Glen, Krista, Joe visit and I figure out the puffer. And we take a ride. And photograph a bat.

The obligatory end-of-the-road-photo.

Checking in from the the Country Inn (Twilight Zone on TV above bar. God this place rules!)

I've got a lot to cram into this one. And limited time with a connection so hold baby!

See the pointer?
It's at zero.
That's relevant apparently.

First. There are numbers on the puffer. Apparently, that little arrow pointing to zero indicates that there's no medicine left. There's still propellant, but no goods. That's the problem. I wouldn't have figured that out. Can you believe it? Luckily there was a doctor in the house last night. Thanks Krista. I had a new puffer ready to roll. So I'm back on the juice.

All the same, my lungs mostly suck. We rode today. But more on that in a minute.

S'mores
We're perfecting the S'more deal. I've never cared much for s'mores as an adult. My typical s'more was charred marshmallow + hard chocolate + stale cracker. Pretty lame. Now I go golden brown + melted chocolate + fresh and slightly warmed/toasted cracker. Joe was getting all crazy talking about chipotle dark chocolate and homemade crackers and homemade marshmallows last night. I can't go there, but just paying a bit of attention to the basics can make a huge difference on the s'more front. Anyway: Krista had a cool trick: poke a couple holes in your marshmallow and you get some air circulation, which provides more puff, which ultimately provides a creamier/meltier center. True.

Bats
They're damn hard to catch in a shot. This is the best I've done.

The Trike.
Joe handled it nicely over some tough technical sections. This is no small feat. Glen and Krista were pushing the pace last night. I'd guess we were 5+ mph. Pushing 7?

That's my kind of ride. Looking at this, it's hard to appreciate the climbing we actually did do.

The ride.
The plan was a silly epic crazy f'ing climb to the trail head, then more climbing, then 25 miles or so of descent. Given my lame lungs and Glen and Joe's rather compressed schedule, we thankfully decided to drive to the trail head. The "trail head" was actually a road, but whatever.

The one time I was in front of these guys.

It was more climbing than I prepped them for and more than I felt good doing. We finished climbing about 4 hours ago and my lungs are just now not burning/hurting/being lame. If you're not already, then get used to my lung-bitching.

Anyway. Aside from the lung issues, it was a lovely ride. Man, Glen can descend. The guy can straighten out any section of twisty road. Riding behind him was very instructive.

I should've taken more pics but I didn't. Sorry.

Next up, a look at Joe's Elephant. I finally got some pics. Stand by.