| Distance | 30.11 kms | 18.64 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 184 meters | 604 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 1.82 | - |
| Avg speed | 10.2 kph | - |
| Avg climb | 3% | - |
| Max grade | 10% | - |
| Distance | 29,545.40 kms | 18,358.41 miles |
|---|---|---|
| Climbed | 309,508 meters | 1,015,446 feet |
| Ride time (hours) | 2,085.81 | - |
Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
In another life I had a career as a software engineer. For a brief time I consulted on the Year 2000 compliance project of a large financial services firm. One night after work my colleagues and I were sitting around talking, and we got to the subject of whether or not Y2K was going to be the disaster some people said it would be. If it was to be the apocalypse, could any of us survive in a more primitive world? Hunt for food? Grow something? At the time I would have been spectacularly useless, other than maybe building myself a database to catalog my lack of knowledge. I've learned a thing or two since, yet here I am charging my laptop at a campground so I can watch downloaded movies while I camp in the woods. Surreal. I am still very much tied to the modern world.
I'm taking it easy today. I woke up tired, unmotivated, and generally ready to spend the day fucking off. I take a ridiculously long shower at the campground, determined to get my 15 dollars worth out of this place. I eventually pack up and ride past Diamond Lake. A brief stop at the rangers station there reveals that there are no fire restrictions in place for Umpqua National Forest and no permits required either. The plan is to just find a nice place to camp and chill. I turn off onto the dirt 5 or 6 miles after the lake, another 5 miles after that I see signs for a couple of campgrounds along a stream. I ride to both of them, one appears to have fallen into disrepair and the other looks to be for camping with horses as each site has a corral. Not a soul in sight, equine or otherwise. I ride back down to a clearing I saw in a little field next to the road. I set up and take a nap.
They got some mosquitoes in this here country. I have to make liberal use of my DEET as well as starting a nice, big, smoky fire to combat the little buggers. I cook all the food I have left to make dinner for tonight and breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. I am out of snack and cold-type stuff so it will have to do. The stream brings the water so it's a party. I read somewhere that insects don't have memory; I can confirm this assertion. I pass the sunset hour massacring mosquitoes by the dozens, but they just keep coming. In addition to lack of memory they would appear to be missing any kind of communal warning system.
