Having spent most of my life out west, would love to see some yucca and cactus plants, again. Thanks for the beautiful pics, as always. I'm about a thousand miles away from that country, though. Growing up in those wide open spaces does shape a person. Love our deep and dark forests, but my heart still yearns for those open spaces. My hubby, on the other hand, never lived there and is much more comfortable back in the woods. He can't wrap is head around wanting to live in places where there are so few trees that people give them names.

Have spent much of my summer working on my trails, then following up with a good ride. Mostly been making connecting sections to the various loops. I can now ride every day for probably two years without riding exactly the same way twice. I have a set regimen of laps, though, and every lap includes a section of leg burner climbs. Once I've completed the laps, I work on my log hopping and rock climbs. Finally, my favorite part, is what I call noodling - just riding around with nothing specific in mind.

My logs show that I'm doing 40 to 50 miles a week on the trail riding and another 20-30 miles on the road. Wish I could translate that into all road miles for the sake of sharing with everyone, here, but I don't think there's a good formula for that. In terms of hours, though, I'm riding the same number of hours, now, as I was when doing 450 to 600 mile months when most of my riding was on the pavement. My backyard trail system, though, keeps me close to home and my hubby with his disabilities. We're both getting old enough that we need to keep an eye out for each other's health needs.

Yipeee! The sun is out for the first time, this week. Gotta go ride.