If I were autumn I'd feel like an inmate being walked to the gas chamber. When the clouds roll in, as they have this morning, I wonder if they won't start spitting snow. The nights are cool and dark, only a few trees still manage to hold their leaves. The landscape has shifted from gold to brown.
Last night, I took a short mountain bike ride in the evening sun. It was a perfect late autumn night. Not a cloud in the big Alaskan sky, and warm for late September. It was later than I wanted when I left the house and the sun was just slipping behind a shoulder of Ester Dome as I ascended a long hill. The sun fell and the last of the light slipped up the aspens shining on the few remaining clusters of yellow leaves as my bike's tires crackled across those that had already fallen. I climbed onward as day slipped into dusk and when I reached the Back Door Trail, I turned my wheels down, released the brakes, relaxed my body, and let the trail carry me as fast as I dared. The single track wound down and down, bounced over roots and over logs, across dips and patches of mud. I grinned, then chuckled, then outright laughed as the wind hit my face and a plume of scattering leaves streamed out behind me.
Oh Autumn, I'll miss you.
25 August Mileage
Biking: 8 miles
August Totals:
On Foot: 62 miles
By Bike: 121 miles
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