The beginning of the year, I went on a ride down in Death Valley with my brother Mike. It was supposed to be a warm respite from the the winter up in Utah, but we ended up with freezing cold temperatures in the morning and burning hot temperatures in the afternoon, which is exactly what we should have expected had we spent any time at all looking on the Internet.
Despite being underprepared, desert environments are some of my favorite. The smell of sage, open valleys, cool evenings. I’ve spent so much of my life laying out under the stars, that I’m surprised it caught me off guard. Seeing the shapes of the landscape in the moonlight while cruising along a perfectly paved road was definitely a highlight for the new year.