"lost in the foothills of my pride"
2003-05-01 8:57 p.m.

for the usual two weeks that it lasts, california spring is the most amazing beauty imaginable. with all the rain we've had (not to mention that still forecasted), the hills are spilling themselves with wildflowers. columbines, chinese lanterns, monkey flowers, indian painbrush, growing right out of granite.

and yesterday, i rode alone. eight miles from auburn up to cool. we galloped through lupines and looked out over the american river canyon dam site. the area provides lots of trails... but it is always a ghostly kind of place to ride. first begun in 65, it's a huge earthmoving project left unfinished. there is talk of restoring the site to how is used to be... doing away with the foots made for the dam and changing the path of the river, which had been (and remains) diverted into a tunnel in order to construct the base of the dam.

the sierra club is all for restoration... but i don't think it will ever happen. its too big a project, too big a cost. and other ecosystems have sprung up in the thirty year pause. it seems wrong to disrupt the area again. i think the sierra club is all about aesthetics.

and so they don't realize the place is majestic as it is. steep slopes of mountains have been blown off, leaving the underneaths exposed. i think its kind of amazing. seeing part of the earth never before seen by life until a couple decades ago. but i think its kind of amazing because i'm kind of a big fat dork.

and in case you need more evidence of this fact, i'm actually going to jump over a candle in my living room to celebrate beltane.

i'm going to jump over it wearing jeans though.

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