Be still... Be Calm... Be Peaceful....


Thanks to the wonderful world of technology I have had hopes raised and dashed (again) whilst watching England v Croatia on the Sky Go app.... just as well the rest of my day was much better!

Once again returning to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains I decided to explore beyond the forest I cycled up to the other day. The bonus of hiring a large car means my bike can squish in the back without taking the front wheel off.... a bonus with a dynamo hub as the wires for that are zip tied to my bike meaning its a real pain to take off the front wheel. The detractions of having a car larger than the one you are used to as well as driving on the wrong side of the car... is that it is hard to judge the distance between your car and the edge of the road. Now when your sat nav leads you up the garden path... or in this case up v narrow windy gravel roads instead of the main road... it gets a bit hairy.

So thats how my day started off before I ignored the sat nav... turned round (very carefully) and aimed for the forest car park. From here my plan was to cycle from there... up the ridge I came down the other day... and then beyond into unknown territory.

It started well... I found the car park... parked up in shade... and emerged into yet another blue sky sunburnt day. Around here there aren't any worries about what the weather will do next other than sun... or more sun... hot or hotter.

It then went a bit pear shaped... the legs weren't playing ball. Ok... so the gravel road was not the easiest and there was a steady uphill gradient all the way but they felt pretty dead... weather as a result of the exertions of the past few days... or chronic dehydration... who knows... they just didn't go round well.
Fortunately... I am for once not in a race against time... or the weather... or myself... or others and have started to relax into the slightly slower pace of life here... not getting up for breakfast till 9am a case in point.

So I jogged along... with frequent stops in the shade (only stop in the shade if possible) and opened my soul to enjoying the views... the fact that I was out and abouf in the fresh air... with my bike... and pretty much alone. What was not to love??

The scent of pine was all pervading and it took my head back to last year... Canada..Montana... roads that went on forever. The searing sunshine beating down adding to the illusion.
It took an age to get to the point I had come back from last time and without a thought turned up the road to continue on. Ahead lay unexplored roads and scenery...

It is a bit weird for me to be cycling but based in one place... it detracts a little as it removes the endless possibility of new sights and sounds ... whatever I saw today... I would see again on the way back... I couldn't just keep pursuing the road...
It did feel a bit different today though as I headed on... ever upwards. By now I had left the forest and any semblance of shade and was exposed to the full power of the rays of the sun... to say I was sweating would have put it mildly. I ground on up... the legs feeling a fraction better as the road disappeared underneath them.

I saw a few mountain bikers whizzing downhill past me... but here it seems as though there is less road camaraderie... the bikers here don't nod a greeting... that said... none of the drivers who I gave way to did either. The whole place seems more insular than other places I have been as a general rule.

I passed what looked like a restaurant ... saved the stop there for the way back and continued up the gravel road... bleached white by the sun and so very dusty with loose gravel on all the corners. Fine uphill... but i noted that care would have to be taken coming back.

I got to the top of yet another rise and nabbed a chink of shade for a bit. Time was deffo on my side and I debated what to do next. There were a variety of footpaths stretching up to the hill tops..all looked interesting. There was also another gravel road heading slightly down and then round the mountainside in an echo of the million dollar highway... no barriers... steep drop...

Whilst I had a lock for my bike.. the gravel roads were calling me... in particular the curiosity of 'what was round that bend'. Yes it meant uphill on the way back but given that it would be mostly downhill given all the climbing so far... it seemed a small price to pay and therefore the gravel won!

So off I set... a small descent ... followed by just enough flat to lure me into a false sense of security. I was headed into another valley albeit above the valley floor. It may have even been a river valley only all the rivulets were dusty stream beds and the sound of rushing water was totally absent. On my side green pine trees rose out of the dust with pine cones as big as my hand... on the other side... rock walls stretching up from the valley floor... caves and crevasses littering the smooth rock.

In my new found slower pace of life... I decided to sit and let the fresh air and nature surround me for a bit. I sat staring at the wall of rick in front of ne across the valley... the wind gusted past... the insects buzzed and whined and chirrupped... the butterflies gracefully flittered around and there I was sat silently in the centre. A feeling came upon me... one that simultaneously disturbed and enlightened...
The rock walls and the way that the valley had been carved out gave a sense of the vastness of time gone before and to come...  it was easy to visualise this same valley ... in thousands of millenia... the rock walls still standing tall... the insects still buzzing and the butterflies still flittering around the pines... nothing changed... and me a blip in the memory of a time long forgotten.

It was strange....

After all that introspection... it was time to continue the uphill plod... each bend in the road revealing a new perspective of the whole. Here I saw the lizards darting across the gravel... so quick that you barely had time to turn your head at the movement before they were gone... skittering across the road in alarm at the vibrations from my wheels.

One more bend... one more uphill... the pull of the road had grasped my soul again and it was pulling me inexorably onwards....
But this time ... I was going to have to turn round and leave the next bend calling softly in vain. So it was with a slightly heavy heart that I caved to the inevitable and set myself for the return journey.

At least it was mainly downhill....

I pulled in to the restaurant, past the tethered horses... and managed to communicate my requests for food... duly arrived... bloody good!

Then freewheel all the way back to the car...

Perfect day... nothing could spoil it....

šŸ˜‚

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