biking cool
Summer’s here. Summer = barbecues. It was good to be back on the grill after laying off for so long.
After the barbecue I felt like a fatty, so I decided to go biking. Today’s rides were near a town called Cool, which is just up the road from Auburn. I went to this trail called the Olmstead Loop.
It was mostly multi use trails, which are kinda boring.
The cool thing about the trail though, was the water crossings. There were a lot of them, and some of them were pretty decent sized. They were fun to ride through, but they seemed like mosquito breeding grounds. Should I be worrying about the West Nile Virus?
I didn’t have enough speed to clear this one, so I ended up trudging through knee high water.
The bad thing about multi use trails– they suck when muddy. There’s a ton of horse crap that gets mixed in with the mud, so it smells pretty bad up there. After riding through this muddy patch, there was a fast downhill section. The mud and horse crap started flying off the wheel and started splattering all over my face.
I crashed during the downhill section. Somehow I keep banging the same knee up. I guess I have a tendency to crash on my left side.
Refueling after the ride.
It was still pretty early, so I decided to hit up another trail nearby. There’s a trail network nearby at a regional park called Cronan Ranch.
The good thing about this place is that you can ride down on a trail and ride back up on a hard packed fire road.
The Ranch surrounds the South fork of the American River. It seems like a good place to take beginning riders. There’s nothing too difficult, and the scenery’s pretty decent.
People often ask me why I like biking. On days like this it’s hard to articulate why. I mean, I rode through muddy horse crap, I banged up my knee, and I’m worried I may have caught the West Nile virus. But here’s a reason to enjoy biking that the ladies can understand. You can ride through a field of wildflowers.
Things I’m thankful for:
- spicy pork tacos
- cookies and cream ice cream
- new trails to explore
