Equinox

I planned a big post for today, but didn’t quite get the graphics done last night, and anyway I like to always pause and take note of solstices and equinoxes. So just a “lite” post today, and then I promise another TdF* post tomorrow.

*No, not Tour de France, Tour de Force. That’s what I call my crazy-long-all-over-the-place-but-eventually-make-a-cool-point posts. This one will include the evolution of musical ability, skin color, blond hair and penis length. (Don’t worry I’ll keep it PG-13.)

It was a nice last weekend of summer. Saturday while Awesome Wife enjoyed a birthday spa-day, the Trifecta and I met up with SkiBikeJunkie and JunkieGirl- SBJ’s bright and charming 10 year-old daughter- to hike Bald Mountain in the Uintas. Mrs. Junkie was thoughtful enough to send us on our way with a bag full of egg and nut-free (in consideration of Twin A) treats. Check out the recipe on her blog- they are out-of-this-world good.

Bald Mountain is quite possibly the highest ROI hike in Northern Utah. It’s a piece of cake and fun for the whole family. But it’s above treeline, reaching just under 12,000 feet, and the views are stupendous. If you live along the Wasatch Front and have been meaning to take the family hiking this summer but just never got around to it (or if you meant to take yourself hiking this summer, but never got around to “getting in shape”) then this is your hike. But do it quickly- you’ve got another weekend, maybe 2, before the snow flies up there.

Yesterday, the last day of summer, Rainbow Spirit Paul (pic left), Young Ian and I rode all over Park City and Deer Valley, both on trails I’d never ridden as well as trails I’ve been riding for 14 years. The Maples were ablaze in color, but the Aspens are just starting to turn. The next 2 weeks in Park City should be fabulous.

Tangent: Something I noticed the first year I moved out here- the Aspens of the Wasatch turn about a week later than the Aspens of the Colorado Front Range, despite the fact that Aspen in both ranges live mainly between 7,500 and 9,500 feet, and that the latitude of Denver (39N) is actually a degree lower than Salt Lake City (40N). Check out KB’s post from this weekend if you don’t believe me. I don’t know why this is.

Today’s the Autumnal Equinox. Last night I went and re-read my Fall Equinox post from last year, and was reminded of how I’ve traditionally gotten a bit down about the end of summer. But this year I’m not feeling bad about the coming of Fall or Winter, and I wondered why. I’m not sure, but I think part of it may have to do with this project. A year ago I wondered whether to continue with this blog into the Fall and Winter, figuring that when the Living Year ended there wouldn’t be much worth blogging about. But as it turned out there were all kinds of cool plant and animal-related things to blog about through every month of the year. This goofy project keeps paying off in ways I never expected.