Klondike mud

Outrageously, rain had set in come rising time on Monday morning. The edge of the storm we'd been hearing about for a few days seemed to have come to visit. We settled for a morning of doing things that people living out normal lives do as a matter of course - laundry, using a shower & not smelling mank, sitting in cafes and so on. By mid-afternoon I was tired of that nonsense & wanted to go ride bikes - even if it was still raining a bit. Somehow I suckered Megan into joining me - it was riding bikes, it wasn't hard.

We headed back out to Klondike Bluffs as there were a few trails there that I wanted explore. At least the sand had dampened the big sand trap near the start of the trail system - about all it was good for. I think I was pretty wet very quickly. We had intended to stay relatively low & ride Dino-Flow out & EKG back; however, we were duped by friendly moto-x riders that Baby Steps (a much larger loop, up & over the ridge) would be awesome. Dino-Flow was pleasant & holding up well in the rain - on account of all the rock; we climbed up on the Baby Steps loop & proved that the rock is still really grippy in the wet before doing a little bit of singletrack.

The second bit of singletrack was more slippery - I think I had my first little spill of the trip. Lost my front wheel at low speed balanced on a slick small boulder and had a good go of jumping over the bars before I was catapulted over them. We rode under a rock too - really the only photo opportunity of the ride.

Shortly after the soil changed slightly & as it was wet this stuff became really awful mud; not only did it stick to tyres, it stuck just as well to itself.  Soon our bikes had doubled in weight and we couldn't even push our bikes there was so much mud rubbing between the wheels and fork & frame.  Mercifully there wasn't more than a few hundred metres of this awfulness; with the rain still falling, we turned & headed for home.  It stopped raining as we got closer to the car.  So a bit of a trial that ride - but it has to be pretty awful for me to dislike a ride, so I was still pleased we'd made the effort to get out.

It was sunny & quite warm back in town as we gave our bikes a good wash at the bike shop, grrr.  Our small riding group doubled in size that day as Jackie (a friend of Megan & Alex from Melbourne in the country on a climbing trip) arrived from Nevada, as did Chad & Michelle (friends of Jackie's) from Colorado.

It must have cleared up that night, as someone took this.