Almost exactly one year ago today, on May 5, 2019 (my, how times have changed!), I rode in the Belgian Waffle Wafer Ride, in San Marcos, California, just northeast of San Diego. Belgian Waffle (BWR) is a mixed terrain race with two editions: the full length Waffle Ride of approximately 140 miles, and the shorter, Ripper friendlier, Wafer edition, of approximately 75 miles. In BWR’s own words, “IS THE WAFER REALLY ONLY HALF AS FILLING? The Wafer is much harder than doing half of the Waffle. Its dirt-to-road ratio is much higher, and the course is slightly longer. 75(ish) miles with plenty of climbing and sand incorporate to form this…

Well folks, here we still are, at home waiting for all the scientists (I do believe in science) in the world to come up with a way to control Covid -19. Unfortunately, my attempts to drum and strum my angst away hasn’t really been enough, but happily, being outdoors has. My afternoon outing is the highlight of my day, and social distancing is a breeze in our mountain landscape. I like to consider it my “Geography of Hope” a term coined by one of my favorite authors, Wallace Stegner in his famous Wilderness Letter, written in 1969 in support of land preservation. What has made it even better, is the…