Last Saturday I met Les, Chris and Dan at Skeggs Point on Skyline Blvd at 9:30 in the morning to go on a mountain bike ride in the El Corte de Madera Open Space Preserve. My past experiences at ECDM are not the greatest, because of the rather technical trails, and my limited- to non-existing skill set on a mountain bike. However I had felt rather comfortable on the last rides inspite of my sprained ankle and I had made sure that the Resolution trail would not be on our route.
When I got to Skyline it was pretty chilly and quite damp, so we didn't linger for long but rather got going quickly. I don't recall the exact trails we took, but we took the Manzinita trail descent into the valley. Here was my first mistake... I had made sure that we wouldn't take Resolution, not realizing that Manzinita is as bad... oh, well... Of course I made the beginner mistake and went too slow...taking a spill in the first technical section of the day.
Somehow I made it down the hill and enjoyed the next part of the ride...again: I have no idea which trails we were on, as I was just following the blue and orange dots of Dan's and Les's shirts between the trees. At some point we started climbing again on the North Leaf trail... which was about the point where I was ready to throw my bike in the ditch and hike out. I kept unclipping and picking up my bike. Twisting my and loading my injured left foot more then I had wished for. At some point I thought: "Oh, that's why I only rode my bike 5 times between last June (last time at ECDM) and now: It's just not that much fun!" I really couldn't get back to the parking lot fast enough! Apperantly this is a common problem though, since Lesley had a similar experience at Waterdog the previous week. It would have helped if I had slept better the night before as well...
Long rides are taxing... almost more mentally than physically...
After 2.5 hours on (and off) the bike the beer and burger at Alice's was highly welcome!
No comments:
Post a Comment