Last ride?

Well, friends, I have just come back from what might be my last long ride of the summer. The days are getting shorter, and soon our baby #2 will arrive, and I think that I may not get another ride it.

In theory, I shoudn't have taken this ride, there is so much to do around the house. We are finishing our renovations, i have wood to chop, some work to do on the office before it gets to be a deep-freeze, and a load to haul to the dump, but I have been working like a madman to get the kitchen finished and my emotional systems were starting to shut down from strain and stress.

So today i took a Sabbath from my work, and set out with no real goal in mind. I headed out towards wycliffe on King St. which winds trough a beautiful valley and then opens onto rolling ranchland. I pulled off at Wycliffe Park, and sat by the creek and watched some Kokanee (Salmon, not beer) mate and die. A very peaceful fallish thing to do.

After an hour or so, I got back on the scoot and headed towards Kimberley on the same road. There was a 'No through road' sigh that I had always wanted to explore, so I took it this time. It wound through this beautiful ranchland up past Wycliffe, on the way to the mines in Kimberly. I got to thinking about our frined Doug who died up there, and the Salmon spawning and dying, and how life is irrepressible. The rhythm of life has been quite visible to me lately. I see how we all go through these cycles of which our lifespan is simply a macro. It's like a fractal image, you keep zooming in and you keep seeing repeating patterns.

The 'No Through Road' sign didn't lie, though the ride was beautiful. I turned around and retraced my steps to the highway, and took a left out towards the St. Eugene Mission. The road there is again, beautiful, and the winding, partially wooded roads were dotted with birch leaves.

Back in Cranbrook, I had not had enough yet, so I let my impluses guide me up towards Idlewild park, explroing sideroads I had not been on before. My wanderings took me out along Hidding Valley road towards Moyie. I had always wondered why it was called 'hidden valley' road, and today I found out: Again this is rolling, winding road that squirms through the hills outside Cranbrook. There are a couple of cattle guards, a small lake (which used to be called Jap Lake...they changed it now). Eventually you wind around, make a sharp right hand turn down a steep pitch and it levels off suddenly into this little valley, which has about 12 acreages in it. It is a picture-book kind of place that I can see Robert Frost loving and writing about; Stopping by the Hidden Valley on a Snowy Evening or some such thing.

not long out of Hidden Valley the road turned to gravel so I was forced to turn around, but I was getting ready to head home anyways. My hands were numb from vibrations and Couchette had carried me 55 miles without so much as a hiccough.

The last few blocks I took to savouring the 'vibe' of fall. Everyone seemed to be buckling down for the winter, getting things ready, and bundling up for the hibernating season. Fall has never been my favourite season, but I can see why some people love it so much. The colours, the nip in the air, the getting prepared, the woodsmoke starting to filter into the smells of our little town air. It's all good.

Peace to the season,
To the dying rays of the sun
To the valleys
Hidden, lost, and found.

Peace to the forests
To the leaves
To the trees
Sleeping, naked and unashamed

Peace to the neighbours
To the raking
To the woodcutting
Stacking, hauling and shoring up

Peace to the house
To the woodstove
To the beds
Tucking, cozy and warm

Peace to the Autumn
To the colours
To the air
Slumbering, reddish and cool.

+++++

Peace to the scooters, too. I will still be riding some, and I have some plans for improvements over the winter, going over the bike more carefully, cleaning, checking and fixing, so I will continue to post pictures and ideas, though it may not be as often.

Thanks for reading and responding you all.

Cheers, mike