Charlie: Excuse me, Lieutenant. Is there something wrong?
Maverick: Yes ma’am, the data on the MiG is inaccurate.
Charlie: How’s that, Lieutenant?
Maverick: Well, I just happened to see a MiG 28 do a…
Goose: We!
Maverick: Uh, sorry, Goose. *We* happened to see a MiG 28 do a 4g negative dive.
Charlie: Where did you see this?
Maverick: Uh, that’s classified.
Charlie: It’s what?
Maverick: It’s classified. I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. – Top Gun
Yesterday, I mentioned forest fires and today we are entering a staging area to fight them. Riding into town, we saw fires trucks and helicopters carrying fire fighting paraphernalia. All over town and along much of the route, we could see signs of support for the fire fighters. It is extremely dangerous work. In 2013, 19 brave young men lost their lives fighting a forest fire outside Yarnell Arizona. It was gut-wrenching to ride through the small communities of Y Arnell and Prescott in 2014 and 2016 on my other cross-country rides. The communities here have evacuation plans in case the fires worsen or change course. With that in mind, I’d like to put in a plug for The Backstoppers a local St. Louis Organization that helps the families of first responders who dies or are severely injured in the line of duty. A like is on my blog page.
The ride today was shortened to about 26 miles due to the fires. Part of it was off road on double track and we had a bit on single track as well. I felt good but walked most of the single-track because I didn’t feel like crashing again. Then we had a pretty nice downhill until we rode the last part on highway 83 into Seeley Lake. It was a very easy day and most of the riders came in well before noon.
A couple of riders said they saw a cougar but said it was of a darker color than the tan / golden of pictures that I have seen. They also said it had a long tail. I doubt they were drinking that early but the light may play tricks. Anyone hear of a “darker colored cougar”?
It rained a bit after lunch but not enough to test the water-proof competency of my tent or help the fire-fighters. There is a big meeting in the town hall tonight about the fire.
Thanks for reading!
Tailwinds
Chuck
chuckhardesty 
Had to google “black cougar” and among the images I can’t share I learned, although rare, there is a strain of melanistic (black) cougars ofen referred to as pumas in the north west. Quite a sighting!
We just had a customer ask us about you….She was a she and she wants to go on a date when you get back. Signed- Big Shark Matchmakers
I think you should start a coffee shop next door. That seems to be the big thing with all the European cyclists here. Match making can only lead to law suits…..
Awesome, I will have to tell the duo that seen it that it might be true. It actually ran right in front of Paul and he was fiddling with his Garmin and said “what animal?”