Rides 2020 +++ Add yours here +++

[leftpoole]

Pop a Thorn in front of a camera and hard to take a bad picture.
.

Absolutely full agreement!
John

[JimK]

Various fighter jet squadrons have been flying in formation here and there in the USA as a show of support for first responders. Usually they'd be at air shows but those are all cancelled. They have to get their flying hours in one way or another! Anyway it made a nice excuse for a bike ride - actually one of my regular neighborhood rides.

The local scenery:



F-35s in formation:

[leftpoole]

What!!!!!!!!! No blur from those no doubt speed airplanes. Great photograph.
John

[John Saxby]

Are those from Ft Douglas, Jim?  My father-in-law used to be the base commander there in the early 1970s -- it was his last posting before he retired.

Nice photo of the Wasatch Front!

Cheers,  John

[JimK]

The F-35s are based out of Hill Air Force Base which is maybe 15 miles south of where I live. We can hear the jets rumbling quite often, but they mostly fly west to the practice weapons range there, so we don't really see them from here. I ride to the southwest quite often though, right underneath their usual flight path. From the mountainside where I'd perched to wait for the fly by, I could see Hill AFB on the southern horizon:



Ft. Douglas has a small Reserve presence but mostly it has been turned over the University of Utah, I gather:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Douglas

[leftpoole]

Ride. I think that Lewis will like these.
John

[lewis noble]

Thanks John, yes, I remember that we met you at the cafe there in . . . . . .2007?? or thereabouts . . .

I was brought up in the southern Cotswolds, my brother still lives there. 

Been out on one of my regular looped rides this morning, up to Ringinglow / Stanedge, easily reached from where I now live in Sheffield, beautiful weather, lots of cyclists about . . . .

Take care everyone

Lewis

[Andre Jute]

Jim, that panorama really is the business. I can remember when making something like your photograph require some tens of thousands of heavy equipment lugged into the countryside, and then at least half the time even professionals came home without something usable, and even then it was tricky splicing the negatives so they matched. Actually, I can remember further back, when the pano would have to be together from actual prints by a "paste-up artist" with steady hands (a usually weird person who looked and behaved as if she had sniffed too much of the spray glue which was her main tool and environment), but prefer not to...

These modern electronic cameras are wonderful!

[JimK]

I got out today, mostly places I've been already but one new little twist:



A local denizen I hadn't seen before:



but mostly a lot of ranch land:



Right at the mouth of Ogden Canyon I thought maybe I could ride up the BST, the Bonneville Shoreline Trail - people do ride on that, but it was mostly too technical for me. Narrow rocky curves...



But walking the most treacherous bits, I got up to the canal road, with a nice view of downtown Ogden:



That's the municipal airport - the Air Force base seems maybe over a ridge from this vantage point. But you might make out an Interstate highway or two, plus some railroads... the town's nickname is Junction City.

[Andre Jute]

What I found really fascinating in your last photo, Jim, is the layered mountains in the perspective distance growing hazier and hazier. From your map and the photo it looks like Ogden is in a bowl between mountains and a lake. I'm suspicious of places with a Little Mountain indicated on the map (bottom left on Jim's map); it's a sure tip-off that nearby is a Bloody Great Big Steep Mountain labelled "Shortcut for Cyclists".

[Oggi]

The roads and tracks in the Peak District have been remarkably quiet but are getting busier. This is the Pennine Bridleway crossing Dam Dale, it’s a pity that beyond here it has been ruined by the 4x4 brigade.

[lewis noble]

Interesting photo, Oggie . . . . Is that near Peak Forest??  I haven't ridden out that way for quite a while, my usual haunts are nearer Sheffield . . . .

Very windy the last few days, strong gusts . . . .

Lewis

[JimK]

I learned about the local terrain from John McPhee's book Basin and Range. Reno and Salt Lake City are getting pushed apart so the crust has cracked and the various bits then tilt to form ranges and the gaps fill up with sediment to form basins. Here's a map with the rough direction of that photo - the closest mountain is Antelope Island. Behind that is probably Stansbury Island.



Little Mountain is curious. I rode out there one time. The road ends at a gate with military warning signs. They test nuclear warheads out there, far as I can tell. They don't actually detonate them, happily, but I think they blow up conventional explosives etc. nearby to see how the warheads survive. Near as I can tell. On the east side of Little Mountain are a couple mineral extraction outfits. One is Western Zirconiium. Zirconium? I had to look that up! Ha, it's used in explosive detonators, what a coincidence!

[Andre Jute]

You're a grand man, Jim, for taking the trouble to post an additional map. Ten minutes of virtual orienteering and I saw the topography from a cyclist's perspective. Everything is bigger in the States.

[Matt2matt2002]

Great idea for the map to accompany the pictures. I'll try that next time I'm out n about.