Flash flooding in Castle Valley...

occurred late this afternoon in response to an enormous storm cell that passed over the valley dropping about a half-inch of rain in less than an hour on hard-baked soils. Overland flow and sheet-flooding began immediately and ditches ran at full capacity along roadways for more than an hour. The National Weather Service did post both flash flood and severe thunderstorm warnings for the region and the last time an event this intense occurred was around 2010.

Peak runoff down the lane occurs as the storm cell moves eastward, with both roadside ditches running at full capacity. But a rainbow appeared and no personal property was damaged.

The low swale on the east side of my property took some runoff and sediment from small breaches in the berm along the roadside ditch.

UPDATE: The morning after in the mud bowl as the Town’s grader gets to work. There’s a lot of ditch maintenance that needs to happen beyond just clearing debris from the road surfaces.

To beat the heat...

one only has to drive a few miles and gain several thousand feet in elevation to access the high country in the La Sal Mountains where the columbine wildflowers are bursting forth.

Columbine (genus Aquilegia).

Mike the Headless Chicken...

is the chief celebrity of Fruita, Colorado, having lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off in 1945. There’s even a local festival held in May every year to acknowledge Mike’s tenacity! Learn about Mike.

It’s easy to find Mike’s statue in charming downtown Fruita on Google Maps.

Passing another milestone...

on the journey to ride around Earth at the equator, or at least accumulating the equivalent mileage of such an endeavor on my stable of eMTBs. The 3,000 mile (4,800 km) mark was indicated on my Trek Powerfly hardtail during my ride in the coolness of the early morning, putting me at about 70% of my goal.

On approach to tank up...

and exercising its amazingly long tongue in anticipation, or maybe it’s just salivating, knowing that a sugary reservoir awaits.

Either a female or an immature male Black-chinned Hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri).

The Doorknob was a sounding rocket...

used in the Pacific in 1958 during Project Hardtack to monitor the radiation in the upper atmosphere during the nuclear tests. Here’s my scale model lifting off from the Ken’s Lake Missile Test Range early this morning.

The snazzy Doorknob roaring off the launch rail under thrust from a “F” engine, achieving an 893 foot apogee during its minute-long flight.

Pace Hill after the fire...

last week, where some are speculating that “the fire was started by a diesel pickup with a heavy trailer powering up the grade spewing hot carbon from the tailpipe onto the dry grass along the road” to quote our local scribe.

Why did the snake...

cross the trail? Why to get to the other side, of course. But this one wasn’t moving at all in the cool of the early morning, found fully stretched across the trail, basking in the warmth of the Sun. I brake for reptiles.

Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi).

There's a cool temperature window...

in the early morning when one can still get out and ride on even the hottest days. It was quite the nice 17 mile (27 km) ride this morning, especially with the additional cloud cover, and I call this spot on the singletrack Ephedra Gardens because of all the Mormon tea.

Peak flow on the Colorado River...

for this runoff season will certainly occur this week, and here it is running at 20,700 cubic feet per second (cfs) around noon near Moab, Utah. While this sounds impressive, it is less than half the peak discharge of the previous water year. Median peak flow is 20,100 cfs based on 105 years of record at the Cisco gage so this is a normal year.

A calm Memorial Day morning...

at the Round Mountain Proving Ground saw five model rockets soaring skyward. Here are just a couple.

Moab Man hitching a ride on the MOAB to low Earth orbit, blasting off on a “F” engine.

Once again the Frangible Arcas is the high flyer of the day, achieving a 1,341 foot apogee on a “E” engine.

The Kokopelli mountain bike trail...

runs 140 miles between Fruita, Colorado and Moab, Utah. My neighbor and I rode our eMTBs on the segment that mostly hugs the Colorado River between Dewey Bridge and Cisco Landing today, 20 miles out-and-back. It was moderately technical in spots with steep climbs on loose and bouldery slopes, but overall it’s a magnificent ride on a beautiful day.

View upstream with the trail traversing through the ledgy Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic).

View downstream of the Colorado River, running at about 15,000 cubic feet per second at the nearby Cisco gage.

There are occasional route markers beckoning one to follow the humpbacked frisky flute player.

Carry water!