Thank the Paint

Today I left work promptly, stopped at home for a few minutes and then continued south to Loudonville.  I planned to help out with some trail work but ended up missing the guys leading the work.  Thankfully I considered this scenario before leaving home and had packed my bike and a bag of gear.  After a call to KT to let her know I was riding instead of working, I hit the trail at mile 0.

Starting up the climbing switchbacks of the opening miles I thought about how this was my first solo mountain bike ride.  This made me wonder how well I paid attention to the trail’s direction when riding with Ryan.  Oh well, I figured that trail was marked well and I’d be fine finding my way.

The trail work that had been done along the way was mostly obvious.  There were some reroutes to avoid wet areas and the shoulders of the trail had been smoothed out all along the way.  I reached the short loop turnout and stopped to decide which way to go.  KT had asked me to be home before Daniel went to bed, which seemed to dictate I do the short loop.  Hmmm… what if I continue to the covered bridge and then ride the road back to the parking lot?  It seemed too far for the available time, unless I ride faster.  I clipped in, up shifted and stayed on the full course.

Nice night for a ride.

I really started to get into a rhythm and felt like I was moving along pretty good.  After mile 8 I turned right onto the access road and pushed my pace.  Looking up ahead I saw the dirt double track abruptly disappear to the right and I thought “I’m not slowing down, going to hold my speed!”  I moved left to enter the turn and dove in to the right hander hard.  Looking ahead, I saw the exit of the corner come into view and prominently in the middle of the trail… a skunk! 

The skunk saw me, turned its back end towards my front end, and lifted its tail.  “Oh crap!”  At this point my new disc brakes were put to the test and they almost worked too well.  Hard, hard, hard on the brakes!  My rear wheel lifted off the ground, then came back down as I shifted weight back.  I came to a stop partly sideways 5 to 7 yards short of the skunk.

Mr. Skunk looked back over its shoulder at me.  I looked at him thinking, “should I abandon the bike and make a run for it?”  A second or two later Mr. Skunk lowered his tail and slowly finished crossing the trail.  I reached for my camera but thought he would disappear too soon.  As slow as he moved, I probably could have taken a picture if I had acted on my thought to do so.

Wow.  With my max heart rate for the ride established in the previous 10 seconds I clipped in to continue my ride.  I wondered why he didn’t spray me and quickly reached the obvious conclusion: he liked the paint scheme of my Gary Fisher!

The sun was getting low, but I made it

home before Daniel went to bed.