Looking at the mountains behind us at camp, it looks like dry and rocky with stripes of minerals swirled around and different rock layers piled up. Looks are deceiving though. From camp we rode up Pleasant Canyon to Clair’s Camp and back. Our ride was 14 miles with 3418’ of climbing.
With a short half mile warm up, we turned up the canyon. The road is a rough 4X4 gravel rocky road that is VERY narrow in spots. It climbs the entire way up and it’s quite steep in spots. After about a mile in I could hear water rushing and green bushes and trees snuggled into the canyon beside the road. Willow trees, cottonwoods and a plethora of other greeneries were a shock to see. We couldn’t see any of this lushness from camp! Water flows down the road in spots and it was downright chilly in some of the perpetual shady spots. We kept grinding up the mountain until we reached our planned turnaround point Clair’s Camp.
Claire Camp is an old mining camp ghost town and there is a scattering of old rock buildings, mining remnants, a couple old cars, and lots of metal and machinery parts strewn across the hillside. During the peak the camp boasted a 4200′ aerial tramway. We poked around and took some pictures, took turns testing the echos off the canyon walls, and scared a bunch of quail who seemed pretty annoyed to have us there. Even though it was 74 down at camp, up here at 5067’ it was chilly with the breeze and I knew how cold I’d get on the descent. Normally I’d just blast down to get back into warmth but my elbow still bothers me and I’m extra careful to try to not use my arms much. HAHAH, I know how ridiculous that sounds because we are mountain biking!
Books
I finished reading Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson and was flabbergasted. Regardless of your position on the death penalty, it was pretty intense and definitely shocking, and sad. I also finished The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. That was a great read! Did you know there was a WPA program in Kentucky that had books being delivered horse or muleback into poor remote rural communities in Kentucky from 1935-1943?
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