get as close as I can to get a good look at them, but I also usually have a large amount of metal around me from the vehicle I'm in. When you see an animal like that and you have nothing between you and it, the perspective of the situation changes. Fortunately after looking at me momentarily, this bear ran the other direction. (Which is exactly what I wanted it to do.)

Anyway, today the wildlife was a little smaller and slimier. Heard some big bullfrogs calling in this beaver pond today too. Oh, no picture of the bear, unfortunately.

Babcock

The last 2 days I have been out in the woods riding my bike. Last year I noticed that almost everywhere I went I saw aluminum cans laying along the side of the roads I rode on. So this year I got another garbage can and started collecting just a few of the cans I found. I don't pick up all the ones I see, mind you, but my garbage can is already half full, and I have only been collecting them for a little over a month. The last 2 days I have been out on roads that don't get much traffic and I still can't believe how many cans I have picked up. Not to be confused with the old guys who go out and pick up cans along the road for money, I can still see that this little diversion will be quite lucrative in the long run. There are certainly alot of slob beer drinkers around here , throwing their garbage out in the woods. I used to hate seeing those cans along the road and now I'm doing something about it.... even if I am making some money at the same time.

Well, my headline was Babcock, and that was the destination of my ride yesterday, but today I was up around Clarks Peak. My ride today was only 14 miles and yesterdays was 17. I posted some pictures on my web album and they can be seen here. The 2 pictures above are of a meadow I saw that had the nicest shades of green, and the wild strawberry plants I see every day. I just love being out in the woods!!

Last Chance

Road closed? Do you see a road anywhere? Actually this used to be a railroad grade, believe it or not. There were some places where I could actually ride my bike but much of it was totally washed out. I found tons of artifacts from the tracks that used to be here. Lots of spikes and pieces of angle iron and many almost completely rotted ties. It sure was a nice day, my ride covered only 17 miles and I just love that area anyway. When I started working for the Forest Service this area had not yet burned. I still remember how beautiful and remote it felt to drive out here. I know that the burn is not visable in these pictures but I rode through 2 big burns to get here. The Elephant fire was in 1980, as I recall, and the Babcock was in 1976. I was on both of them and I hated to see the result of these fires.


This bottom picture is along Last Chance Creek, where that rail road grade runs. Didn't see any people the whole day.... not one person... ya gotta love that!!

June? Or January?

Global warming huh? Well today was kind of interesting driving around town seeing everyone wearing jackets and sweatshirts. When I looked up on Diamond Mountain I noticed the snow level was almost halfway down the mountain. Yes, I said snow level. The calendar says it's June but the weather feels more like January. My thermometer says 53°which is about 30° less than it was a few days ago. I thought it was cold when I was camping over at Fort Bragg but that was still warmer than it is today. When I got up this morning I was thinking about going bike riding but once I stepped out the back door I changed that whole plan.

Oh well, don't get me wrong I'm not complaining but I'll certainly be happy when it warms back up to normal. Only one way to look at it, you Gotta love it!

Firefightin'

OK, so I'm up in the woods riding my bike and a thunderstorm develops overhead. Now this wasn't a big surprise, the weather forecast called for thunderstorms so I totally expected them. Before the clouds started building it was quite nice, sunny and warm. It never cooled off much so it stayed warm but when the storm developed there were some brief showers. I found a tree down low to get under and waited for the shower to pass. While I was waiting there I saw some down strikes and thought to myself how ironic and cool it would be to come across a lightning fire. Once the shower passed, I headed down the road. Right away I smelled smoke. About 400 feet above the road was the fire on a little rocky ridge. I walked up and looked at it and scratched a little line to keep it from getting any bigger before the fire crew got there, then left to go down to the junction of the next road to wait for some crew to come along looking for it. Soon an old friend showed up and I told him about where it was and gave him a little size up and he told me my old engine crew was on another fire over by Camp 14.

I decided to ride back to my truck and drive over to that one to say Hi to my friends. Sure enough one of the first people I see is Alec. He was in the process of showing me his middle finger when I took this picture. This fire was much larger but still less than an acre. I found a tool that wasn't being used and scratched a little line there too... ah, the old memories! Since I was there on a fire with no safety gear I didn't want to stay long so after a short time I left to come home... Ya gotta love it!!! And I did!!