biking yesterday
Apr. 27th, 2006 12:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterbadgerI was feeling rotten yesterday morning (which I'm sure had nothing to do with carousing with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gr_c17 and john_arundel the night before until the wee hours :-), so I stayed home from work and slept until about 2 pm. I got up and tottered around, then by late afternoon had recovered enough that the outdoors was calling, so I went for a ride. I took Rupert down to the park at which I had stopped my previous exploration of the Cross-County Trail, then looked around for where the trail might continue from there. Just down the street was the next segment, so I set off.
Almost immediately, I began to see it was a good thing that Rupoert is a hybrid, rather than a road bike. The trail started out gravelly, then there were patches of rutted mud, then rocks that looked like gravel for giants. Then a huge pool of water, which I eventually found a trail around, then more gravelly trail, some fords, dirt tracks through grass, more fords, dirt trail through woods, then a truly horrible encounter with mud.
See, I've been gradually getting the idea that mud is not good because, of course, there's no way to get traction in it, so you can't really pedal. You need to be coasting along at speed, and that means mud spraying everywhere.
Well, I came across a passage under a highway bridge (Braddock Road, I think), which are usually dry and smooth concrete. Well, as I got partway through, I realised that the darkness underneath had hidden from me the fact that there was smooth concrete, but it was under several inches of soupy mud! :-( I took my second spill of the day, and barely managed to avoid getting covered with the stuff, which had all the redolence of sewage.
Made it past that, though, and found an alternately dirt and gravel trail that led down to Accotink Park. Rode partway along the north shore of Lake Accotink, realised I'd gone over three miles, and turned around to head back.
It was a challenging sort of ride, but very fun. Rupert needed another bath when I got back, and his front wheel is, I think, a little out of alignment (either that or the front brakes need adjusting). I'm going to take him by the shop this evening for a tune-up; I need to get more chain cleaner and more lube.
gr_c17 and john_arundel the night before until the wee hours :-), so I stayed home from work and slept until about 2 pm. I got up and tottered around, then by late afternoon had recovered enough that the outdoors was calling, so I went for a ride. I took Rupert down to the park at which I had stopped my previous exploration of the Cross-County Trail, then looked around for where the trail might continue from there. Just down the street was the next segment, so I set off.Almost immediately, I began to see it was a good thing that Rupoert is a hybrid, rather than a road bike. The trail started out gravelly, then there were patches of rutted mud, then rocks that looked like gravel for giants. Then a huge pool of water, which I eventually found a trail around, then more gravelly trail, some fords, dirt tracks through grass, more fords, dirt trail through woods, then a truly horrible encounter with mud.
See, I've been gradually getting the idea that mud is not good because, of course, there's no way to get traction in it, so you can't really pedal. You need to be coasting along at speed, and that means mud spraying everywhere.
Well, I came across a passage under a highway bridge (Braddock Road, I think), which are usually dry and smooth concrete. Well, as I got partway through, I realised that the darkness underneath had hidden from me the fact that there was smooth concrete, but it was under several inches of soupy mud! :-( I took my second spill of the day, and barely managed to avoid getting covered with the stuff, which had all the redolence of sewage.
Made it past that, though, and found an alternately dirt and gravel trail that led down to Accotink Park. Rode partway along the north shore of Lake Accotink, realised I'd gone over three miles, and turned around to head back.
It was a challenging sort of ride, but very fun. Rupert needed another bath when I got back, and his front wheel is, I think, a little out of alignment (either that or the front brakes need adjusting). I'm going to take him by the shop this evening for a tune-up; I need to get more chain cleaner and more lube.
