In which Spring isn't springing very quickly (but we ride anyhow)

It's a good thing I have raingear.

Most of this green is moss, but some of it is ferns and lichen

At this time last year (according to my Timehop app), the grass was sprouting hopefully, the trees were flowering, and all the world was happy.

Again with the ferns and moss

This year, the cold clammy climate seems to have moved in to stay.  There are 9 month old babies visiting my library who have NEVER seen a sunny weekend.

But, you know about endurance riders: we are a special kind of crazy.  And I have all that raingear, after all.

So of course, I ride.

I don't want to hear a single squeak about fire danger
this summer, y'hear?

When we were walking up a steep hill the other day, the water sounds were everywhere.  In the video (below) it sounds like hissing.





That's the noise of the entire hillside (camera right) shedding water downhill.  Around :50 you can see the creek running through a culvert, but most of the water is unchanneled.

The trails are still closed because trotting feet + muddy trails = completely destroyed trails.  The armored logging roads are built to keep fully-loaded log trucks from sinking into the mud, so they are fine for trotting.

And so, until the rain slows down and the trails dry up a bit, the roads are where we go.

And hey:  out at the far end of one of our tracks, I saw a flowering bush!

wild current ribes sanguineum, I think.

We just might make it, after all.