Fall Aspens

We took a trip to the Jemez Mountains last week to see if any of the aspen trees leaves were turning that nice shade of yellow they turn in the fall. there were lots of beautiful trees. And there was one squirrel that wanted his photo taken. These squirrels are called Abert or tassle eared squirrles.

Fall Colors at Gunflint Narrows

Flashing back a little bit here to late September at Gunflint Lake on the Gunflint Trail in northern Minnesota. The vibrant leaf colors made for a stark contrast to the fire-scarred Canadian shoreline of Gunflint Lake. I wanted to share this one with you after shooting it, but it got lost in the shuffle and I forgot about it until now!

Shipping Bicycles: a Delicate Matter?

Over the past couple of years, I have gotten the sense that shipping bicycles in the USA has become increasingly difficult - particularly bikes that are larger and heavier than a standard modern roadbike. Bike boxes aren't typically made large enough anymore, and the correct size can be next to impossible to hunt down.Shipping companies can give dramatically incorrect estimates for what the service will cost (this happened to me the last time I sold a bike and shipped it myself).And there are lots of accounts of bikes getting damaged in transit despite careful packaging.




For the recipient, receiving a damaged bicycle can be heartbreaking - especially if the damage is something major, like a dent in the frame. For the sender, damage in transit can mean having to pay for it, or at least meeting the recipient half way, if the shipment was not insured or the insurance does not come through.




Personally the only way I feel comfortable shipping a bicycle now is via a bike shop. Yes, we can pack bicycles ourselves and we can do an excellent job. But nonetheless we are not recognised as "professionals." Bike shops are. This apparently can play a role if there is damage in transit and an insurance claim is filed. "Was the bike professionally packed?"




Unfortunately not all bike shops are willing to ship bicycles anymore, especially not large or heavy bikes. This seems to be a recent development: A couple of shops in my neighbourhood used to offer this service, but stopped a year or two ago. Still, in my view finding a good bike shop that does provide the service is worth it. And getting the shipment insured is a must.




What has been your experience with shipping or receiving bicycles over the past year? Do you prefer to ship bikes yourself or to use the services of a bike shop? And in cases of damage in transit, how was the situation resolved? Tips and advice much appreciated.

Montaña De Oro

Wednesday, May 29th - - I have been back in Indiana for two weeks and am staying with some friends. I've found an apartment but it won't be available until the end of July and I'm still waiting for the final approval. However, it will be worth waiting for - it has a garage! And I'm looking forward to "settling down" again. Thankfully my friends are very good ones and are willing to put me up and put up with me for a while.



Tuesday, April 30th - - In early afternoon I left Yosemite National Park and continued on to the coast arriving at Montaña De Oro State Park, a few miles southwest of Morro Bay. I fell in love with that area when I was stationed at Point Mugu (near Oxnard) in the mid-1970s.





The website for the park states that Montaña De Oro is one of the largest state parks in California and features over 8,000 acres of rugged cliffs, secluded sandy beaches, coastal plains, streams, canyons, and hills. I've stayed here before and enjoyed it very much. As you can see in the photos, it was rather cloudy and overcast - it was rather chilly too!






One of many flowers in the Ice Plant that was growing alongside the road.





A close-up view of the inside of the flower.





Looking toward the south.




Details that were hidden in the dark original photograph show up a little better after it was converted to a pencil sketch.






Looking toward the north.

Teton-Yellowstone Drive-Thru

When I left Juniper Campground at the Ririe Reservoir, I decided to continue on US 26 over to US 89 in Wyoming, which goes through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. I greatly underestimated the amount of time that route would take! I had no intention of stopping for any length of time in either park (blasphemy, I know...) but thought it would be nice to drive through.

Teton National Park. The view from the Glacier View Turnout.
The drive was nice. Very pretty too, but it was also frustrating sometimes. Any kind of wildlife sighting resulted in traffic coming to a standstill. You'd think that people had never seen animals in the wild before! ;-)

First there were Buffalo. Not a big herd though, just a few scattered about.

Then there were Bears! Mama bear and her two cubs came up from the valley and crossed the highway, blissfully ignorant of the chaos and confusion they were causing! These pictures were taken through the windshield with the zoom at maximum magnification. I was about 15 vehicles away from the action.


There was also a moose (at least, that's what I think it was) with a large rack of antlers. I didn't get a picture of it though.

