October 14th (Afternoon)

Another excellent time of 44.5min! Pretty good, considering there were some decent headwinds as I left work. They weren’t much of a factor from the trailhead off of Summit Drive and as long as I stayed up on the hill on single-track, but on the streets and any roads/trails more out in the open the winds were something to contend with for sure. As such, I stayed up on the single-track as long as I could today, rather than taking either of the gulley trails that go down to Frolek’s lower road.

Today I FINALLY made it both over the root just out of Peterson’s Creek as well as up the east bank! I have managed this before, but I haven’t done it in a while so that was sweet! I had a good ride on the trails, maybe a bit too fast down the first gulley trail if that’s possible… The pipeline section was great at Rose Hill, and even though my legs had been burning on the climbs more than usual, I still made a really good climbing distance up the final hill (tied for my farthest distance yet I think). Actually, as I came to the top of the last valley, I saw Phil just going across Rose Hill road. Coming into Juniper, because of the winds I probably should’ve taken the pipeline trail but I didn’t and stuck to the main trail and then veered off onto the lookout trail. For some reason there were three rather large sticks on the trail, one right at the beginning making it tough to avoid and still keep momentum. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have to stop and clear it out of the way. The lookout trail section was great, I love sprinting up the winding single-track to the top!

As I was riding up the last hill out of Juniper, Phil came out of the pipeline trail ahead of me. He didn’t see me (didn’t even look as he came onto the trail, so good thing I wasn’t much further ahead or we might have collided!). I didn’t bother catching him, just trailed behind ‘till he went down Highland drive into Valleyview.

It was a good ride, quite enjoyable even with the winds at first that had me cursing and mumbling under my breath…