Thanks, but I'll Pass.

I'm still in test-ride mode, checking out the setup on my new sussy fork. While Sweetwater remains my favorite local ride, I wanted to navigate the sand, babyheads, rock outcrops, wash crossings, and generally gnarlier terrain at Starr Pass to verify the fork's resistance to bottoming out, packing up, and such. And even though dealing with spring rate, preload, and rebound damping are tasks I haven't needed to do for years, I seemed to have had them dialed in pretty closely before I even clipped in.

The ride itself was pretty enjoyable, though it definitely took me a while to get my head around the measurably more technical nature of Starr Pass relative to Sweetwater, not to mention the looser tracking of the Magura fork compared to the rigid Planet-X I used to rock. The part of the trail network I rode wasn't exactly an observed trials course, but it definitely didn't flow like Sweetwater either. In fact, I think I need to mix up my ride selection and introduce a bit more diversity of terrain so I can get back what little technical skill I used to have. It's unfortunate that State Land passes have recently been priced out of reach, because I wouldn't have minded going back to the 50-Year Trail or Fantasy Island from time to time. Oh well.

Anyway - back to today's Starr Pass ride. The valley north of Cat Mountain was filled with wrens of the cactus, rock, and canyon species. The song of the canyon wren is like music to my ears, but they weren't actually singing, just doing their little deep-knee bends and "bzeet" calls. I meant to check out my favorite local cristate saguaro cactus, but I was having too much fun swooping along and didn't want to get off and hike up the wash along which it grows. And it was a bit warm, considering it's now November.

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by today's warmth because it got to 93° yesterday. Yes, you heard that right - ninety-three degrees Fahrenheit on November 1st. Enough with the blazing sun already! Of course, as a native-born Arizonan, I am not legally permitted to complain about the heat, but there's an exception for when it's still this warm this far into autumn. On the other hand, it's better than having my trails turn into mud bogs or get buried in snow or something.

That's all for now except to say please, please, please vote on Tuesday and make Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States. Heat I can tolerate; another four years of environmental degradation and abuse of science by a Republican administration I cannot.