You may remember that a month or so ago I rode the "Warm Springs Ridge" trail. This trail starts at Lost Trail. See link to my post about this ride, if for nothing else than the photo's. http://daisyalpha.blogspot.com/2013/08/warm-springs-shuttle.html
I didn't ride, even though free shuttles were being run all Saturday. I slept incredibly badly on Friday night (in a borrowed tent and sleeping bag). Let me tell you about Friday.
Lost Trail is at an elevation of 2200m, high by Australian standards, so it was cooler than in the Bitterroot valley within which Hamilton sits. I wasn't prepared for the cold. By about 6pm (a full 2 hours before sunset) I started to feel the cold. So, I changed my thongs (flip flops) for socks and shoes...and that was great..but I didn't feel warm for long. In order, I then added:
- a fleece jacket
- a pair of woolen socks and my hiking boots
- long pants instead of shorts
- wool socks instead of cotton socks
- a second wool t-shirt under my fleece jacked
- a pair of long wool socks over my short wool socks
- my cycling arm warmers and knee warmers.
Here's a pic of "Camp Chad & Friends and Family" Tracy and the kids were there too - staying in the camper that I stay in back at the ranch.
On Saturday I hung around with Chad, who wasn't riding - he was minding his twin girls - and hung out with everybody else who floated through the area before or after their rides.
I also hung out with this little dude.
Come the evening..
... everybody headed up from the car park / campsite, shown on the right of the first pic...and the body of the second pic
to the Lodge / event central
...the lodge
...event central
...where I was introduced to a man I'll call Bazza. Bazza shared some WineShine with me. Man that stuff is rocket fuel. It's twice distilled wine, and Bazza reckons that is about 180 proof. It warmed me up quickly and way down to my stomach....not that I was cold...Sat night was warmer, thankfully.
I can't tell you Bazza's name, making WineShine isn't necessarily legal. Here's a partial pic of Bazza on the right of Sam, Chad's dog.
By the end of Saturday (but before the WineShine) I was feeling pretty good, so I decided to ride on Sunday at Coyote Coulee - see this post for a previous ride at CC. http://daisyalpha.blogspot.com/2013/08/change-of-plans-coyote-coolie-ride.html
My ride at CC on Sunday was awesome. What else did Sunday entail??? Chad and family cut some trees up for firewood on the way back from the festival (the 'barn is solely heated by firewood - I'll take a pic of the amazing heater). One Chad and Randall had further cut and split the wood, I helped stack those bad boys. I think we did more of this on Monday.
- An amazing character camped next to me - Jon Turk. Many moons ago Jon was an organic chemist, and even obtained a Ph.D. After a while he gave it up to become an adventure seeker & adventure traveller, and a writer about both. http://jonturk.net
- Skip (the one with the Corvette) who was mentioned in my "Day in the Life" post was there.
- The "Mountain Man's" Mountain Man. He was present. Enough said.
Here's another couple of pics from the festival that have nothing to do with my tale about the weekend.
And finally here's a close up of the little fella you met earlier. Dude, where's my nut??
Note, this post is drier than it could be, but my editor is not available. Sorry.
EDIT: Tracy has sent me some pics of the trail and of her son Caelen, who on Saturday did the Warm Springs Ridge ride, his longest so far, and aboard one of Chad's old bikes no less...it seemed that most of Chad's previous bikes dating back for 5 or so years were at the festival!
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