|
|
|
|
Dust Devils
Mon Dec 29, 2003
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi. I'm Bryan Yeaton, for The Weather Noteboook. When you're outdoors, weather is a constant
companion. And at times, it can come at you with a vengeance. Or not. Just ask writer Marty
Basch.
The damn thing was after me. At least that's my version of the story and I'm sticking to it.
But talk to Jan Duprey who was also there and she thinks it's hysterical. So funny to see a
grown man jump off his bike quicker than lightning, toss it down and run into her arms as if
she, this pint-sized mountain biker, had the super power to stop it.
A dust devil. A swirling, hungry mini-tornado was going to lift us both off the Montana turf
and carry us clear to Oz for dinner. Weather is always in your face when you're pedaling the
Great Divide Mountain Bike Route from Canada to Mexico. Snow capped peaks in summer.
Blistering sun. Afternoon thunderstorms. And wind. Towering, fierce columns of wind thirsty
for biker blood. Being from the East, I'd seen little dust devils play with leaves and snow.
How cute. But this beast was a monster. Huge. Maybe even six feet high. We were in its path in
the perfect breeding ground ... where dirt and pavement meet.
Good thing Jan was behind me. Yeah. I was protecting her. The thing probably got scared when
it heard my bike hit the dirt and saw my gear scattered everywhere. Or maybe it was Jan's
howling laughter under the clear, blue western sky.
Marty Basch is the author of five books and lives in New Hampshire's Mount Washington Valley.
The Weather Notebook is a production of The Mount Washington Observatory, with the support of
the National Science Foundation and Subaru of America. We're on the web at
www.weathernotebook.org.
|
|
