I've taken the last two days off and luckily my wife pushed me out the door this afternoon, despite the threat of continued rain. I grabbed my rain jacket (though I've yet to use it... sorta sadly...) and went out the door not sure where I was going. I decided to take a random ride and see some things that I've wanted to check out lately, but hadn't allowed myself the chance to and in the process I cured my funk that I've been in lately. I had a great ride in on Saturday and then took Sunday off. I was going to ride in the mid to late afternoon Sunday, but with everything that I did around the house I tired myself out by 3, 4 o' clock and just took a nap telling myself that I'd get back to it Monday.
Monday I didn't ride. I was dead dog tired. I got lousy sleep Sunday night and couldn't fall asleep for the first two hours or so of bed, ruining my night. Six hours doesn't really cut it. I puttered around the house yesterday getting a few things done in my funk, but I wasn't happy, hadn't been happy. I think that I've been too wrapped up in planning a loop and a challenging, long-ish one at that. And now it had gotten too like a chore that I wasn't entirely happy doing it any more. So this was just the cure!
I found a dirt trail paralleling power lines that I had been curious about in the past and stopped to take the time to check out the sign hanging near the gate at the trailhead. It sloped down pretty steeply and was filled by alot of loose gravel, so I took a foot out of my clipless pedal and started to slowly edge down. Realizing that I couldn't brake enough and that I was sliding I tried to unclip my other foot and well, what I had always said wasn't going to happen to me (its been a long time, but I've used clipless pedals before without falling...)... well, it happened. I flopped over into the gravel and very loose dirt underneath it giving myself a nice bit of trail rash which I also haven't had in forever. (My worst road rash is my right elbow that looks like a fire burn victim's scar... that was road rash and a very good one.) So, here I am getting my feeling back with a few scrapes on my right knee and calf (but secretly sorta proud... bike and I are both ok...) and I walked down to read the sign. "Closed due to rain oversaturation..." Yeah, no kidding. The dirt was damn deep under the gravel and I tried to ride back up, but got stopped when I just sorta spun out. Unfortunately I still don't know who owns the trail or if or when I can ride it.
I went off on a few more tangents riding little side roads that I've been curious about, found a promising dirt road and a few dead ends, rode a little farther and in the process put in a respectable 9 miles! Looking forward to tomorrow!
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