The 8 wonders of a ride.

While Ritchey is away at BU with my favorite Guru and mechanics, I'm left to wonder what to do. For the next two weeks, I get off work at 3:30 which leaves extra time to put two wheels in motion. Today, I decided to take Copper for his initial single track excursion, and while I was at it I decided to log some patrol time. I wasn't exactly sure what I was getting into and wondered how far I could ride this bike since it only has one gear. Might as well try, I mean what do I have to lose? I'm already going crazy - work takes care of that. I'm planning a road ride tomorrow, so that's that. I went to the gym yesterday, so there.

I got to the top of the mountain (yes, I park there so I have to at least climb it to go home) and changed clothes. Got on the bike at 3:45pm. I wondered what would be my best route. I decided to loop in front of the Star, down the sidewalk, down ZooPoo and down Riser. I knew once I got to Big Sunny, that I would have to start climbing, but at least there I know it's wide enough to mess up. After Big Sunny, I rode down the old road to Monument. Monument in case you don't know is a climb that has some rocky sections, a few narrow spots and more than one pitched up section. My goal had become to ride as much as I could without walking.

Of course, riding down the sidewalk is easy. Even getting on to Ridgeline (ZooPoo) isn't bad. I did hit a vine or small tree with my right handlebar. Didn't wreck so that made things nice. I was unsure of the handling of this bike for the most part as the only places I've ridden it are in my neighborhood, my yard, on the greenway and to/from the gym. It took some getting used to the lack of suspension in the back and the stiffer front shock, but I managed. I got to the switchback on Ridgeline and negotiated it very cautiously. On down to the intersection where I stopped to rearrange my sock. There I noticed a pile of horse poop. I frowned and frowned even more once I started down Riser. I mean come on, here I thought we might at least have "unpoopedupon" trails here. :( So I bounced on down Riser - again riding very carefully. I wondered if I would have ridden faster on my other bike. Probably. Oh well.

Once on Big Sunny, I soon learned what this single speed stuff is all about, and I began to wonder what the hell I was thinking. I forged on. Rode this trail fairly well - even on some of the weirder parts of the trail, I managed just fine. After zipping down the old road, it was time to meet my fate. I have a hard enough time riding up Monument Trail on Ritchey with all of his gears and suspension, but this trail will not defeat me. I did ride as much as I physically could. I used all three gears (sit, stand and walk). For the most part, I was in stand. I got all jumbled up and in the rock garden, chickened out and walked a short section. I powered up a couple of the steep pitched sections. There were two places where I walked like 8 feet then got back on and kept pedaling. I did stop a few times to catch my breath and reassure myself that I could do this. I wondered at one point if I stalled out if I would just tumble down the side of the mountain like a rock. Then I wondered how bad it was going to hurt if I simply couldn't go up anymore and just started rolling backwards. With all of the standing I was doing, I began to wonder what was the point of having a saddle at all. Once I got to the downhill section, I fell completely in love with the Maxxis Ignitor tires that adorn Copper. They might just get swapped onto Ritchey for the final Derailler races. The are grippy tires. I likey! Anyway, I did survive Monument Trail. Back to Ridgeline where I nearly killed myself. I had stopped to catch my breath for the hundreth time and when I went to start pedalling again I missed clipping in my right foot, so I nearly ate my handlebars. Fortunately for me, I like doing pushups at the gym, so I had enough upper body strength to prevent myself from flipping over. How good would that be??? Mountain Bike Patroller found dead on trail because she was stupid. ROCK ON, now that's a headline!

Anyway, my Patrol ride wound up just being an hour long. I'm not even sure I rode 5 whole miles, but that's really all I wanted to do today. Hopefully this weird bug that I'm fighting will continue to go away. I want to ride!!! I will be heading back to Lynchburg Thursday or Friday to retrieve my best bike, meanwhile tomorrow is skinny tire night. WOO HOO. I'll get dropped like a hot rock again. Nothing like bringing up the rear. YAY ME!