Paddling, pedaling, and managing these uneasy feelings

I rode my bike both Monday morning and yesterday morning.  One thing about bike riding is that it creates its own wind chill.  It's why I don't like to ride in the wintertime, but in very hot periods like we're having right now, it makes riding not so bad at all.  Staying out of direct sunlight helps too, and the Greater Memphis Greenline, where I do most of my riding, is shaded along almost all of its length.  It's a "rails to trails" project, and thick stands of trees were allowed to grow over the decades that it was a railroad.

I normally paddle on Tuesday, but this week I took Tuesday off from paddling.  The main reason was that my mother needed me to drive her to and from an appointment with her eye doctor, but I was also just tired and feeling that I needed a break.  It actually was kind of nice just to sit in the doctor's office waiting room and read a book and not think about training or any other worries for a while.

I made it back to the riverfront this morning and paddled the surfski for an hour.  I checked the Mississippi and found it deserted, so I stayed in the harbor and did a few up-tempo pieces.

The news has not been good over on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I've been seeing and hearing the word "historic" used to describe the Dragon Bravo fire, which has grown to over 105,000 acres as of this writing.  The fire has dropped to as low as 4% contained, because as the fire has spread the contained portion represents a smaller portion of the overall acreage.  (By this afternoon, that figure had improved to 9% contained.)  The weather has continued to be a firefighter's nightmare: apparently the humidity has been at record lows in the last couple of weeks.  Monsoon rains are supposed to be common at this time of year, but lately such events have been nonexistent.  Just today I read that "fuel moisture content is below that of kiln-dried lumber."  I'm a woodworker and I know very well what that means.

The fire is spreading primarily northward.  One reason for hope is that in some places it's likely to run out of fuel, either because of burn scars from recent years or because of barren, non-wooded land.  It seems fairly unlikely that the fire will get any closer to Lee's Ferry, the starting point of my trip.  Still, I'm worried about smoke.  Even if firefighters were to get the thing fully contained right now, it would take a while for the fire to burn out and smoke production to subside.

Meanwhile, as usual, there's absolutely nothing I can do.  I'm just continuing along with my preparation as if the trip is going to go off without a hitch in just under four weeks.

For more information on what this blog is about, click here.