October rides...

[rebeccaC]

Thanks sky and nwg

Rebecca, those photos were great- the clouds in the second one really wowed me. Where exactly were you?

It's so different from the Sonoran desert....

The second photo is looking towards the western edge of the Panamint mountains.

We do work on the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan and other research grants in the northeastern Mojave between the western edge of the Panamint mountain range in Death Valley and the eastern Sierra Nevada’s. That area of the Mojave also gives me such a wonderful counterpoint to the usual urban/coastal mountain riding i usually do.

The Mojave is drier year round and colder in the winter than the Sonoran so yeah the landscape is different.
….and our tortoise’s are cuter than yours and we don’t have all those thorns on the road

here’s one more than I post processed after my last post…and one of my favorite riding roads.

[azfiddle]

I used to get into that area occasionally. When I did research on Bell's Vireos in the late 1970's there was one little oasis (Shoshone?) that I would go to, plus some recreational birding at other oases.

The Sonoran Desert is lush by comparison with the stark beauty of that part of the Mojave. Beautiful country (but not in the heat of summer!)

[rebeccaC]

Shoshone is on the eastern side of Death Valley and yeah the area has the same kind of ecosystem. Riding in the heat can be done with the right preparations and mindset. I see it as a good challenge when work takes me there during the summer. I usually only do long rides there in the fall/winter months though.

And speaking of birds, there is some productive and needed work being done on solar farms/avian mortality by the Ca. Fish and Wildlife Dept., the Center for Biological Diversity etc. I do worry that a change in U.S. political direction will have a big impact on that though.