July 20th (Afternoon)

No riding for me this morning (thus no post), as Corrie had to meet a lady about a lawn care job at 8am and so I stayed at home with the kids. Seeing as how the lady’s excuse for not watering/cutting was because she had two kids, Corrie figured showing up with 4 maybe wasn’t a nice thing to do… Hah! So, anyways, in order to avoid losing much time at work that I’d have to make up later, I got her to give me a ride to work. However, I brought the bike with of course and rode home. That’s the easy ride anyways!

The bike felt pretty solid again today, and I haven’t pumped up the tire since yesterday morning, so it’s suddenly holding air now. As this tube I’m now using is a Presta valve, I’m wondering if the stem is bad (it was losing air without me pushing the end down) and maybe I didn’t have it screwed in tight enough. Now, with the valve screwed in tight and a cap on it, I seemingly haven’t lost a pound of pressure, so that’s great.

I’m loving the wide, flat bar. The extra width really allows me to whip the bike around under me, and the climbs are actually getting more controlled the more I get used to it. Riding down into Peterson’s Creek on the Tom Moore trail was pretty good. I’m getting more and more used to this trail now, so I’m starting to know where I can let the speeds go a bit more. I even made it through the two sandy sections. My convoluted approach was to slow right down and spin through them, rather than hit them at speeds, have the front wheel whip side to side and make me dab in panic… We’ll see if that is a good approach or not! Another two stops coming up out of the creek, one at the beginning first hill, and another one on the long climb. After that, it was clear sailing down the single-track all the way to the Rose Hill pipeline section where I made an even longer stretch up that last climb. It’s getting there!

I took the pipeline section through into Juniper as well, meeting two cyclists and two hikers (I usually never see anyone on this trail) as well as I just about caught up with Phil even… The weeds are indeed subsiding a bit as they’re dying off and even starting to lay flat on the ground. Not sure if that’s wildlife using them to sleep in, or if it’s from rains or something. Either way, they’re getting easier to work through, so that’s a big bonus.