Changing Seasons

Now that the snowboarding season is all but over, it’s time to get back into the riding season. Sure I’ve already done a road ride (on a wicked cold day in the snow) but until recently it’s been tough to get into the trails because of the snow and ice on the forest roads. I recovered enough from my bout of illness last week to get out, but I knew it wasn’t going to be an easy day so I didn’t have big expectations.

Before saddling up on our bikes, we decided to help out and build some trail with the local mountain bike club. I spend plenty of time throughout the year riding trails but I often take for granted the hard work that goes into creating the sweet singletrack that gives me so much pleasure. Most of the trail work involved clearing the rocks that Mother Nature scattered along the proposed route and then putting them back in a less random order so they could be ridden. It wasn’t rocket science, but it was still hard work.

After about six hours of trail building it warmed up enough to actually start riding. Unfortunately I was sufficiently tired and didn’t have a lot of energy. Since this was the first mountain bike ride of the season for all of us (Cathy, Alison, and I) and no one was feeling in top form, we decided to do a short loop and that was okay by me. We were only out for about two hours but that was plenty. I was a little rusty in the rock gardens but at least my lungs held up. It was a good day all around and I’m looking forward to a solid season of riding in the woods.