denouement.

i'm certainly touring late into the season, and i knew that i would be back when i first decided to do it. finances needed to be squared away to make it possible in the first place. when it came down to leaving late or putting it off another year, a late-season tour was the obvious choice. that meant i'd still be riding through the fall and i'd be at some much higher elevations by that point. i said i'd just deal with it when i got there.

so i'm there. and i'm dealing with it. nights are cold and getting colder. a few nights have hit single digits and have exceeded the rating of my sleeping bag. it's pretty miserable when you wake up at 3am and your face literally has ice on it and your feet ache from being so cold. there's not much more you can do that just wait it out until the sun comes up. luckily, that's only been a few times. for the most part nights have been a reasonable just-below freezing, which is perfect for sleeping.

sagebrush for miles and miles.

the downside to dealing with the colder temperatures is that i don't have a home or car to go back to after my ride... i live outside. if i'm cold all day and then it just gets colder at night, i'm just going to be cold. it's not pleasant, but you just deal with it. a few nights i've been able to have a fire but i've been burning sage brush, which burns like gasoline. you need an absurd amount just to keep a fire going for an hour or two so it's not terribly worth it.

one thing is for sure, though... the west is magical. it is everything i imagined it would be. it's huge. it's wild. it's beautiful. i'll be forever bound to the west in a way that the east cannot approach. just being completely removed from the rest of the world and existing purely in the expanses of the west has concretely carved itself a special place in my soul. after i've dipped my tires in the pacific and returned east to my home to sleep in my bed i'll be dreaming about sleeping in western dirt.