Thought for the day: You know you're roughing it when deodorant becomes your most valuable commodity.
Through the town of Mojave and through Tehachapi pass I was continuously pounded by a giant, well-padded fist of wind. These places are noted for their prevalent fierce winds, and for their preponderance of wind-electric generators.
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| Thru the ever-shifting and cockeyed hills of the earthquake-prone coastal range |
Daily contrasts are already intensely polar and, I think, only bound to become more so as my journey progresses. Today began with a cool, solitary, calm meditative perfect ride out of Joshua Tree that I would bottle and sell if I could, to sweating through a beating by gusts of 100+ degree air, wishing it would end.
Speaking of my journey, it actually has a "goal": to ride all the way to Prudhoe Bay, on the Bering Sea (Arctic Ocean), the farthest north settlement reachable by road in the US. The last 400 miles are supposed to be especially difficult for any vehicle: dirt, gravel, mud, dust, washouts, ruts, coated with corrosive magnesium chloride... Most riders that try it are riding "cross bikes", basically street-legal dirt bikes with knobby tires and tall suspensions. Ah, what the heck, my sport bike is just a well-dressed dirt bike.
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| At Black Mountain Campground in the coastal range |
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| Working on photos after dark |
Another thought for the day: I am traveling in a direction that makes the sun go down and never set.
#end
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