October 8th (Afternoon)

Not sure I even want to write about today’s ride… As you can see, I’m writing the morning after because last night I was too annoyed to bother!!!

Ok, my overall time was good. Speeds were good. Not bad, not record setting, but good. But, man… I couldn’t make a THING. The brakes were solid again, a bit of squealing going on already. Maybe some dust in the pads or something? Not sure. Anyways, going down into Peterson’s Creek wasn’t too bad. I felt a bit unsteady in the sand pockets and on the boardwalk. A couple of sections of the trail I didn’t have 100% confidence as I normally do, but I still managed to keep a good speed. I made it nicely down, into and through the creek but that’s as far as I got! I tried climbing up over the root going too slowly and of course the back wheel spun out. I then tried the climb out the east bank, but once again couldn’t keep a straight line… I then decided to try the bypass trail, but as I continue to do, I struggled with keeping the front wheel centered on the trail and, once again, I had to stop short of the complete distance. It’s getting beyond frustrating now.

Even the second stretch of the bypass trail, where I haven’t had issues for months, I found myself wandering wide left and right, fighting just to stay on the trail. At the top, I didn’t get enough speed for the rock wall because, again, I struggled to stay on the trail and had to brake hard to avoid a root and then swerve hard to fix my overcorrecting for the root… Not to mention the trail here is VERY steep to my left, and falling off would be near impossible for me to climb back up to the trail!!!! So, I had to dab at the top of the wall as well.

The next bit of riding was OK I guess. I took the first gulley trail, and it was not too bad really. I was hesitant to try it with my obvious lack of control today, but felt that this trail was pretty well laid out. However, I had been planning on taking my new gulley trail and quickly voted against it due to my inability to concentrate. The new gulley trail would eat me alive the way I was riding today!!! In fact, I didn’t even take the third gulley trail, and continued on the single-track (having to hike the bike over the fallen tree again as per this morning’s ride). The rest of the ride to Frolek’s gate was OK (slow on the corners, though), but then I tried Brian’s new bypass trail again but didn’t get enough speed and couldn’t make it through the deep sand… Finally, the last hill at Rose Hill I thought for sure this would suck… Fortunately, it didn’t. I managed to make about the same distance as I’ve been getting to lately. Unfortunately, once again, I felt that I could’ve made this hill today. I had the strength I think, but as per the norm of today’s ride I was unable to keep my front wheel on the right line…

So, coming into Juniper, I decided to finally try the pipeline section again (I haven’t ridden this portion in a long time). It was fun, still a lot of bushes that scratch and prod at my legs the whole way but definitely much improved since the last time I rode through here. Maybe I’ll start taking this route again here and there?

Well, a Friday ride to be forgotten to say the least. Maybe it was the lack of sleep that morning, I don’t know. But whatever it was, I do hope that I don’t have a ride like that in a very long time…