As the sun was setting, the mountains come to life in a different way. I like it.
Now the story of the toes. I said earlier that I hate the soft sand. I'm riding along about 25 mph or so and things aren't too bad until a little rut had me correcting  the bike to keep from going down. That correction caused this boulder to get in the way of my foot. I could tell it went into shock but there really isn't a lot one can do for these things so I kept riding. About an hour later, it was coming out of the shock and I figured I broke two toes from the feel of things. After getting home and taking my shoe off, I think I did :(  Oh well, I hope it doesn't take as long to heal as it did when I cut the top half of my big toe on the other foot off. Now that hurt for a long time.

Hey, the last time I was here, I was totally lost and hating the soft sand. This time, I knew exactly where I am, but still hate the loose sand. I'm not sure what this shed is used for, but it does appear to still have some activity there.

Today I was attempting to make to the Bradshaw gravesite and the sparse remains of the old mining town of Copperopolis. Starting out at 2 PM just didn't give me enough time, but according to my gps I was within a half mile of Copperopolis and less than a quarter mile of the gravesite. Unfortunately, I was running out of daylight and really needed to get back before it got dark. As it was, I barely made it.

Ride to Bradshaw Grave

As with many of my rides, my access to the backroads take me past Lake Pleasant. Usually, there is no water in this area, but right now the lake is pretty full. They pump water from the Colorado river into the reservoir during the winter and then drain it out to irrigate the farms in the valley.