Store Shutdown Over

The shutdown of the store ends Tuesday. That makes it nine weeks, sometimes that feels like a long time and others not nearly so much. As nice as it's been not having to work the day to day, it's been hard to fully enjoy it with the restrictions in place. Of course I realize that many people out in the world have way more pressing issues to worry about with regards to the pandemic. But I also can't help but think about the kind of adventures that could be had with nine weeks off of work. More than enough time to do the Tour Divide route, if the nine weeks fell in the right time of year. My bike packing stuff is all sorted for the most part and ready to go. I see a quick overnight up to Oneil Lake in the near future, but there are no firm plans in the works beyond that. We'll be going five days a week through June, so the possibility exists to go for a two night adventure somewhere if Covid restrictions allow. If not, I've been pretty happy recreating at home for the last nine weeks, and it should only get better as the weather improves. It'll be even better still if there are a few less people around than normal. Sarah and I enlisted the help of Hugh and Mike B. to work on putting in a bridge over a little creek for the conservancy. The two stewards of the trail (Larry and Dan) came down to help as well. It turned out they did most of the bridge installation with Hugh in the lead, and Mike and I worked on shoring up the banks on both sides of the creek with scavenged rocks from nearby. It wasn't a huge creek at all, and crossing it wasn't that problematic. But the bridge is a very nice addition all the same. It's going to be a brave new world down at the store with the curbside masked service. Over and out.

Context

Context matters. The food that tastes really good when you are out in the middle of the woods and hungry after a long day in the saddle might not taste quite as good at home. I think the same may apply to sleep systems as well. I wanted to see if my 40 degree bag might be comfortable down into the 30's if I paired it with a puffy pullover, hat and fleece long underwear. I think it is. At least it was until about 1:30. At that point I needed to get up to take a leak. I had drifted in and out of sleep and was confident that an entire night would be plenty safe, maybe not super comfortable but fine. So I went inside to my nice warm bed. It turns out that the hammock tent seems great when it's up against the hard ground, but not nearly as great when you have access to a nice bed about 20 paces away. Couple of pictures from the last week or so. I call this one Redneck Limbo

This small tree has been over the two track between home and Bigfoot Rd for a couple of weeks now. I can't believe one of the side by side yahoos hasn't taken it down yet. Oh side by sides! I finally tagged the tree that tagged me a couple of years back

Looks like we are going to attempt a reopening of the shop one week from tomorrow. Curbside only. I can't even imagine allowing random people in at this point in the pandemic. That may very well continue through the summer as far as I can tell. Riding is still going really well, we'll see if I can keep it up once work starts back. Over and out.

Trees In

The weather turned out to be just about perfect this morning for the tree planting project with the Little Traverse Conservancy. We weren't really sure what the plan was other than to "plant some trees". Which is pretty much what we did. Derek laid out the plan for the area, and off we went. It is a big open field that is no longer being used for hay production, and rather than letting it go they are reforesting it instead. It sounds like a really nice idea to me. We had three options for trees: a walnut, some Japanese variety, and some kind of pine. We were instructed to place them at random about 12-15 feet apart. So you dig the hole, plant the tree and refill, put the black biodegradable plastic sheet over the base, and then finish off with the stake and tube for the deciduous varieties. It will be fun to watch them all grow up over the years and be able to think back to having had a hand in planting them during the pandemic of 2020. It was a very nice way to spend the morning. It's a bit taxing on the body, but well worth it to be outside and be involved in a project where you can see some tangible results.

I had just enough energy left after lunch for a quick lap down to Hoogland and back. There is some damage from the last storm that rolled through unfortunately. I have two trees near the start of the HQ loop that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Of the half dozen or so blow downs in the Hoogland I am probably capable of clearing half. I'll try and go out and get that cleared up this weekend, but the main priority is going to be the bike for sure. The weather is supposed to be really nice. Over and out.

Planting Trees

Got a volunteer session this morning planting 500 trees with the Little Traverse Conservancy. Sarah, Mike and I are going, and there should be quite a few other people there. So I'm not sure how long it will take, but an outdoor ride is on the agenda for this afternoon either way. It's been rainy and cold the last couple of days so I've opted for the relative comfort of the trainer. The rain has really greened things up out there. The trees are only just starting to bud, but the ground out at HQ is becoming a sea of green. The trillium and the leeks are coming on strong. You can't see the flowers of the trillium yet, and the leeks aroma is still faint. But spring is in full swing. A couple of more weeks and maybe we'll have some work to do at the store as well. Fingers crossed. Over and out.