... And Time Goes So Slow

"There's a place in the Rockies

A place that I know
Where the world cannot find me
And the time goes so slow.
In the piney wood forest
There's a flower that grows
Through the long months of winter
And the high country snows..." 

(Fogelberg)

Hindu Kush? No, the mountains of San Gabriel

I didn't ride up far enough to reach the shelter of any piney woods, but with the nearest mountainsides looking like they did after the latest winter storm galloped through (did anyone else hear a little thunder last night), I wouldn't have felt right overlooking the knobby tires and dirt for a ride on the road.

Truth be known, I didn't ride far enough up canyon to reach much snow either, just little patches melting among the weedy plants growing low to the ground. With feet wet from riding through one of those little perennial ponds, I'm not so sure I would have wanted much more anyway. A little grey and black bird all fluffed up with down, surprise hopped to the top of a shrub and looked over, the brow above one eye arching up the way Mr. Spock's would do whenever he thought someone was, maybe, not quite as smart as they should be. I gave a little involuntary shiver, shrugged my shoulders and got back to it.

While it is not unusual to look up and see Mt. Baldy (Joat), Cucamonga and Ontario Peaks with snow up top this time of year, but to see the lower peaks - Stoddard, Sunset, Brindle and even Potato and Frankish wearing that regal white mantle so far down their shoulders is considerably less typical. 

I didn't seem to be sharing the Out There with anyone else today - that "place that I know, where the world cannot find me,,," Time does seem to go slow. That is until you get back home and see that it is already past noon. Red Hugh did show himself again; it has been months since our paths last crossed, and I had been worried that he had moved on without saying adios, or worse. But there he was in his thick winter coat, trotting along and looking perfectly healthy.

We're two months into 2023 now and, like a lot of people, I imagine, my legs are deep in mileage debt. But we are, what? - two weeks away from the time change now. That extra hour of evening light can't come soon enough.

mouth of the canyon

Mt. Baldy

not the best angle, but there's the Great White of the Wash

and the horse he rode in on

water behind the dam again

someone today offered me nine dollars for this old windbreaker

wet feet

Red Hugh

dry last weekend, these recharge basins are full again

one more look from the trail