Wow. Talk about a Monday! It’s raining steadily outside and is supposed to all day. It’s rained the last three days and is predicted to rain for the next four! I won’t be climbing the sandstone around here any time soon!!! I would ride my bike, but rain and bikes don’t mix real well unless you want to be soaked and clean up your bike afterwards. The climbing gym is closed for route setting today. I’m kind of out of options… Or am I?
I could watch YouTube videos of climbing, shop Amazon (with no money) for bike accessories, browse REI’s website, and generally spend the whole day on the computer, with the exception of the time I’m seeing the Doc today. Or I could read a good book on climbing or biking – I love books! Or what about writing a philosophical treatise on the crag and what it means to be a crag? Okay. It’s going to be a rough day. I have mango and almonds to look forward to for breakfast, though!!! Doesn’t that save the day?
I might try to do some watercolor paintings. I haven’t done any watercolor painting in a really long time, and I love watercolors. I used to be an artist. I used to be a musician, too. I used to be a lot of things. I guess if I was really hardcore, I’d at least go ride my bike around town a bit. Everything would get soaking wet and I’d have to change my clothes, dry off my bike really well, clean it up, and lube the critical components (all of them), though. I don’t think I want to put my bike through that today. I do want to ride my bike, and I do want to climb, but today’s not a good day for either. I don’t really know what I’d try to paint with my watercolors… Maybe a brilliant sunrise – the kind we’re not getting today…
I want it to stop raining is what I want. I know we need the moisture, and rain like this is really uncommon for this time of the year in Montana, but we’ll take it. Maybe fire season won’t choke out the state in wildfire smoke so badly this year. We can hope, at least. I’d still like to be climbing, though. My plan this summer is to ride my bike to the climbing gym, climb there for a while, and then ride my bike back to my apartment, or wherever I’m going after I get done climbing at the gym. I also want to take my bike with me on some road trips and bike around some new country – yes, country, like not in the city where I’m going to get killed so easily for being on a bike and not in a motor vehicle – and explore some new territory. I’ll have to wait until the replacement parts for my bike rack on my truck come, though, since there’s a safety recall on the particular one that I bought (go figure). I want to complete my “Bozeman Six” challenge to myself, too! My “Bozeman Six” challenge is to ride my bike in a circuit to each of the six artificial boulders in Bozeman and climb 2-5 problems on each boulder, all in one day, as an endurance challenge. I really want to do that!!! I have to learn to ride my new bike better first, get a good map of Bozeman to plan my route, and actually be able to ride and climb (ie. no rain), though, before I do that! I really need it to stop raining!!! When I go to get the warranty tune-up on my ADV 3.1 in Bozeman, I’m going to try to find a good Bozeman city map. One with all the bike lanes, trails, and recreational markings would be nice, too! I wonder who would have a map like that? I might get on the internet and check out Bozeman’s Visitor’s Center or Chamber of Commerce, or whatever they might have in the way of attracting outdoor recreation enthusiasts to their fair city. For now, though, I guess I’ll listen to it rain!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 