I'm declaring a war on my torso. The first battle was close, but I ended up victorious. I brought the mountain bike back from Colorado on the last trip since I was missing it terribly. So being out of shape and over enthusiastic I decided to take a trail I hadn't before. The particular trail is a part of the Bootleg Canyon trails that I regularly ride, but it's not on any map because it goes off Boulder City land and onto BLM (I think?) land so it's really not supposed to be there. If you look at the map, where "Mother" goes off the left side of the map it continues and eventually turns right and works it's way back toward the main complex. I thought (actually was told) it joined up with "West Leg" near or at the top of that trail. Actually it makes a huge loop and connects at the very bottom (furthest outward portion) of Caldera. I started out at the very bottom of POW, judging from the scale I'd estimate my total ride to be close to 20 miles, definitely at least 15, lots of climbing & lots of downhill too. It was a super ride and I'm going to do that exact route (but probably the other direction) more, but I'm going to have to take more water. I got a late start, like 7:30. I saw nobody at all after 8:00, by 9:00 it was probably 95 degrees, and I figured I must be at least half way, so I might as well continue on although I started conserving water. up until that point I figured maybe I wouldn't do the whole planned ride, but just go "a little further" and turn around. By 10:00 it was probably 100, the high was 105. No shade anywhere. That's not bad for here unless you're working your ass off and run out of water, which I did. I started getting goosebumps and funny chills toward the end, but I was still sweating so it wasn't serious. They say you're in dehydration/heat trouble if you stop sweating. I felt like I had a cold for the rest of the day though. Take that you fuckin stupid pot belly.
Another nice long ride after work yesterday. It was overcast and raining a bit which brought out a very big desert tortoise! he was inches from the trail, but I saw him before I got there. I got off the bike and walked it around, he never even went inside his shell! I kept my distance because I didn't want to stress him out:
Another nice long ride after work yesterday. It was overcast and raining a bit which brought out a very big desert tortoise! he was inches from the trail, but I saw him before I got there. I got off the bike and walked it around, he never even went inside his shell! I kept my distance because I didn't want to stress him out:
The other major threat facing desert tortoises is the incidence and spread of upper respiratory tract disease (URTD). Over the last ten years, URTD has spread into wild populations of desert tortoises with devastating effects. Although the mortality rate of URTD is not as high as researchers once feared it would be, it is, and will continue to be, a significant cause of desert tortoise mortality... ...Any tortoise that is subject to stress can develop or carry URTD
I think they mean environmental sorts of stresses, but the idea of something that moves .025mph getting stressed out is sort of endearing, so I give 'em a break. Too bad I left my cell phone in the truck or I'd have taken a pic to post up.
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redbstrd:
No, they didn't put stockula on ignore by default. You clicked on this link in the Alaska thread. If you look at the link location, you can see what it is.
redbstrd:
Yeah, they are. I lived in Las Vegas from about 2000 until 2005. I had a class with the bassist at UNLV.