nothing I couldn't maneuver

Now....today. After yesterday's 54 miles, I figured I'd need to take it a little easy on the dirt today. Knobbies are always harder to pedal given the bike attached to them is upwards of 30 pounds. Add my weight to that (never you mind, just make an educated guess), and I'm working hard!




I'd planned a dirt ride with The Pink today and was hoping she'd go easy on me...and Herb, who decided to join as well. He was hopeful she'd go a little easy too, since he's just getting back to mountain biking after a bit of a hiatus. The Pink did go easy, the best way she knows how...by dragging us up a 4.5 mile climb straight out of the parking lot. This was in Thousand Oaks on a new trail (for Herb and me) called Cheeseboro Canyon Trail (pronounced Chezboro, by the way). It's actually a series of fire roads and single tracks in between Malibu and Thousand Oaks, and, oh my, it's pretty out there!







Today's weather couldn't have been better either, especially for the climbing. Mostly the route we did today was front loaded, which is how The Pink took it easy on us. However, we still teased her, telling her that we have a new phrase - "we got pinked" - which means that we followed Karen up some steep-ass hill that she basically flies up while we (me, in particular) suffers up in slow motion. Karen weighs as much as my left calf, remember? If all I had to push up the hill was the weight of my left calf, I'd get up it quicker. However, there's the rest of me attached to that calf. Sigh.





I say all this with humor, of course. I loved the climb, truthfully, and really only had to walk just a small portion (with thick sand). I also walked a little in some single track sections. I really enjoyed those single tracks, though, and kept telling Karen that. Herb dug 'em too and the both of us kept saying how much we needed to ride those exact kind of intermediate trails. Boulders were present and some nasty ruts, none of which caught me unaware, and I was sturdier than normal on most of the descents. There was a tad bit of exposure (a sheer cliff to my left) but nothing I couldn't maneuver.




Oh, and views...well, my pictures don't do them justice. That's the hard part about taking pics on dirt trails. The beauty can't be captured cause so much of the experience is visceral. No cars, just clean(er) air, the rustling of the wind through bushes, hikers, dogs, horses, my good friends and some well-earned dirt on my tires. Love it...and my bicycle.