Your photos of Placerville remind me of Leadville, or perhaps, Bisbee. You are the one that has been there. comparison?

What gearing do you have, for that 8-10% climb?

Graham, since Australia is a big mining country, I'm not surprised to learn that Australia also had a gold rush at one time.

I'm aware that former US president Herbert Hoover was a very successful international mining magnate, and that his most successful properties were in Australia. He was a brilliant engineer and technocrat but not such a brilliant politician.

I haven't done extremely long unpaved routes with my 40mm wide Marathon Racers, but I have done many short segments. I seldom need to lower the tire pressure. If the road has a lot of loose rocks I may have to lower the pressure significantly to improve traction and flotation over loose rocks.
I have never owned a mountain bike and have almost no experience with true single-track trails. So I can't compare the Marathon Racers to real trail tires.

Wayne were your tyres ok for on road and off road?

Wayne the Gold Rushes transformed Australia at about the same time and in a similar way. Indeed they lured many Americans here to dig for their fortunes.

I discovered recently that in his youth, your President Hoover spent time here in Western Australia as a mine manager. Not sure if it was gold or some other type of ore he was in charge of. Whatever it was, he also left some descendants here.

Have you tried to buy any tires lately? I spent the better part of one evening trying to find Marathon Racer tires. I finally located some at Utah Trikes - the shipping was $52. for four tires. Luckily, the tires were on sale $34. from $44., so I justified the price that way.

BTW, 60 is not too old to do a climbing route . . . . come and join us in September and we will prove you wrong! You will go crazy taking photos all over the place and not have a chance to be tired with so many rest breaks!

Thanks Jim! I had never seen it before. Now I know it's not a fungus but a fungus-consuming parasite plant.

These are snow flowers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcodes). They bloom only very briefly in the spring, usually where there is still snow on the ground. I used to see them sometimes when I worked in Yosemite.