The place where I'll be staying in Montana is only two hours from the northern entrance to Yellowstone and I have every intention of spending a few days there, in the middle of the week when, hopefully, there are fewer people! Though with it being summer, there will probably be lots of people there no matter when I go.

Redbud Tree Blossoms

the redbud tree is one of my favorite trees. They have these tiny, pinkish-purple blossoms in late spring. There are clusters of thousands of the pretty little blooms that sort of look like tiny orchids. The bees flock to them so they must be very sweet and loaded with pollen.

Gunks Routes: Commando Rave (5.9) & Dat-Mantel (5.10b)

(Photo: Maryana starting the crux section of Commando Rave (5.9).)



Last Sunday was a gorgeous day, with highs in the mid- to-upper sixties. In other words: sending weather. High season, baby!



I was meeting up with Maryana for the first time in a while. She had been forced to take an eight-week break from climbing because of a cycling accident in the city, which had left her with several fractures in her back. This was a heartbreaking blow for her, coming as it did right in the middle of a great climbing year. Before the accident Maryana had led some truly impressive Gunks 5.10's (like Birdcage, for example). But now she had to rebuild. I was climbing with her on only her second weekend back in the climbing game.



We started with a nice warm-up. I led both pitches of Son of Bitchy Virgin (5.6) in one, running it all the way to the GT ledge. I'd never done the first pitch before. It is okay, but after the initial 5.5 overhang there isn't really much to recommend it. I think the second pitch is quite nice, but it is better approached via the Immaculate Conception variation.



After our warm-up Maryana did an excellent job leading Dry Heaves, a challenging 5.8. Then I got down to business with one of those 5.9's I still hadn't gotten around to: Commando Rave.



Dick Williams suggests in his guide book that Commando Rave is a polarizing climb. He says some love it and some hate it. I guess the hate springs from the lack of pro before the crux. The climb begins with some nice moves up a seam. Then comes an unprotected thirty-foot (!) traverse, but really this traverse is so easy it is barely fifth class. For most of it you are basically walking on a sidewalk. And about two-thirds of the way across I actually got a big blue Camalot in the crack at my feet. After that the rest of the way was well-protected.



The crux is really fun. You angle up and right through some overhangs to a left-facing corner. The hardest bit comes as you reach the end of the roof at the corner. You have to hang in to place a bomber piece, and then it takes a balance move out right to escape the corner and reach up to the good hold.



Once through the crux the belay tree is just a couple of moves away. Commando Rave is good, featuring a solid 5.9 crux. It is a quality quick tick, and totally worth doing. It isn't amazing, and it certainly isn't bad. I really can't imagine loving or hating it.







(Photo: Heading up to the big roof on Dat-Mantel (5.10b).)



I felt pretty good about Commando Rave, and afterwards thought I might get another quick tick, this time of a 5.10. I jumped right on the nearby Dat-Mantel.



This was a climb I'd aborted leading with Gail. On that occasion I was just getting up to the roof when I realized I needed some big gear I'd already used below, and then it started raining. After abandoning the lead I sent it pretty easily on toprope on the first try. Pissed to have found it so easy, I resolved then to try to come back and get the redpoint on lead before was out.







(Photo: Getting ready to attack the roof on Dat-Mantel.)



This time, on lead, I wouldn't say it went easily, exactly. I fumbled about a bit before figuring out how to reach the bomber horizontal above the roof. Then I was psyched to place two good cams above the roof, one for each of our double ropes.



I got set to throw a heel and pivot over the roof....



And it worked out. It took a few tries. It wasn't pretty. I remember standing right up over the roof when I did it on top rope. On lead, by contrast, I ended up basically pushing my whole leg and hip into the rock before I could pull myself over the roof. But I never weighted the rope, and I made it! I'll gladly call it a victory and put it in the bank.



Dat-Mantel is a good introductory 5.10. The crux is short and the pro is great. You should be careful as you figure out how to reach the horizontal over the roof. There is good pro at the back, where the roof meets the wall, but until you can plug that horizontal over your head a fall will send you down onto the slab.It wouldn't bea dangerous fall, but it would be unpleasant. Once you get your fingers in the horizontal, however,there are great placements left and right, and you can try the roof move over and over again without falling onto the rope.



