Salida Bike Trail
Yesterday unfolded slowly so in the afternoon, I went for a ride down new paths, new at least for me. Out into the fields, alongside new developments ("Craftsman style from the $290s), along an old ditch carrying water to the farmstead below. The path was a straight line...cutting west for the Sawatch Mountains...defining connections between places, people, birds, mountains...
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The Canada geese fly by into fields, recycling their turds back into the soil, taking off to swirl in the skies, looking, always looking, for that greener pasture...all now just shades of brown.
On the way back into town, I study the wind blowing through the passes on the Sangre de Cristo Range south of town. Watching the clouds that form as the wind whips through its passes and encounters the warmer air on the eastern slopes. Feeling glad not to be climbing their heights in this wind.
Then biking back to town...back to my own species...not unlike the birds...walking through the streets...older folks looking out for younger folks...making them fit for the world.
And, finally, at not quite the end of the bike ride...just before getting milk at Safeway...sitting for a while over a latte...contemplating how "local" coffee can get given its origin in the tropics. Some say that roasting at this high altitude gives the beans a certain zipp. Am not sure about that...but when I got back on my bike, it was with a new clarity as I headed around the block for that milk.
