Playing Hooky in Brown Canyon

Snuck out of work this afternoon for a quick ride around Brown Canyon. The trail was sloppy, muddy and slushy, and I enjoyed every stolen second of it. Took an abysmal 8:34 from the mailboxes to the gate, but I was rendering a public service by moving half a ton of soil (in the form of mud caked on my knobbies) back uphill, thereby delaying the destruction by erosion of the Huachuca Mountains by a femtosecond of  geologic time.

Past the gate, I spotted bear tracks in the snow. I stopped to photograph them, then had a hell of a time getting going again. Slithered, slipped and slid more than rode the trail. Beyond the trough at the head of the canyon the slush gave way to mud, running water and trail subtly transformed by erosion. Embedded rocks stood out in relief. Loose rocks spalled from higher slopes dotted formerly smooth passages. I was forced to actually see my familiar trail; not necessarily a bad thing.

On the ride home I was plagued by weird noises, particularly a musical guitar-pick-in-the-spokes sound from the front wheel. Stopped a few times to fiddle until I found the problem: the front axle had shifted oh-so-slightly in the fork. Unclamping and reclamping the quick release eliminated the noise.