Sunday Spin

As previously mentioned, ride time this week was scant. I had hoped to get out for a mountain bike ride on Saturday but stuff happens and the ride didn't. Today, I had to get to the property first thing to meet Marcy's dad to do the excavation for our foundation. I had three options. 1. driver over-not happening. 2. ride the road over which is less than a 30 minute ride. It was a good option and would allow me to sleep in until 6 am. 3. get up uber early (for a Sunday at least) and ride the mountain bike over hitting the some of the local trails on the way. I, of course chose option 3. I've been missing riding in general but mountain biking much more. I can honestly say that I have zero interest in road riding these days so really, option three was my only real option.

With a plan in mind, I smartly only got half of my stuff ready Saturday night and instead tied a bit of a buzz on, got to bed late, got up early and realized that since we basically live in a one room apt right now that getting ready wasn't going to be an easy task. Most importantly, brewing coffee wasn't going to happen. Frig. Oh, and despite knowing that I was going to be at the property all day I didn't have the foresight to make up a lunch ahead of time. Double frig. In the end I scrounged up a half drank pepsi over in the office (must have the caffeine or else risk slipping into a coma) and two packages of crackers and cheese. Yeah, that'll do it. Sure.

At roughly 5:30 I rolled and a few minutes later was in the woods.

Fast forward 1.5 hours (not much to talk about with the ride other than it was damn nice to ride more than 1 hr, especially since it was mostly on trails) and I was at the property.

Big honkin rock on the property. (to keep rednecks from stealing our firewood)

Big honkin rock uncovered while excavating for our foundation (the hump on the right hand side is the ledge). We'll have to blast the sonuva out of there. On a good note, Marcy was able to swing by just before lunch with some sammiches. Good thing since I was getting a case of the vapors.

About 5 hours after getting to the property and after slinging a chain saw the whole time I started to get tired. I thought to myself, most people hurt themselves while cutting wood once they're tired. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later this happened:

Thank god for kevlar lined chaps because otherwise I'd be sporting a nice gorey open wound on my left thigh where the chainsaw nicked my leg. Thanks dad for the chaps. I'll be online tomorrow ordering more.

Eventually, Marcy's dad finished up what he could, I cleaned up and mounted the Mariachi for my ride back home. Along the way, I remembered just how much I enjoy riding mid day. It doesn't happen much these days since I'm usually trying to squeeze in an early morning or evening ride so it was a real treat to ride while it was warm (ish) and sunny. Fall is definitely in the air. The ride home was uneventful for the most part except for an encounter with some old hippies 4-wheeling in the Schmid Preserve. Motorized vehicles aren't allowed in the preserve but I wasn't about to bring that up with these bandana wearing Willie Nelson/Cheech Marin lookin fellas. I simply said hey and went on my way as they rooster tailed while trying to get their mini suv out of the mud.

Immediately after passing them Marcy called me so I pulled over to talk. While talking, I realized that I was still within site of the dudes and that it probably looked like I was calling the police. I became concerned when they turned around and started to head my way. Frig. I got off the phone and started cranking and got off the old road asap and onto trail and they drove on by. They probably weren't after me but I've watched enough movies and drama on tv to know what can happen...