Power Trip

One day I decided to pick up some more of the power trail series that Doug & Shannon and I did a little while ago. I managed to get 192 over about a 6 hour stretch, which wasn't bad considering I had no team (unless you want to count Mishu sagely nodding his approval periodically). At lunch time, though, the diesel truck indicated its disapproval of the stop and start regimen by throwing up an "exhaust 80% full - diesel regeneration required NOW" alert. I'd already researched that, and knew I had to take it for a high speed (high RPM) spin, so I charged back down the highway for 10 miles until it indicated completion, then headed back to finish the day's run. I'd lost 20 minutes in the process, but still managed to get all the caches I'd loaded (including eight or so independent caches off to the side). Diesels don't like power trail caching.  :-)

The highway had been recently resurfaced, so it was a nice ride, but some of the shoulders were REALLY soft. Here's where I almost had to call BCAA:

I'm in a rut

At one point the shoulder became paved, on the very side that the caches were on. "Great", I thought, "somebody in Highways likes cachers.

cachers' delight

Unfortunately, my elation was short lived, as a few miles down the road it reverted to "soft shoulders" once more. That stretch of paving apparently had more to do with (water) catchment than caching.

It was a varied terrain day. Sometimes the mountains were miles away

and sometimes you could reach out and touch them

I found this huge weed that looked like it'd be more at home in the rain forest than in the desert.

After researching it, I think it's a type of Datura. It's very poisonous, so I'm glad I didn't snag some for my salad.  :-)  I saw some earlier that had large lily-like trumpet blooms, but didn't have my camera with me.