Hard to believe how fast the time goes, especially when you’re hanging around home. In a twist of the common “just retired” comment: How did I ever find time to hike (bike or raft)? It’s almost summer and if it weren’t for chores, commitments and complications I’d rather be logging hours as a WIS volunteer, breaking in my new Brooks saddle, or rafting the Middle Fork. But all play makes the responsibilities stack up, and June is the month I’ve got to knock off as much as I can, because July, August and September are already booked up.
One of the pleasures of being home is hosting Warmshowers.org cross-country cyclists and Eddy was the rider of the month so far. He is/was a delightful South Korean who decided to traverse the US on a bike after discussing it with several students in his English as a Second Language class (in Kentucky). Well equipped and enthusiastic, he made it from Los Angles to Durango in 17 days, including stays in Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. He liked Durango so much he stayed over and made a quick 9-mile day hike with me on his day off. Only comment I had for him was to put some toe-clips on the pedals because he was attempting the 3,000 mile trip in tennis shoes and pedaling flat footed.
Since we’d contracted to sell our rental house, I had to sort, move and trash items in that rental garage, which dove-tailed nicely with my purging of the equipment wall in the spare bedroom. Between a friend’s fortuitous yard sale, the thrift shop, some give-a-ways, various dumpsters and a nephew, I’ve lightened my load considerably. Now if I could double or triple that amount of divesture, I could fit into assisted living if they’d allow bicycles, backpacks and raft.
I did make time for a sewing project – a bike-packing frame pack – for my high school and cross-country-cycling buddy, Don Ahlert. I’m not announcing it yet, but he’s going to cycle the Great Divide and I’m going along. This little custom pack will fit between his top and down tubes and hold a pump and tent poles, plus a few spares for his cross-country adventure.
Luckily I was in town for a program at Rotary this last week on a local bear study with the Division of Wildlife. Evidently we are the only community in the world studying the conflicts between bears and people living in close proximity. This is a totally fascinating multi-year project that uses GPS technology to track adult female bears, all within our county. The Division of Wildlife knows where each of the collared bears are year round, and tracks them down in their dens during winter to change the batteries and count cubs. If there was any doubt about how many bears are around our community, we now know there are at least 270 that have been trapped, tagged and released exactly where they are found. We know for certain that drought conditions bring the bears into town and more importantly, those bears who’ve discovered town trash don’t come back to town if there is plenty of food outside of town the following year.
Soon it’ll be summer and I’ll be back outdoors.
