Without the beloved family (not moving up here until after "school's out for summer") time seems to be sucked up mainly by work. Hoped to cycle to work but pressure to turn up (i) bloody early and (ii) looking half professional have crushed that ambition! BUGGER.
Still found time on the weekend to hit the roads on the fixie, and what an adventure it was. Searched on line and found a site that gave me a whole host of road rides around Okemos - ranging from well over 100 miles (Crikey!) to 10 milers. Smashing. Chose a 50 miler for Saturday am, headed north into the country with a detailed route scribbled on a piece of hotel writing paper. Not too far into the ride I turn right and wadda you know the road is dirt! What the....! At first I am non-too pleased, as it has rained overnight and still drizzling the road is slimey and soft. But after half a mile it turns out to be massive fun. To the point that by the end of the ride I am disappointed when the road is paved. Biked up as far as Sleepy Hollow State Park and round the lake - checking out the trail heads for XC ski-ing this winter - cos biking will be out and I'll need to find some novel way to hurt myself! At one crossing I see a large yard sale outside a church and stop to check it out - despite my somewhat unusual lycra clad appearance the people at the sale are spectacularly friendly and only slightly bemused when I start eying up a pair of XC skis! "Bit tough on your bike" is one comment -" yeah" I sigh "guess so". But they come to my rescue putting them to one side till I can finish my ride and come back in the Bolluxmobile! Cracking.
As I return to my bike I meet an older Gentleman eyeing up my fixie. "How many gears you got" he asks and is somewhat surprised to hear I only have one! "I've got 26 on mine" he tells me - then if he was surprised by my lack of gears then I was flabbergasted when he revealed that he still rides with a club, did a 400+ mile tour a couple of years ago and that the next day was going to be his 82nd birthday!!
Sunday and I headed south, not so many unpaved roads (only found one section) and the paved roads were pretty straight and flat. Pretty countryside and some nice old farms and small communities but not as cool as heading north the day before. Managed to get another 35 miles in to make it about 90 miles for the weekend and just over 100 miles in my first week in Mi.
Tonight - bugger it it was time to try and find some trails!! Headed over to Burchfield State Park - which is rumored to have some smokin' technical trails. Another website claims it has trails that "are straight out of a B movie". Rode for about an hour - still early in the season so some sections under water - found some "technical" sections, very short and man made rather than the natural goodness of Patapsco. Nothing I was uncomfortable attempting on the Rockhopper SS conversion! So even though I fell my regulation twice the ride was not super taxing, the second half of the ride I followed a young local who I met as he took a spectacular fall right in front on me - on a completely flat piece of trail - my kind of rider I thought!! Will go back and explore some more another night next week - it is 15 miles from Okemos and likely to be my only regular mtbing in Mi for the foreseeable future so I better damn well enjoy it!
Ciao for now
DB
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