As usual, the campground in the park was full but I found a free BLM spot just outside the park overlooking the town of Torrey so the bonus was cell signal and I even managed some facetime with friends and later for a work teleconference so all was well.
Full Moon rising.
Sunset at the same time.
And then sunrise.
And Moonset
Today was a day for chores. I spent a good part of the day at an excellent restaurant in the little town of Torrey catching up on my blog. Shopping, cooking and showering rounded out the day with lots of time for reading.
The wind was crazy in the middle of the night going from calm to tent trashing furious and back to calm. The forecast was for windy but I wanted to ride up Boulder Mountain so I saddled up with a gallon of water in my saddle bag and took off, hoping to beat the forecast for afternoon thundershowers. I loved the climb until the wind started howling in all directions. At one point it damned near blew me off the road on a descent to the point that I pulled over and sat and thought about whether to finish the ride to the summit. I decided that I would finish but would keep the descents to less than 25 mph. The other factor is that Boulder Mountain creates it's own weather and gets twice the rainfall of the surrounding desert and today was one of those days. I took very few pictures on the way up due to the windy conditions preventing one handed picture taking while on the move. When I got to the top the wind was blowing in my face at around 35 mph and gusting higher but it was the cross gusts that were more dangerous. It started out looking great but the craziness was higher up.
Welcome to the summit where the wind was screaming. The summit area is made up of forests and meadows where cattlemen have grazed their cattle in the summer for well over a hundred years. I had seen some odd looking pickups with short heavy cages in the back kenneling their bloodhound mixed dogs. I stopped one and asked what they were using the dogs for and the guy said, "huntin' bar, crazy weather huh?" I really didn't want to know that but I guess the cage is to protect the dogs when they aren't out chasing bears. oh boy oh boy oh boy, eyes cast downward. Back to the task at hand, the rain was starting to spit on me and the wind was blowing me back toward the bottom so I took off, stopping a few times to record the beauty I had seen on the way up. If I kept moving quickly, I was able to stay out front of the real rain but I kept my speed down due to the unexpected cross gusts.
I will regret not buying this t-shirt when I saw it at the general store in Torrey.
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