Hog Canyon denied

The plan was to ride out to Hog Canyon and Fish Trap today to figure out the S24O potential out there.

I forgot my map. And my GPS helpfully includes maps for Libby Montana and Orcas Islands, but due to a foiled experiment in the CdA Nat'l Forest last year, the GPS does not include the map section for Fish Trap lake. So as I got to the end of the track that I created in my GPS (figuring I'd use the maps/GPS maps for final navigation), the roads disappeared from the display.

Cool building in Tyler.

Sounds like a big failure, but really, it wasn't. I think I may be nearing the end of my south-of-Cheney and general Medical Lake exploration. Maybe I'll do one more session out there, just to make sure. But there's all sorts of stuff not to like.

It's pretty scabby and rocky out there. Which can be pretty in its own way, but on cold, grey days it's not. There's also wind. And a lot of beat up, falling apart, torn asunder, and burned out single-wide trailers. Kind of a shocking amount actually. Which is generally depressing, scenery-wise.

Lame that this picture needs a caption, but that's not just snowy ground.
It's a swampy icy snow covered swamp. It looked a lot radder in person.

The Medical Lake area has some pretty bits here and there. And even out in the scabs south-west of Cheney there are some picturesque old ranches. But I'm just not feeling the love for that direction. I kind of thought that would be the case, and I'll give it one more shot, but I'm not as bullish on the area as I was a week or so ago.

Non-plussed dear outside of Medical Lake.

So even though this is sounding bummerish -- the good thing is: I got a good ride in today: about 70 miles. I was able to keep my average pace at 15 mph, which is all I ask in life. And I narrowed down the chunk of overnighter-potential exploration.