September 2nd (Afternoon)

Not too much to report today. The trail was VERY busy with hikers! I did have one cyclist behind me on Summit drive, but he never caught up (never really lagged behind though either). After I turned down into Peterson’s Creek I never saw him again, so he must’ve continued on down Summit. Too bad, could’ve been another commuter partner!

The ride down into Peterson’s Creek was good, but I was not happy with the brakes. They were grippy enough, but too squishy and didn’t contact ‘till well past half of the lever pull. Still, they worked so that was good. There were about 3 ladies at the creek taking water samples with all their gear, not sure what for really? What do I know about that sort of thing anyways…

I did make the section down into the creek, through the creek and back up the first root section on the other side. However, while I made it over the second root, I didn’t have enough jam to make the steep section afterwards…

The rest of the trail was good. The two new trails through the gulley’s were sweet, although I did just about bite it pretty good through the rock garden and had to put a foot down… Oh well, with better braking meaning more confidence, I should be clearing these trails like nothing soon enough!

I finally rode the pipeline trail into Juniper. I haven’t ridden this section for quite some time, with missing about 2-1/2 weeks of biking and the rest of the days I’ve been pushing the big gear on the main trail. It was fun, but the weeds that are still somewhat over the trail have now since died and become piles of stiff, scratchy little sticks that were quite annoying! But, they were further back off of the trail than they were before, so that’s good at least!

As soon as I got home, I jumped in the truck and drove down to Taboo and picked up a new set of Jagwire brake pads and 6ft of cable housing for the rear derailleur. Of course, I forgot to grab a new cable as well, so I only installed the brake pads tonight. I’ll have to grab a cable tomorrow or Saturday and finish that up over the weekend. Hopefully the cable that’s there now lasts! With the housing being to short, it has been sitting at a 90° angle to the entry port on the derailleur for about 3 weeks now or more. Somehow I’ve still been able to get the shifting to work pretty decent, but it just isn’t what it should be. Not to mention the extra wear and tear on the cable to have to make that bend like that… Uff da!