Ok…if you didn’t already know it, I’m a chicken. And not too proud to admit it. But…after more than my share of trainer rides the last several days, the option of a mountain bike ride in the frigid weather sounded almost pleasant.
Mark and I put on nearly every item of cycling clothing we own, and we set out for Shawnee Mission Park and the newly reworked trails. (THANK YOU, by the way, to everyone who worked on these and made the park mostly ridable – even for someone of my nature.)
Before last weekend, riding the Shawnee Mission trails was about as much fun for me as getting several teeth pulled, without anesthesia.
But we opted for dirt over the trainer to beat last weekend’s cold snap, and discovered that the new trails not only help build my handling skills, but they’re nice to ride and FUN, too! We rode Friday (with lights), Saturday in the snow, and again on Sunday.
By Sunday’s ride, some of the sections that had scared me on Saturday, or made me walk on Friday, were just trail! I rode over them…with trepidation, the first time, but still riding. Hey…I can actually do this! I was as surprised as anyone when I swung wide to ride over the first rocky creek crossing instead of putting my foot down to pick my way across while walking beside my bike.
With that kind of success behind us, today we tried some of the older trails that we’d avoided last week. And, while some of them made me say short words that I won’t print here, I RODE almost everything. Sometimes I went back to alter my approach when something made me put my foot down, but mostly I rode…the jagged rocks, the gnarled roots, even some of the logs that lay across the path. And…don’t tell Mark, but I was mostly having fun…even if my knuckles were white, and my hair a bit sweaty. (I could tell, because by the time we were finished, it was icy!)
Then we rode back along the trail and came upon the smallish tree a few hundred yards from the entrance. And I wouldn’t ride it. Mark cajoled, he encouraged, he offered to spot me so I couldn’t fall…but I just wasn’t going to do it today. No how…no way.
After trying all kinds of things I normally would not have ridden, I just wasn’t going to do this one. And it put a little damper on our morning.
The funny thing is, I KNOW I can ride that log…I know I will…just not today. Today was rocky road day…the flavor I chose at Baskin Robbins as kid. One of these tomorrows will be logs in the road day…and then maybe I’ll have two scoops.