After Dat-Mantel my day was as good as done. With a new 5.9 onsight to my credit plus a successful 5.10, I was content to coast. Maryana proved herself to be the comeback kid, leading two more hard 5.8's: the wonderful first pitches of both Carbs & Caffeine and Airy Aria. I then got to end our day by combining the beautiful second and third pitches of Airy Aria into one lead, a fitting finish to a glorious day of climbing.



I love sending season.

A 2nd look at ice screws....

I had a chance to climb on some ice this winter thatwasunique. Was to me anyway.



I had thought I had seen hard black ice previous. Uncomfortable but workable. But some of the stuff we got on in Chamonixwas damn near bullet proof. And I actually know what real "bullet proof " is by USDOJ standards. This was IIIA no problem. Ceramic plate hard. Going for a solid III or IV rating hard. Hard, cold and dry. Some times as much rock and sand, as ice.



I had thought over time Ipretty muchfigured out how to get a decent belay on ice quickly. Typically takes only a few minutes and I'm done. Nothing fancy mind you. Two screws, two tools to the hilt. Clove the screws on a good day, clip a tool out of the loop may beand were are off to the races. Nothing fancy. I can do fancy just don't chose to generally.



Only once have I failed to get an anchor...that in the upper bowl on Slipstream. Even in the old days when we already knew the screws we were using wouldn't work in some ice we'd just keep climbing in a similar situation.Never have I spent an hour trying to get a belay on ice...until this winter.



Matt (high middle of pic) above tied off screws and well deserved rock pro....finally.

Likely obvious but alpine ice isn't waterfall ice.I spent an hr we could ill afford trying to get two decent screws into the belay from where this picture is taken. You might reasonably ask why not rock gear there? And it would be a reasonable question. We had just climbed 250m of hard, (like rocks are hard)north facing ice with a foot or so of fresh snow on it and my patience was wearing thin. I actually climbed over to the rock thinking I'd be able to get something inwhere the picture is, easily. ( I seldom can't in a minute or less on rock) It was prefect granite for chrimney's sake! By the time I realised rock gear wasn't going to be easy I was determined to grovel, dig or full on excavate toget ice..any ice.

What ice that I could/should have gotten a screw into normally I was coming up dry. I'd get a bite, a couple of 1/4 turns to a start. Then the ice turned to theconsistency of riceand the screw failed to bite as the tip, plugged up with ice. Over and over again. Clean the tip and try, clean the tip and try. Nothing in the tube.

Six holes.....yes I counted. And many failed ice screw placements later I gave up (i gave up!?) ...tied the two shitty screws off, covered them with snow, reset my tools, tied them off and said "climb". Surely not not all that thrilled with the screws or the time wasted. We should have just started climbing together so I would/could have found better ice. Bad, really bad, judgement call on my part in several ways.

I had covered the anchors because I knewmy partner was not going to bepleased. With the gear or with me. Hell! I wasn't pleased and at this point was feeling like a total failure. WTF happened here? A couple of things.



The ice was really old and hard. It was shallow. I dinged 3 screws trying, I know. But and here it comes....the screwswere all new (as in brand new) BD Express screws. I had decided to make a real effort to use the BDs in the alpine on this trip. Lighter by a few grams, rack easier and all.......

Even if the BD's are a bit harder to place, which has been my experience over time, it is only alpine ice. How hard can it be? "It aint going to ever matter."



Ya, that was a dumb answer. And this was a "easy" climb. Just the fact that the ice wasn't being cooperative made it, well, not so easy.



A number of things stood out to me on this particular climb. New snow on the approach and the easy angled ice,the cold temps and the ice quality.It was hard to get takers for a trip back to that set of gullies ;)



What I did fine when I made it back the next week was...similar snow conditions. And thesame ice conditions. Likely a tiny bit warmer but that would be only a guess and if so notby much.



But I brought a majority of Grivel Helix screws this time. Fool me twice and all. Amazingly enough...every screw was sunk to thehilt first try. Nothing tied off and no time wasted on bad anchors.



To be fair. I knew where I was going, where there was good/better ice on routeand whereto avoid another dry hole. But still......if I didn't think there was a difference...a big difference..I wouldn't be writing about it. With a little help my partner was able to climb"the obvious line" that wasn't all that obvious first time around or for the localsthat were following us that day.



I have a full rack of the newest BD and Grivel screws and no horse in the race.. YMMV but that is my 2 cents from this experience.







Looking down from that same belay....great snow ledge anyway :)

Sadly, no, the beautiful and warm sunshine never touched the belay.

