After a weekend of riding in Moab, and a Monday prep-ing, working, skiing, and driving, and a Tuesday bailing on my backpack, I drove to North Wash and made a fire of nice dry, dead cottonwood branches on a windy night.

The whole trip weather seemed to be about a month behind what it should be.  Hanging out and freezing in the wind got old.

Bryce was still beautiful in late winter.

There’s a passage in DeLillo’s White Noise where the main characters visit “the most photographed barn in the midwest”, and discuss how the photographers present are taking photos of photos, not of the barn at all.

We do that a lot, in many things.  

I find myself revisiting the same favorite places and things over the years.  They’re fun, but it’s also a reassuring way to test myself against the vagaries of memory.

So I (tried ) to ride the Red Canyon loops.

Dry freeze/thaw dirt, before the mud crawled up out of the depths.

Lunch.  Gotta stay happy on road trips, and plan well to avoid expensive tourist restaurants.

I like my new helmet too.  A lot.

Goose was nice in all ways.

On Guac Friday AM, not long before the rain set in.

I’m tired inside, it’s hard to get going on much of anything today.

The trip had a higher gear casualty rate than typical.  A pair of trusty canyon pants died and were consigned to the trash after serving as rags after the Red Canyon mud fest, two jackets needed sewing up this morning, the pack needed patching (ballistics nylon is good, but not immortal), my shock is off to SRAM for a rebuild/placement (the metal sleeve in the top mount might have been a wee bit ovalized, dooh), my other pants have a few holes to fix (ski edges), and so forth.  

Almost as emphatic, the list of projects and acquisitions for the rapidly building season is extent:

-A host of mods to make the SuperComps suit me, including (likely a bit down the road) some Intuition liners.  Sooner, replacing the bottom buckle assemblage with a strap system, removing the top power strap, and grinding off the rear lean lock.  They do fit really well, so I’m psyched to work with them and have a burly pair of boots for spring mountains and a pair of fat skis next winter.  (Thanks a billion Woody.)

-A 90mm flat Thomson X4 is on the monkey right now, a supa-wide low rise bar and some GX1s are soon to complete the transition to a “normal” rigid SS for use in the KMC 200.

-Gotta train for that, too.

-A pack to be constructed by me, almost 100% ground up.  A few yards of Ballistics will be on order in a few weeks.

-A frame bag and gas tank to be copied from Eric’s designs and made from the scraps of the above.  The feedbag concept is fine, but I think something different will work even better.

Hmm, that’s not that much.  Like I’ll need help staying busy for the next six weeks.