Wet Ride

Hot and damp at 8:30 Sunday morning when we pulled into the trail head at Magnolia. Rupe had some new MTB shoes he wanted to try out and I had just had my crank bearings replaced (already?) with a set that was guaranteed to make me faster. This bicycle game is just like the dirt bikes when it comes to spending money, it's always "just a few more dollars and it will be perfect".

We were invited to join a group of much faster riders and after I pleaded that we would only slow them down we fell in behind them. Right off the truck they started hammering and had me gasping in just a couple of tenths down the trail. They did slow up when they hit multi use but as soon as it got technical they were gone. I struggled with one root section that they had no trouble cleaning and we didn't see them again till we got to the bike wash at the MOAPG. Rupe's face was red and I was panting as we rolled up to find what must have been 20 riders going on the TMBA Panera Bread Co. ride. We found some familiar faces in the crowd and since the fast group had already left we decided to join the new group and explore some trail we hadn't seen before.

That many people on single track is a study in frustration as we crashed and stalled our way down Fern over to the Bread Co. where we filled up the grass lot in front. I liked the look on the faces of the patrons as 20+ sweaty bicyclists sprawled out on the grass. Rupe was complaining of stomach pains until he let out a belch that sounded like someone had run over a bull frog then he felt better.

On the trip back we got to see some real acts of balance on some of the log crossings. I could barely walk across what they rode across. We did a partial loop of Magnolia and as it began to mist we called it a morning. We needed to be at Rupe's school for open house that afternoon anyway and this was a good time to quit even though we were tempted to continue with a smaller group we were out of water and I didn't feel like filling up my camel back from the dog spigot.

I can't believe it's already time for Rupe to start school again. It's been a great summer.