Filter of Gold

VSO has been driving GC1 this week and has had some intermittent trouble.  At low RPMs, maneuvering around a parking lot, the truck has been shutting off.  She guessed it might be the fuel filter and, having nothing else to go on, I agreed to change it.  After all, the last time we had a new fuel filter in GC1 was on January 13, 2009, so it is probably due for replacement.  At that time, the filter cost $7.41.  This time, it cost nearly four times as much:  $26.51!  Evidently, despite its dull appearance, the new filter is made of gold.  We'll see if that solves the issue.

Forgot About This One

I forgot:  A week and a half ago, when we were in Logan, we went to Tony Grove Lake for the hike out to White Pine Lake.  It is an extremely popular (urban) hike and we passed 10 times as many parties as we would have seen on the Pahvant or Markagunt.  I'm not sure what the white pine is, maybe limber?  Mostly what we saw was Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, and subalpine fir.  At any rate, the trail is four miles one way and, 90 minutes from the Chev, we decided to turn VSO around.  I am very sorry that we did because about 10 minutes later, I reached the lake (by myself).  She was so close that I am going to give her credit.  White Pine Lake!

The Weekend for Sailors

VSO wanted to try yard sailing (saleing? saling?) over Labor Day weekend.  It is a good time for it because the county fair is in session and town is packed with people from Las Vegas.  She told me that serious yard sailors (salers?) could make $1,000 per weekend.  I told her that if one's goal is to be a serious yard sailor, maybe one should look for something else to do in life, like get a job.  Besides, I would pay $1,000 to have somebody drive up and remove all this crap from my yard.  If I have to put it back in the box and haul it to the storage shed, I will be very unhappy.  By Monday afternoon, we'll be stealing a line from Gillian Welch:  "Everything is free now."

Horse Canyon

I've hiked in the lower end of Horse Canyon before, in 2018, but I didn't realize that, like too many of the canyons along the Book Cliffs, it is blocked by private property about half an hour up.  If you start at the old bomb cache and walk to the fence and back, you'll have a one hour outing.  One highlight for me is that there is a surprising amount of Douglas fir and Rocky Mountain maple in the canyon bottom, which isn't much above 6,000 feet.  Another highlight, at least for a few minutes yesterday afternoon, was a strong storm that popped over the ridge just as I was returning to the cache.  It started with gumball sized hail, which I avoided with a rush to the Chev, and finished with enough rain to start the washes flowing.  (One final small highlight was the early flowering of the goldenrod and rabbitbrush.  If you dislike summer as much as I do, this is a welcome sign of the times.)

Aggie

EDO first appeared in this newspaper about 13 and a half years ago.  The little blondie in the foreground.  Today she appears as a university student.  It is official:  She is in the dorm and ready for her first class on August 24th.  She will do well.