Good Stretch

It's now four days in a row that I've spent time in the saddle. Good time too for the most part. The reasons for this are multiple but I'm going to give most credit to the nice stretch of weather we've had recently. Temps yesterday near 60 made a kick ass 2hr mountain bike ride in the preserve near the house possible. Imagine this, Maine early March, and I'm out riding in a short sleever jersey and undershirt and I was still HOT. Temperature and rrrroooooaaaaarrrrr! wise. You see, I was sportin my new Optic Nerve Autovaughn specs. White frames and rose tinted lenses had me fully Bikeman whored out. I especially appreciate the fact that these shades are a bit bigger than what I'm used to so it my my giant schnozz seem in proportion for a change.

For the most part, the trails are mud free. Things are still spongy in spots but the Schmid Preserve is always like that since it sees so little traffic. I aim to change that this summer. Once I've dragged a rake over all of the trails and get the Bath crew up we'll get those trails beat in nicely. I'm actually going to try to get things rolling (har har) this weekend. If the weather cooperates, I'll most likely be leading a small group ride in the preserve to introduce a few peeps to the trails. Fingers crossed that the rain/snow forcast for Saturday holds off.

The one thing I had to be careful of on the trails was this quicksand type mud. The top layer would have a coarse gravely texture but it would be pure pudding just under the surface. I nailed this bit on a fast, old gravel road section I was bombing down. Nothing like cruising down a ledgy, gravely downhill only to have your front wheel disappear into the middle of a seemingly dry bit'o gravel. I also hit that 1 1/2" diameter stick as soon as I dropped into the mud and snapped it in two. How I didn't end up eating shit I have no idea.

I saw a shit ton of moose tracks during the ride and two enormous piles of shit. Sorry, no picture of the poo.

Sometime over the winter some trail gnomes were out clearing trees and adding signage to the River Link portion of the trail.