Sunday, 13 June 2010
The sunny morning-drizzly afternoon schedule was a little off from the week before, so as I arrived at the trailhead it was raining – not a little drizzle, but a full-on downpour. Root arrived, but stayed inside his car until the rain subsided a little. The rain had fully stopped, but everything was shiny wet when Jeff, Sara, Danny, and JT pulled in. They were all incredulous at our prospects, but I was pumped and ready to go come what may. The sky out to sea was pure blue, so I was sure there would be no more. JT apparently was too, since he walked into the trail a little way and came back with the verdict of “powdery dry”. This pretty much stopped all the bellyaching, and the ride was on. We had apparently broken Doctor Paul on the Luana ride the weekend before, as he was absent. Chris and Ckucke were also absent.
Save for some damp leaves on the ground, you would be hard pressed to tell that it had actually rained. I figured there would at least be a little dampness, considering it was a “wipers on high” downpour. After doing the side loop, we headed out along the Ditch to find that the open areas were dusty loose. That really did come as a surprise: There was literally no hint of moisture. A discussion led us to try going backwards up the new singletrack cut off of fat guy. A few pedal strokes in, it became apparent that the answer to our question as to whether the single-speeder crew had cut it as a means to ride up to the Norfolk plateau was a resounding “no”. Halfway up, it did become more rideable, but the narrow, off-camber track with shoulder-width trees made it frustratingly pointless. At the top, we ran into JT’s favorite commercial pilot and her crew coming down. She had to point out how much she had worked on these trails… of course.
After a rest at the big tree, we climbed up to the ironwood overlook and bombed the babyhead-strewn descent to the tail end of the Ditch. JT was commenting that for some reason (seeing what’s-her-name notwithstanding), the combination of conditions, weather, pace, and myriad intangible factors made this ride really “fun”. I wasn’t sure what the reasons were, but I had to agree with him – it was fun. Taro and I rode the singletrack back out, but everyone else took the backtrack to the cul-de-sac and rode back to the gate on the pavement.
Pictures here
D = 12.09 km (7.51-miles), Vavr = 11.7 km/h (7.3-mph), Vavr = 37.5 km/h (23.3-mph), T = 1-hour, 1-minute (actual trail time approximately 2-hours)
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