Ride shots

The weird haze I was in for the last 4-6 weeks has finally left the building. I’m finally able to ride my bike again and feel good during and afterwards. It’s been a long time coming. I gotta learn to play smarter now that I’m 40, as well as do that stretching and recovery stuff. GASP. Ain’t nobody got time fo dat!

I’ve come to the conclusion that my brain an body are no longer as intimately connected as they once were. My brain thinks I can still do those things I did 10 years ago with no backlash but my body is pretty much already in partial retirement. Trouble is, I pretty much stopped riding a lot when starting out this derned framebuilding thing. I’ve always been in pretty close contact with what’s going on and feeling the subtle changes that are called ‘getting older’…well, it’s an odd feeling. I need to pull back on the throttle and ride smart so I’m not cooked the following week. Live and learn, live n learn.

Here’s some shots from my most recent rides. I’m keeping it easy and short for another week. One was a 20 miler on the local OHV trails, another was on the FH Divide loop on the Knard singlespeed, and the last was on my favorite sub-2hr dirt road climb (Gorman). I ran across a bear almost literally at the OHV park. I heard the crashing through the brush and then saw his trax lumbering down the dusty singletrack. The campground had some of his/her scat right on the paved path around the reservoir within feet of campers, pretty classic. I ran across no drunk fisherman thankfully. I’ve only ridden half or so of the 75 miles of OHV trails (some allow ATV’s, some only motos/singletrack) but so far the trails are well built and maintained thanks to the OHV funds/green sticker program. Solid bridges over the creeks, water bars abound, benched and non-rutted trails across the entire area. They do get pretty duffy/dusty with no rain so the best time to ride seems to be in the spring right after they open (they close down all winter to keep them in good shape for the summer), or after a good rainfall. They’re also a lot easier on the body to ride than Western States and that’s a good thing for me right now. Auburn has great riding but it’s been too hot down there these last few weeks for me unless I can get there super early. We’ve had temps in the upper-80’s to mid-90’s at the house so the 100’s at lower elevations scares me away.