severine
New member
First "real" MTB ride of the season! (Sorry, White Memorial isn't quite the same...) Had 2 hours between classes today and Brian and I figured the trails were probably dry enough for me to venture off. He had me go off into the woods between 2 of the reservoirs and head over to the dike by Route 44, then back. Well.... that was all and good in theory until I took a wrong turn near Route 44. Looked like a trail, though not as high traffic. Was pretty techy singletrack and the next thing I know... I'm at a stream. The trail disappears; there's overgrowth on the other side and no real crossing. At this point, I was already pretty far down a steeper, techy section and did not want to go back. So after a few minutes of hesitation, I stepped into the stream and crossed it. Got stuck in the brush a few times. The stream went more than halfway up my calves. Did I mention I had a class to go to after this? :lol: Eventually, I got across and there was the dike, right in front of me. Thought I was in the clear until I got back into the woods...and found mud. The trails were dry before that (other than the stream) but there was quite a bit of mud in the woods near the dike. A lot of logs to go over, too--and I have no idea how anyone has cleared them because there was no way my bike would have been able to without snagging something. In any case, walked most of the muddy parts (though started getting impatient near the end of them and rode through) and over most of the logs (though I did clear 2 on the bike; got stuck on another) and was on my way. I had a vague idea of where I needed to go, luckily--otherwise I would have ended up somebody's house. :lol: HUGE relief when I went by someone biking in the other direction finally, and then the red loop was just around the corner from there. Whew!
The stream crossing put a huge dent in my time; I was doing well before that. Surprisingly well on climbs, too; guess dragging 80 lbs of kids around on the bike path is paying off.
Total mileage was 7.84 in 1:10:57 with a max speed of 19.5 mph. I will say that I LOVED having my new Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS/HRM today. Worth every penny already! I don't know if this track will be visible to all, but here goes:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29408189
The stream crossing put a huge dent in my time; I was doing well before that. Surprisingly well on climbs, too; guess dragging 80 lbs of kids around on the bike path is paying off.
Total mileage was 7.84 in 1:10:57 with a max speed of 19.5 mph. I will say that I LOVED having my new Garmin Forerunner 305 GPS/HRM today. Worth every penny already! I don't know if this track will be visible to all, but here goes:http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29408189
