My recently-unbroken fancy-bike and I went on a fine long solo-ride today to celebrate the ending of my most recent grad-class. The ride wasn't fast. Nor was I especially skillful along the way. But it was nice to be out, freed from the constraints of what has become the standard-fare of my weekend: spending my Saturdays buried under a mound of homework.
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Peaks pavé |
I had a little extra-time on my hands today.
My homework was mostly-done, and the day ahead was generally otherwise uncluttered. So I planned to head out on a somewhat longer ride than I've been on in a while this morning after breakfast. Two hours. That's what I wanted. Just two solid hours on the bike. Two hours of riding never used to seem particularly long. But these days, what with work and life and the classes I'm taking, I cannot recall the last time I got out for a ride so lengthy.
The hint of a tail-breeze going up Schultz had me feeling pretty great on the way out. And post-ride, seeing a new season-PR on the stretch from the parking lot to the Lincoln logs, confirms the sense of well-being I had heading up to my climbing-goal: Weatherford.
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I typically only ride
Weatherford Trail a few times in any season. It doesn't really connect to much of anywhere. And it never seems easy. But it felt especially-
not-easy today. Having recently served duty as a major fire-line, the first half of Weatherford has been trashed and reassembled since the
Schultz Fire a few years ago. But to say the trailwork that got done was an improvement would be to overstate the facts; it's still pretty sucky. But it's lovely compared to the upper half, which is still just as bony and loosely-cobbled with
Peaks pavé as it always has been, for as long as I've known it. Makes for slow-going and calls for the occasional dab, too.
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8880' |
Nevertheless, the trail tops out at the wilderness boundary at 8880 feet, the climbing-limit for bicycles on the south-facing slopes of the Peaks, in the middle of a beautiful high-alpine meadow with broad views of the landscape above and below, which tends to make the whole suffer-fest of getting there feel almost worth it.
Got home with a total riding time of 2:02.
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