Bridge Out

Saturday I decided to give my knee a much needed break. No activity whatsoever, aside from lawn mowing, hedge trimming, and inner house piddling. Whilst out and about on the estate, I realized that the By:Stickle would be here shortly, and I hadn't made sure to ready my private trails.



The By:Stickel is being built to excel at riding in my backyard as well as enduro gravel grinders, so I needed to know that my 5+ year old structures were still sound. I checked each plank by bouncing on the cross members with my feet only shod in flip-flops. Surprisingly, each plank withstood the force of my 9.4 stone weight. That is until I stood on the last high plank long enough to trim back some head high overgrowth.

I fell in up to my waist. Fortunately, I was standing dead center, so I pinballed my way to the ground.

I have deemed the structure as "unsafe, unfit, and in need of destruction." I now have nowhere but gravel roads to ride my By:Stickel. I do have some sweet bruises and abrasions on my hip, shin, lower back, and wrist... from nothing more glamorous than trimming tree branches.

Sad.

On Saturday I put my road bike up for sale. On Sunday it was gone. That's a good thing, as its "replacement" was shipped on Friday. Not a direct replacement, but there's only so many hooks on the wall in the bike room, you know?

I had a ride planned for Sunday. I tried to get somebody to go with me to change my mind, but unfortunately most of my ride partners could not attend. Work, road riding plans, mountain plans, no bike to ride in the woods, not planning on being awake plans...

Excuses.

I just didn't want to follow through on my route choice at Uwharrie National Forest. I had no idea just how long my proposed route would end up being. I didn't feel like researching it, since there have been so many recent changes to the trails out there that I figured the information could be misleading or just plain wrong.

So I headed out for what should be more than 30 but less than 50 miles with two water bottles and a pack of Shot Bloks.

Solo.

Weird. I haven't been on a solo ride in quite some time. No stopping to shoot the shit. No conversational paced riding. Just head down and go.

Best ride I've been on in quite some time. No trail in the area has soooooo many sections of 20+mph singletrack, 25.8 mph on one section that zips through the trees in a dazzling manner. I only slowed down to go back and make repeated attempts at log rides and rock gardens, testing lines and whatnot.

Three plus hours on the bike, which is sadly the longest MTB ride I've had since January 1st. Gotta get back in the groove very soon, lest I find myself lagging quite behind at the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek in three weeks.

On the way home, I might have stopped in Albemarle for a burrito. Twenty minutes later, I might have stopped in Locust for a hamburger and freedom fries. Might...

Next weekend's riding may be determined by which bike shows up at the house first and actually gets built.

Or by who's awake, not at work, not without a mountain bike, not riding road bikes, or not checking out the grand opening of our local VELODROME.