Making the most of days

Yesterday we had the day off for Veteran's Day so we honored our Veteran's by enjoying our freedom in the outdoors. The weather was wonderful with sunshine and temps in the 50's.

Mel, Bob, and I met up at Loch Raven for a nice, relaxing Fall mountain bike ride. The trails are very tame up there, relatively smooth and flat. This is a perfect spot for a mellow ride. Mel did the first two hours with us as we cruised some gorgeous single track along the water, before winding our way out to Providence Rd. and looping back to link up with another nice stretch of narrow twistyness.

After Mel headed home for a nap Bob and I explored the other side of Providence, getting a good workout on the fire roads before dropping down a stairstep descent that dumped us out below the dam. From there we climbed back up to the T-intersection via the road. We decided to explore a lollypop loop that was marked on the map, however this ended up being pretty dull as the trail was not only superhighway wide, but completely covered in leaves. Nevertheless we got more miles into the legs and enjoyed the outdoors, which was the goal in the first place.

After this excursion into the trail equivalent of Soviet apartment blocks we needed a hit of something stylish and interesting. That meant another run through the singletrack of the Sam's Grave loop. Perfect! This is the essense of mountain biking! We looped back out and decided to hit Sam's Grave again on the way out. Usually repeating sections of trail is a bit dull, however this was just as fun and exciting as the first run through. In a way it was even better as we could anticipate a lot of the tight turns, and thus carry more speed. I got a little carried away with this and clipped my handlebar while squeezing between two trees. This led to a quick spill into a soft bed of pine needles. Allgood.

In the end we were out for 4 hours, an excellent day of riding. Our legs and backs were ready for a break since we had been on the singlespeeds. This was a fantastic way to enjoy the day that honors the men and women that have served to ensure our freedom.

Today we awoke to a steady rain outdoors. Sometimes the weather works out just right to allow us to make the most of days.