Almost had a bummer of a weekend, but in the end it turned out ok. Saturday here in Munising looked to be a good riding day. Tried to get a friend to go in the afternoon. He asked to do an in-the-dark-ride instead. I canceled my afternoon ride in favor of an evening ride, and then he never showed up. Bummer! I did not really want to go out riding in the dark by myself, so I lost the day.
Sunday morning I woke up to "snain" (snow mixed with rain). It was miserably cold and wet, and there was just enough of the white stuff to cover the ground. And all morning it just kept on coming down, this yucky, wet, sort-of-snow-sort-of-rain.
But in the afternoon, the, uh, precipitation let up, so I decided to go for it. Pounded my way up St. Martin's hill, hopped onto the local trail system, and away I went.
What an awesome ride!
Parts of the trail had snow, parts were clear, parts were muddy, parts were sandy. I had pic-up truck ruts to fight through, mud puddles to dodge (or try to plow through), and etc.
It was very windy. On unsheltered parts of the trail, I was too cold without my windbreaker on. On other parts of the trail, I was too hot with my windbreaker on. Took it off for awhile. Put it on for awhile. Every time the trail turned, it seemed that I wanted to change my attire.
I was "sort of" aiming for a small lake shown on my topo map, but I was too lazy to stop frequently, pull the map from my pack, and check my location, so I mostly just guessed (trails are a maze out there). I missed the lake, but I discovered a path I didn't know of to the power lines, and from there another path I hadn't know about took me out to the highway, so it was all good.
Oh, and, upon reaching the highway it began to rain on me for the ride home. But I made it in time for dinner, which was important because my wife had cooked up a nice, tasty roast beef.
I arrived home pretty much totally soaked with sweat and rain, but had a great dinner and parked in front of the T.V. with my son for the rest of the evening. Isn't that what it's all about?
Sunday morning I woke up to "snain" (snow mixed with rain). It was miserably cold and wet, and there was just enough of the white stuff to cover the ground. And all morning it just kept on coming down, this yucky, wet, sort-of-snow-sort-of-rain.
But in the afternoon, the, uh, precipitation let up, so I decided to go for it. Pounded my way up St. Martin's hill, hopped onto the local trail system, and away I went.
What an awesome ride!
Parts of the trail had snow, parts were clear, parts were muddy, parts were sandy. I had pic-up truck ruts to fight through, mud puddles to dodge (or try to plow through), and etc.
It was very windy. On unsheltered parts of the trail, I was too cold without my windbreaker on. On other parts of the trail, I was too hot with my windbreaker on. Took it off for awhile. Put it on for awhile. Every time the trail turned, it seemed that I wanted to change my attire.
I was "sort of" aiming for a small lake shown on my topo map, but I was too lazy to stop frequently, pull the map from my pack, and check my location, so I mostly just guessed (trails are a maze out there). I missed the lake, but I discovered a path I didn't know of to the power lines, and from there another path I hadn't know about took me out to the highway, so it was all good.
Oh, and, upon reaching the highway it began to rain on me for the ride home. But I made it in time for dinner, which was important because my wife had cooked up a nice, tasty roast beef.
I arrived home pretty much totally soaked with sweat and rain, but had a great dinner and parked in front of the T.V. with my son for the rest of the evening. Isn't that what it's all about?
