I had Thursday and Friday off work last week, and I originally figured I’d pack a lot of fun into the long weekend, but I ended up doing very little. My ATV is at the Honda dealer getting a leaking front differential seal replaced, so on Thursday I took Traci’s machine up near the end of Airport Road and puttered around a couple of canyons in that area. I had to park and unload on the side of the pavement near the cattle guard just before the mine, then I rode along the pavement for a short distance to reach the road I wanted to ride on. The first canyon I rode up was unnamed, and I vaguely recall driving part of the way up it when I was a teenager, then hiking the rest of the distance to the road’s end. I don’t remember much about it from back then, but last week I checked out an old buried mine and some ancient rusting equipment. The canyon was short and I soon headed to the next canyon east, called Straight Canyon. This one was longer and more interesting, with several mining prospects along the way. One of the prospects had an old cabin next to it, signifying that somebody lived there while they labored to dig away the hillside to reach a coal seam. I found it funny because back then it must have been worth building a cabin because the prospecting work took a long time, but by today’s standards the same amount of work could be performed in a couple of hours by heavy machinery. It must have been a hard life. Anyhow, the road ended in a large stand of ponderosa pines, and it was a pretty place. It had been cold and windy all morning while I was riding, but there in the pines it was calmer and relaxing.
I don’t really remember what I did with the rest of my weekend. I spent it at home, except for some much needed grocery shopping on Friday. The whole family stayed in Saturday night and watched a movie, and I also started reading a new book, which is something I haven’t had the time for (or haven’t made the time for) in quite a while. It was a good weekend, but it was a different pace than I’m used to.