On the Trail Again

Plans were hatched last night over beers (probably too many) at Oskar Blues. Tree was coming over at 9:30 for a little snow tour on single speeds. When the AM rolled around, I wasn't feeling it. Could have been the too many beers bit, but I'm going to blame it on the spicy curry wings that Arn loves so much. Hot wings are a wonderful thing, but I've reached the conclusion that the greasy curry syrup on these particular wings actually is not all that wonderful. Anyway.
Tree showed up at 9:25 promptly and I was not even close to ready. Like I said, I wasn't feeling it. I had been listless all morning, careful to not awaken the sleeping dragon in my stomach. Thoughts of eating breakfast getting bike clothes on were not helping the nasuea. So I rested on the couch with my fingers crossed in hopes that I'd be able to ride a bike at 9:30 withouth throwing up. 9:30 came and I was feeling just a tad better, so I got dressed, ate a quick bite, and headed out the door to greet my singlespeed. I've been on this Redline Monocog Flight 29er for a couple months now and I've loving it. Chris recently picked one up and is similarly in love. I guess you could say the ride was all about the love. Of bike, of trail, of one gear pain. Love.
Spinning down the road, we decided the ride on the fly. "Want to go to Hall?" "Oh yeah, we should at least check it out." So it was decided that we'd take the long way thru the ghetto singletracks of Lyons and Old South on our way to the trailhead. When we got to the trailhead, it was refreshing to see only 2 cars in the parking lot and no people in sight. The trail was actually quite good. It had been too cold recently for any significant snow reduction and the multitude of hikers had established a very nice 18" wide packed singletrack right up the trail. As long as you stayed on the line, it was easy going and traction was good. Except for a few ice patches, it was entirely rideable all the way up, or at least it would've been if I had the legs to turn the 32x18 the whole way. I had to push a few times, but at least the dragon in my stomach was exhibiting good behavior.

We called it a day at the top by the first bench and pointed our unspuspended beasts back down the hill. The descent was superb. The snow was plentiful and packed in enough that the trail was actully pretty smooth, save the more major of the rocky stuff. Traction was pretty good, but there did prove to be a point at which you could only lean over so far before you'd slip out. I found that point, but was luckily able to ride it out. The rest of the descent was rockin' and we made it down in good time.

All in all, a great winter ride. There were a couple of spots on the trail where the snow was wearing thing and will be very muddy with just the right amount of sun, but it was great today. I'm glad we at least checked Hall out. It felt good to get on the trail again. It's not often that we're blessed with this combo of trail conditions in the winter. It's snowing right now, so maybe I'll be so lucky tomorrow. Got my fingers crossed.