Sunday, June 23, 2002
On the Off Road Again
Hit the trail again today. I mean literally hit it. I was flying down through the endor section (the one where the trees are tight and and the trail winds around a lot), when I second guessed myself at a tight turn through two small trees, and caught my bar-end on one of the trees. Fortunately, I managed to see that coming, and was able to jam on the brakes hard enough to slow it down so that I didn't get thrown over the handlebars. I still slammed into the tree, though.
To be honest, I'm glad it happened so early. Then I got the whole "oh god I'm so worried I hope I don'e wipe out today please don't let me wipe out I don't want to hurt myself" thing out of the way. Hit the tree. Scrape up arm. Realize it doesn't really hurt. Get on with riding trail like bat out of hell.
Or at least a very tired bat out of an extremely hot oven.
Because that's what it feels like today outside. I can only describe it as if you were standing in front of an open oven that was set at about 250 degrees, and there's a pot of steaming water in there. Then put a fan between you and the stove, and turn it on low. The breeze that cooks. It's like the world's largest damn convection oven out there today.
So we did an entire lap this time (I guess it's somewhere between 2 and 3 miles?). I still had to stop for some breaks now and then, but I managed to purchase a camelback system earlier in the week, so I stayed hydrated and didn't feel like puking. I'm hoping that in two weeks I won't need to stop hardly at all. I even hit bigger and more obstacles this time (with photos to prove it!--coming soon, or whenever Phil develops the film). I'm still not taking on The Log though. It's somewhere between two to three feet high, with smaller logs piled in front and behind it to help you "ride" over it. I got a picture of Phil going over it, so I'll post that one too when I can get a copy of it.
Oh! And how can I forget?!? We saw a deer. How cool is that? Riding a trail just minutes from my house in suburbia, and we got to see a deer. It ran when I tried to get Phil's attention to take a photo of it, so no proof, sorry.
