Feeling the Burn

N and I spent four hours yesterday on our bikes. Holy shit can I feel it now. Anyway, we rode around out at the Sands Lake Quiet Area and checked out lakes 1, 2, 3, and 4. All of them are extremely low. Most of the lakes have adjacent marshes that we were able to ride our bikes through without the tires even getting wet. That is definitely not good when you consider it is only April. If the DNR has any brains (not always a given) they will slap a total fire ban on the place.

But the ride was good for the first of the year. We probably did four miles total with a lot of that being serious hill climbs (we had to abandon the bikes at one point because it was hard enough just walking up the grade; we would never have made it pushing bikes as well), followed by white-knuckle downhills with the back wheel locked trying to miss the deadfalls all over the trails. We managed to make it out alive without either of us biffing. The only close call was one downhill that ended abruptly at a lake (Lake 2, IIRC). I was dragging the back tire the entire way down, but I'm so god-damned fat I was picking up speed anyway. I got stopped about a foot short of the lake.

Today, we will be taking a short ride on a level, paved bike path just to keep things loosened up. We both want to start riding to work, so today we will map out N's path to work, and tomorrow we will try to find an easy way to my work. Feels good to be back in the saddle again!