Two roads that I ride and drive frequently, Lick Creek Road and Farm To Market Road need to be enforced. The speeding on these roads is really bad. No other way to put it. Lick Creek Road has a speed limit of 25 MPH. I’ve definitely heard people complain about how slow that is (including my family), but that’s not justification for speeding. You want a speed limit increased? Put some energy into convincing your public officials. Meantime, obey the law. I’d say 35-40MPH+ is literally more the norm for that road.

I about met my maker this morning when some guy in an F250 (or equivalent), smoking and distracted by God knows what drifted into my lane, head-on doing over 35MPH on Lick Creek Road. What the heck people? I know you’ve got to get your Marlboro lit, text your buddy and are still shaking off Friday night’s Bud Light thow-down, but pay attention before you’re convicted of manslaughter. There’s been a state patrolman in that exact spot a couple times over the past month. I wish he’d been there then.

Farm to Market. The speed on this road is 45MPH. It’s actually at the other end of the spectrum. It’s narrow, there’s no shoulder and some people drive it at highway speeds. Frankly, this road “feels” like it should be set at 35MPH tops. When I drive it, I find myself driving around that speed and thinking, “wow, I can’t believe people drive this at almost 2x what I’m doing”. It’s beautiful out there and very easy to get distracted. As more and more homes are built out in that area — like Jug Mountain Ranch, etc., Farm to Market Road will undoubtably get more use. Sometimes it’s actually pretty scary to be out there on foot or bike. Again, normally, it’s fine, but there’s not much margin for error. If people are paying attention, you’re fine. If not, you could be launched into the next county.

So if you’re out there on a bike or on foot, be vigilant about looking and listening for traffic. And if you’re in your automobile, please drive the speed limit and do your part to help enforce the laws that make our community safe for recreation and business. If you’re an officer of the law, or know one, you might politely ask him or her about speed limit enforcement in your area.

The wheel horses with Loon Lake in the background

We rode mountain bikes up to Loon Lake July 13th.  It was a great ride, made up predominantly of totally rideable single track.  Note that there are a couple ways to do this ride and we went up and back the same way — which was NOT following the Secesh River up or down.  We meant to ride the loop, but ended up not doing so.  After eating lunch at the lake and chatting with a few other nice folks, we decided to hike to the other side to check out and take a couple pictures of the the B-23 Dragon Bomber plane. Here’s a summary of the documented history:

B-23 Dragon Bomber at Loon Lake

On January 20, 1943, a B-23 Dragon Bomber crash-landed on the bank of Loon Lake. Amazingly, much of the wreckage is still intact as you can see from my photo. From what I’ve read, the crew was on a training flight from Tonopah, Nevada to Tacoma, Washington when they encountered severe storms and flew off course. They were running low on fuel, had failing electronics and when things were at their most dire, they spotted an opening in the forest, which was a snow-covered Loon Lake and made an emergency landing.

Some of the crew stayed behind with an injured crewman, while the others went for help. It took them 15 days to hike to civilization. In all, it’s estimated that they hiked upwards of 40 miles until they found a telephone in the Lake Fork Ranger station. Ultimately a backcountry pilot spotted the plane and was able to rescue the crewman who had stayed behind.

The trail to Loon Lake is accessible for hiking, biking, motorcycles and pack animals.  I’ll come clean, I’ve got no problem sharing the trail with these folks, machines and animals, but I did notice something that bugged me on the ride.  It’s common to have a few trees across the trail.  In the early season there are lots of groups like CIMBA (to name one) that do volunteer trail maintenance for everyone to enjoy.  And let’s not forget the Forest Service!  When there’s an occasional down tree mid-season, hikers, bicyclists and generally speaking, pack animals can go “over” these while staying on the trail.  However, motorcyclists can’t lift their bikes up easily, so they drive off the trail and around the trees.  And so does the next one and so one.  Motorcycling off the trail can create a big mess.  Here’s my personal belief:  If you’re riding a motorcycle (or animal) that can’t stay on the trail due to a tree across it, you should be hauling a chainsaw and clearing the tree out of your way.  There, I’ve said it.  It doesn’t take very many people “making their own trails” to cause significant erosion and damage.

Off soapbox.  It was a ton of fun and followed-up with an excellent soak and Burgdorff Hot Springs.

-Scott

If you’re interested in watching, check the site for start times — as they vary a bit from day to day, but usually start around 7AM PST.  Enjoy!

“Merely a flesh wound!” as the Black Knight says in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Well, maybe not. But, it was pretty interesting because the ice was definitely moving around on us.  You can’t really tell from the videos, but we paddled about a 1/4 – 1/2 mile (as far as the ice would let us) and then the ice would shift and we’d have to paddle a bit furiously to try and get back before we got stuck.  My friend, who’s not featured in the videos, and who goes by the moniker Cherub of Justice, suggested that I duct tape a sword on the front of the canoe, but I was fresh out of swords.  We had no choice but to rely on our simple paddles, skills and guts. Watch the drama unfold!

Man Sleeping with Bike Instead of Wife

A family member just emailed me this photo.  Pretty funny.  I’m not sure what he was getting at though.  I’m not this BAD! 

Cheers,
Scott








<sigh>