Change

Details are everything when the seasons start to change....a note of "different" comes wafting through the air....a coolness just south of normal, catches your mind in the morning as you go about your morning ride.  At first, you doubt it's existence after a summer of certainty....and yet it eats at you until you search for it's roots and you find what you've sought......a change in season is upon us.

The skies begin to clear and the royal blue of a fall sky begin to appear above tendrils well versed in the change...

A coolness takes over.....the icy touch of an aspen along the singletrack with filtered sun overhead offers a cool respite....

....hug one this fall and you'll feel what I'm speaking of.......they hold the cool of night well into the day.....

Lichen covered rocks catch the first leaves to fall...the young buds of spring drift downwards and coat the trail heralding a season to come.....

North facing moss coat volcanic boulders, growing into a fading light which will soon disappear under a blanket of gold, then white.......

A Hookers Evening Primrose sits in a rare spot along the trail....catching my eye despite the high speed descent back home.....I fist the brake levers and back track.....the next day when I return, the flowers are wilted and gone from their beauty of yesterday......transition witnessed.....

A cool 37 miles and 4000ft gained on the day with my tempo meter pegged at 11 earn me a 'Lucky Buddha' Beer.....and a few other beers of less dubious construction, yet owning insufficient names such as Summersault Ale and Dales Pale Ale.

Light moments in camp are shared in laughter and experience along with an offering of broccoli florets and hummus; a micro-urban garden of sorts precipitates out of the joy of the forest......

Trips back into town pay homage to the best damn block in all of Flagstaff....home of a new brewery, a new bike shop and a new pizzeria......The corner of Mikes Pike and Phoenix might as well be Mecca for those of the two-wheeled persuasion......

After a calamitous storm the likes never experienced, the new day dawned much as the previous day..... Sassafras tank, or Alfalfa tank to those USGS Quad freaks, reflects the sky of a season yet to define itself as summer or fall.

The thistle drying in the garb of late summer...........

....is contrasted by the hint of fall in the air and the hidden promise of winter in the clouds; leaving snow above treeline in the rocky expanse of tomorrow.......my heart be still, for the next season will be here soon enough....

Turning around from the future, the present still shows the tall grass of later summer, drying in a stiff cool wind of fall.

A fading collection of energy from flowers long past their prime is still harvested from those industrious enough to try.

Caterpillars and butterflies still crawl and float about on the last flowers of summer....but their time in the sun is in short supply to this witness.....I wonder if they sense it too......

Floating along "The Trail", one can pick their poison....go low......

..........or stay high............

Trees soak up the last available moisture before the freezing variety falls.....an ooze of energy coats all seeds of hope....too young to contribute this season, hopeful in their abundance; they prepare for a frozen time in nurtured anticipation of an awakening still far into the future.....

Yellow Salsify, introduced from Europe, springs forth in the transition.  Optimistically exhibiting in the face of change, a star-burst of expression still goes a long way......

Micro-fungi grow from cracks in a dead tree....only to be witnessed by those who slow down to appreciate the details and beauty of hidden places.......

Filtered light of afternoon shades the bracken below in a variegated pattern......

Pure shafts of light enable some to flourish...........

........while others retreat from the pinnacle of summer and turn back into the earth with a fading of color.

First signs of the supernova of gold are found in select spots........

......cool droplets of rain from the night before rest upon the transitory nature of everything.....to the river goes the cloud...to the cloud goes the rain.....and to it all, those who travel the river will enter the path......

Those who float along these paths in the forest will return next spring....they ride in anticipation of a time when they can't....some will return, some will not.  But the path will remain the same........

A last glimpse offers a view into a world defined by change, and yet connected by a permanentness; perfectly in balance with the dichotomy we've created for ourselves.