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| [Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note |
What a view! Looking down into the valley east of Wanagan Camp, after a steep and technical switchback climb out of the valley below. The Maah Daah Hey trail can be seen going along the butte face in the left foreground, if one looks hard.
This part was steep, exposed, and heavily eroded, almost to the point of the trail disappearing into the hillside. But as they say, what makes for a dangerous ride also makes for a worthy challenge!
Actually, I don't know who says that, and we approached it with caution.
I for one was riding my brakes as hard as I could on the way back down, and I almost went over the edge at one of the switchbacks. That could have made for a really crappy night.
*****
This place is an geologist's dream, as the canyons open up millions of years of geologic time for our viewing pleasure. We found seashells on the tops of ridges, and got mired in clay formed from the ash of an ancient volcano. We found petrified trees galore, and if we had made a quick little side trip, we could have seen some dinosaur fossils. Very cool.
The oil geologists like it here too, for other reasons. But there are some (myself included) who think there may not be as much oil here as previously believed. What is here, even if estimates are correct, barely makes a dent in America's daily demand for the stuff.
But I'll spare you my thoughts on all of that. Just enjoy the photos for now... this trip definitely made the last year and a half of commuting by bicycle worth it, if not for the measure of my new strength than for the renewal of my love for riding.
I look forward to many more years of the bicycle life, and hopefully many more trips to this amazing and little-known part of the rural Midwest.
Cheers! |
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