15 Swoonworthy Velo-Valentines

Just over a week ago, I announced a Give-away for Valentine's Day - inviting readers to submit bicycle-themed Valentines for a chance to receive a beautiful, bright red Bobbin Birdie. Over 70 submissions were made, and I have looked at and read them all at least twice. All were beautiful and thoughtful, and I sincerely thank everybody for sharing them. I would now like to present 15 Valentines that, with difficulty, have been selected as the final entries. They are numbered (in no particular order) and your feedback is welcome. While this is not an outright "readers' choice" vote, your selections will be taken into consideration in the final decision. Thanks for looking, and enjoy!




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1. "Be Mine" Submitted by Park Girl: "'The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets' - Christopher Morley".




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2. "Together We'll Go Far ... On Love & Bicycles." Submitted by Stephen Lee Ogden.




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3. "Bicroscopic Valentine." Submitted by Jessi: "Portraits sourced from the Commons, Bobbin Birdie bike, and original photograph of silk threads under glass slide, taken with a Nikon 1970's microscope mount. Everything but the silk fibres are halftoned, because that is how I roll."





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4. "Diamonds are a girl's best friend. But my valentine is a mixte."Submitted by Mindy: I wanted to draw a picture of my bike, because I do love my mixte! The text still works even if you're not familiar with the mixte/diamond frame thing (see what I did there?)."







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5. This evocative poem was submitted by Robin.




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6. "A day with... is better than a day without..." There is another side to this card, and it is shownhere. Submitted byWillie Bailey.



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7. "Hip hoppin' & Bobbin' for you, Valentine!" Submitted by Julie: "My dog, Bonnie, is a little shy and eccentric, and is always the star of our "family" greeting cards. She was going to make a Valentine anyway, but she decided to go with a flashy Valentine theme in hopes of winning her dear mother, me, a pretty new Lady Bike."




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8. "All I want to do is make tricycles with you." A collage submitted by Michelle B.




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9. "The story, context, high-res sharable files (including vector) for anyone who wants to have fun and make their own for someone can be discovered here." Submitted by nandapocentric.




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10. An embroidered Valentine! Submitted byyn0405:"My entry, inspired by the little Birdie"




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11. "The two things in this world that are true: my sturdy lugged frame and my love for you!" Submitted by LT: "When I read your latest post this morning I thought immediately of my favorite old family photo, so I added a few bits to the photo to make it a vintage-themed Valentine."




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12. A poem submitted by William B. The text reads:



"Said the front tire to the rear

Follow me; I’ll lead my dear.

Round and round we’ll roll together.

‘Cause when you push I steer better.

If miles from here the road’s not fair

We’ll just let out a little air.

I will not shimmy, I will stay true;

That is the promise I make to you.

At dusk, to emphasize our genders,

We’ll slip into some silver fenders.

Your tread is slick; your spokes are fine;

You’ll always be my valentine."




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13. "Sending you... Love." Submitted by Margaret.






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14. "I wanna ride with you."Submitted byAinsleyW:"Happy Valentine's Day!! Here's my entry, designed specifically in the likeness of mine and my sweetie's bicycles."





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15. Submitted by Audrey W., the poem reads:




"true love

discouraging, tiresome
amassed frustrations
quick release–
escape
restore sanity?

true love, loyal to
youth, to health, to
the beating-
heart

celebrating curves,
bearing pain and
bliss–
eternal"





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So, what do you think? List the numbers of the Valentine(s) that appeal to you in the comments, and your feedback will help determine the recipient. There are no rules by which to judge the Valentines, these things just sort of have to "hit" your love receptors. How much work went into making them is, of course, worth considering as well. The recipient will be announced on Valentine's Day, February 14th. Please feel free to contribute to the comments up to the eve of that date. Thank you everybody for looking, reading and participating. Have a lovely weekend!

Picnic

Jan fixing our picnic lunch and Cyndi helping.

Gourds

My gourd crop is small this year but they look to be nice ones. Have about six at this time.

Grassy Yard

Jim complained he hadn't had a chance to mow the several acreas of lawn they have, but I thought it looked so great with the tall grass and dandelions in bloom. After looking at nutural brown desert dirt for as long as I have any green looks good.

Oak Thicket

We found a tiny scrub oak thicket with the leaves just turning. Several of the big limbs of the oak were laid over as if there had been heavy snow or wind damage at some time.