Weekend Rides?

[ZenBiker]

Did a nice 28 mile ride on a nearby National Monument - great scenery, good road, minimal traffic. The small down side is loading up bikes and traveling to a good starting point (I'm spoiled - many rides around here can be done starting from my driveway).

We started at 7am to beat the heat, but there was no avoiding the smoke from wildfires. I've attached a pic from not quite halfway through the ride. It's hard to appreciate how much smoke is in the air unless you've seen it under normal conditions, so I'm also attaching pics of the view from my backyard on a typical day, and today. There are three fires within a 100 mile radius, none closer than 25 miles or so, but collectively they're having quite an effect on air quality.