Wild Mustard blooms under dormant grape vines
These photos were taken Monday on a road (car) trip up to Lake Sonoma in the northern part of the county. I have this area on my to do list for the bike this year. Its a rather remote and hilly area that is a destination for on and off road riders. You can see how low the water level in the lake is. This is a seasonally arid climate, but the past several winters have been in drought, so lake levels do not recover in the winter. This year has shown slight improvement. To give you some idea of water importance here, our water/sewer bill was equal to our power bill in November. December was colder so that changed some, but I venture a guess that no one sees that back in NC, unless you keep a golf course of a yard. Of course, on the plus side, we seldom run the air conditioning in the summer, and bike rides will not be done in the rain from mid May thru October. One would think this makes for spoiled riders unaccustomed to riding in less than lovely conditions. Wrong. Riders show up for scheduled rides in the winter in the rain! Diminished numbers, sure, but talk of clothing and fenders is frequently on the club forum. This month had a century, just a club ride not an event. This weekend offers 65 miler with 6500' of climbing. My current work schedule has kept me away from these opportunities. But I did get to do 55 miles on Christmas day led by a guy on a fixed gear at 18 mph, and we were chasing him, not the other way around. This coming Monday is a MLK day 54 miler honoring the 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery. I'm hoping the mildish temps hold,I'll pedal some for you guys.
Saturday's 6.5 mag. earthquake was a ways north of here, some folks here say they felt it but I didn't. I didn't see anything move in the bike shop like I would have guessed. The numbers don't reflect the relative impact of a quake. Other factors are the depth and type of physical geological movement. The distant ridge in the above photo is The Geysers, there a small shakes there nearly everyday. The county has a system of pumping waste water into the geothermal area and using the ensuing steam to generate electricity!
It feels good to see a creeping back of daylight. Come on Spring.
Have a good week on wheels.
HH
Wild Mustard blooms under dormant grape vines
These photos were taken Monday on a road (car) trip up to Lake Sonoma in the northern part of the county. I have this area on my to do list for the bike this year. Its a rather remote and hilly area that is a destination for on and off road riders. You can see how low the water level in the lake is. This is a seasonally arid climate, but the past several winters have been in drought, so lake levels do not recover in the winter. This year has shown slight improvement. To give you some idea of water importance here, our water/sewer bill was equal to our power bill in November. December was colder so that changed some, but I venture a guess that no one sees that back in NC, unless you keep a golf course of a yard. Of course, on the plus side, we seldom run the air conditioning in the summer, and bike rides will not be done in the rain from mid May thru October. One would think this makes for spoiled riders unaccustomed to riding in less than lovely conditions. Wrong. Riders show up for scheduled rides in the winter in the rain! Diminished numbers, sure, but talk of clothing and fenders is frequently on the club forum. This month had a century, just a club ride not an event. This weekend offers 65 miler with 6500' of climbing. My current work schedule has kept me away from these opportunities. But I did get to do 55 miles on Christmas day led by a guy on a fixed gear at 18 mph, and we were chasing him, not the other way around. This coming Monday is a MLK day 54 miler honoring the 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery. I'm hoping the mildish temps hold,I'll pedal some for you guys.
Saturday's 6.5 mag. earthquake was a ways north of here, some folks here say they felt it but I didn't. I didn't see anything move in the bike shop like I would have guessed. The numbers don't reflect the relative impact of a quake. Other factors are the depth and type of physical geological movement. The distant ridge in the above photo is The Geysers, there a small shakes there nearly everyday. The county has a system of pumping waste water into the geothermal area and using the ensuing steam to generate electricity!
It feels good to see a creeping back of daylight. Come on Spring.
Have a good week on wheels.
HH
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