January..... traditionally a "stay in" month here in Oklahoma with ice storms and snow and strong winds making cycling difficult if not impossible. Traditionally
....but..... this is
not a traditional January however. We have been on a temperature roller coaster, one day 20 degrees and 30 mph winds..... the next.... 70 with light winds. And so, I have been able to get out and ride. I really can't do the indoor trainer thing, just don't have the patience and endurance for it. These days my rides may at times take on a different form, if it is too nasty out, but maybe still rideable, I may take my mountain bike off into the woods. The other day was like that, temperatures in the fifties, but winds howling at 30 mph and above. They don't reach into the woods however, so once I got beyond the parking lot, it was calm and nice. For this particular ride, I took my mountain bike to Lake Thunderbird, Clear Bay .....where they have a large complex of mountain bike trails ...... all provided for use, free of charge in the State Park. At the start, they have a change house, and restroom, drinking water, and an informational kiosk.
The trails here are heavily wooded, and parts of them are extremely hilly. Trails will give one a really good workout for a rather short distance. Starting out, it's just a ride in the woods.......
This first shot is just getting started from the parking lot, the first couple of loops being "family" oriented
Even though there are few leaves on the trees in January, they still effectively block the wind. By the time I had gotten in this far, the day had become quite pleasant.
This would change however, as I got further into the trails. I looped around these beginning trails twice, just to get my "mountain biking legs" back. It's been a while since I've done any actual singletrack, being content to do my mountain biking on our local gravel roads. One forgets how much fun this is until you get back on a trail again. The next loop, which is a route they term intermediate difficulty had a few hills and gullies.
As you can see, the difficulty
did increase as I moved from trail to trail. By this time however, I was feeling a bit more confident, and my old skills were coming back. Unfortunately, I also discovered that I should have checked the air in my front fork before I left as it was obviously low. Not low enough to cancel my ride, but low enough to cut it a bit shorter than I wanted. I don't want to damage the fork seals. I'm not really sure I like the air shock innovation or not...... it's definitely lighter, this bike weighs 5 pounds less than my last one ...... but certainly
not trouble free. I've had this fork in to Cannondale for a rebuild once already, and they tell me that this is a regular maintenance item. Hmmmmm ...... I really didn't have any issues with my heavy springs in
that way. Still, I wanted to make the ride worthwhile for my 40 mile drive over here, so I continued, the shock still had at least 60 pounds of air in it, so it kept it off the seal, but was a bit uncomfortable riding over drops and roots that-a way, plus it was a bit worrisome.
Still, the terrain got a little rougher and more hilly the further in I went, by the time I got halfway through the number four (blue) trail, I found "Table-Top".......
Once you got up on top....there were rock outcroppings that were as flat as a "table top", hence the name, but getting there was a different story, almost like climbing a table leg to get there. I'd like to be able to tell you I rode right on up this..... t'isn't so..... I got up about halfway.....about where I took the picture, and walked the bike the rest of the way. After this, it was a pleasant ride back, enjoyable with no more surprises. The woods can be quite pretty, even in the dead of winter.....
Even though there were a number of cars in the parking lot, it was like I had this all to myself. There are eighteen miles of trails included in this complex, so it is rare to find another rider. Not impossible though........
All in all, a really fun day. Not a really long day, nor was there a lot of miles ridden, just 9 1/2, but I felt I had gotten a pretty good workout and an enjoyable ride on the trails. Every so often, the trail builders would throw in a "close call" to make sure you were on your toes.......
And so....my mountain biking odyssey comes to an end. An enjoyable day that added a few miles to my bike log for January, a month of very few miles normally, but this year, I should top 500 miles in January. Keeping innovative rides like this one in the schedule has helped raise the total miles for the month. I don't worry very much about time spent, or average speed, or even top speed..... but it's nice to be able to keep track of my total miles.
