May 21st (Afternoon)
Well, today was my first ride home back on my regular trails this week, and boy was I in for a nasty surprise! First of all, the greenery had grown probably 2-3 times as tall as normal in just one week. What a wonder a bit of rain and then sun does to this parched landscape! There was so much foilage in spots that the trail was just about overgrown!
But that wasn't the nasty surprise. The trail going down into Peterson's Creek has been just about completely destroyed by the downpours we had earlier this week. The trail has been trenched down the middle by a gulley about 4-6 inches wide, and about 2-4 inches deep. So, trying to avoid catching a tire in the gulley was a bit challenging. And then the rocks appeared. And I mean boulders! Ok, maybe about 6-8 inches in diameter, but big enough to throw me off my bike! The rain had washed rock after rock from the surrounding hills and dropped them on the trail in continuous lines and sometimes actually piled them up! Some corners were washed away (well, 1/2 the trail I suppose), and others quite impassable! I actually walked a portion of the trail down!
Going back up the other side wasn't nearly as bad. There was a gulley on that side as well, but no rocks and none of the trail had been washed away at least. So, going up, I still had my typical 4 stops and 1/4 of the way walking. However, on Frolek's land, the rain actually helped improve things a bit. The deep, sandy and silty areas were more packed down and easily ridden through.
But, then the pipeline trail at Rose Hill threw a few surprises of its own. One decent had quite a gulley dug into, that I had to slowly work my way around it, killing any and all momemtum that I normally gain from coming down this side, meaning I had to actually pedal up the next hill! :) And then, I came down into the final valley, probably a bit too fast, and the bottom had turned into a sandy and silty mess! I just about bit it, flipping through the sand and landing off the trail! But, luckily I stopped on my own accord rather than using my head or body! :) The rest of the ride through the pipeline trails to Juniper were good, with very little changes other than the greenery being quite overgrown! In the end, my time was a great 43.5 minutes so I was very pleased with that, as I felt like it was longer.
May 24th (Morning)
Today is Victoria Day, May long weekend. As such, I didn't have to work today. So, instead, I roped Dave into a ride around in the Kenna Cartwright park so I could find some trails to take from TRU to work in the mornings instead of riding on the streets. This would mean a bit more climbing in the end, but all dirt with no cars (just maybe the odd bear instead, but I have a feeling he would most likely be much less of a threat than enraged rednecks in their "compensating for something" overdone trucks)!
Now, just to put things into perspective, I've only ridden twice with Dave. He rides multiple times a week with his friends and they do trails like up and down Peterson's creek twice just for fun... :) Last year he took me out on two rides, one in this park and one on Cole Mountain (above Aberdeen/Pineview). Both times I died. Both times I'm sure he regretted dragging me along as he sat at the top of every hill waiting for me to catch up! It seemed like he was beyond my grasp by the time we even started pedaling.
Today, however, was a much different storey. We climbed up the Tower trail and I easily rode beside him the whole way, even talking! I felt really good. He indeed started loosing me on the down hill sections, but I'll just say that's because he knew the trails and had a full suspension bike... I'm sure it had nothing to do with my lesser skills! :) Ok, so the technical skills need some more work now. But my climbing ability has been greatly improved (he even mentioned as much, so that was cool).
Anyways, the trails were sweet! Technical, sweeping, up and down. Some trails where you had to hang right on the edge to avoid hitting the trees or hill on the other side of your bike... A bit nerve racking at some points, but sweet for sure. There was one technical descent that I walked, and one steep climb that I missed. But other than that, I kept right up with him and finally didn't slow him down! Instead, we stopped and enjoyed the scenary together, rather than him just stopping so I could finally catch up... :)
Well, it was actually a fairly light ride in the end (about 1 hour of riding time), and I found some really good trails that I'm going to try this week. Oh, and I put a bigger rotor on the front this weekend (180mm). I broke it in last night, and it worked wonders on today's ride. I actually felt very controlled on the descents, able to go whatever speed I wanted. We'll see how it does on the two steeps coming out of Juniper tomorrow to see if it really is better, but I think it will be much better. I may have to take the wheel in and get it trued, as it seems to really grab at a certain spot on each revolution, making for a very bumpy ride when hitting the brakes (only really noticeable on the paved streets).
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