One minute it's mid-July and the next it's going on mid-September. Late summer just seems to have swept on by me this year. Truly though I had many great rides, but just neglected to tell anyone, yet everyone was invited..too bad no one came to ride except me and my kiddos. We also had our usual end of summer tasks like gathering firewood for winter, hauling hay, and of course picking some of nature's finest berries. Whoa, we had a HUGE bumper crop of huckleberries this year and, of course, we took full advantage of those tasty little purple yummies!
I also took as much advantage as possible to ride and further explore around our home in Grangeville and what an adventure that has been so far...the places I've seen traveling on both new and old forest roads as well as some odd trails have been simply amazing. I love dirt riding! You can call it what you want, mountain biking, gravel grinding, dirt road riding, trail riding, whatever...I love riding on dirt, pure and simple!
I now have numerous very fun loops to ride with many options for different routes all starting from my front door. All of this and I've just started exploring...I have several other routes waiting for me to go ride and many more that I've spied on maps that will make the list of "must explore" routes. It's so overwelming to have so many areas to ride...yeah right! Too bad I have to work - gotta pay to play it seems.
I will not get to ride everything on my list before winter sets in though since fall is obviously starting to appear on the mountains. This is OK, it will keep me hungry for more next year and besides, winter means time for the Fatback fatbike...makes me drool just thinking about it. I don't want to rush into the white stuff too soon though since fall is by far my favorite season to ride bikes in the high country.
In the mean time I am amazingly finding huge huckleberries in the higher elevations on plants that are showing fall colors. Very sweet they are and plentiful still in the right areas, but you have to put down your goofy phone, turn off your TV, and get on your bike to find them. Also, you'd never find these riding in or on a vehicle. Get out and ride your bike!
