My Judgment Is Fine, Probably

Narrator: It Was Not

Swallow Rock doing its thing, completely indifferent to your opinion of it

Swallow Rock doesn’t sneak up on you. It just sits there, this massive basalt plug rising out of the Snake River canyon like the landscape forgot to finish a thought. I’d checked Strava and found Mo somewhere near the interpretive center, so I parked my bike in the grass and walked out back to find her. There she was, crouched over a bench, camera out, completely absorbed. I almost said something smart. Then I saw the spider. Tiny jumping spider, black and fuzzy, sitting there like it owned the wood. Fair enough. Good find.

Tiny spider, enormous confidence, zero apologies

I suggested we ride over to Clarkston to see the pelicans. American white pelicans, which is not a bird most people associate with inland Idaho, but there they were, floating in a loose cluster on the slough like a catered event nobody else knew about. And I started talking, the way I do, pointing across the river, describing everything worth seeing on the Washington side. I was enthusiastic. Possibly too enthusiastic.

Pelicans holding a meeting nobody was invited to

Here’s my thing. Apparently, I have genuinely no concept of distance. I once walked toward a truck dealership thinking it was close, checked my phone after an hour, and found out I was still an hour away. This is not new information about myself. And yet it continues to surprise me, every single time, like a very slow practical joke I keep falling for.

The sign that explains everything, which nobody reads

So I did not actually take Mo all the way down to the nature park like I’d planned. The bridge is farther than I remembered. Again. She got caught in my web a little, but we saw pelicans and a jumping spider and Swallow Rock looking exactly like it always does, ancient and unbothered.

That’s usually enough. The detour often is.

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May 6th Never Plays It Safe

Twenty-three years of May 6ths reveal a consistent pattern: broken equipment, unexpected snow, big climbs, and zero boring days. From pool halls in 2002 to enduro trails in 2025, this date has always demanded something more than planned. The chaos was never the problem. It was always the adventure.

Read more: https://8i11.vercel.app/story/dwerfvb9