Leaves Down

After a slow start to the morning I made it down to Mohican about 10.  As expected the fall colors were past and the trees were mostly barren of leaves.  When I pulled into the parking lot I saw one rider hitting the trail.and three other guys were gearing up and heading out.  I got my stuff together and started the chase.

Where's the trail?

This was my first ride on the Paragon in a couple months and it definitely felt different than the Karate Monkey.  Despite having gears at my disposal I rode a single gear all the way to the covered bridge.  I did some downshifting for Mount Doom.

Low sun before noon.

The leaves were disguising the trail pretty well.  Combine this with front suspension, that I have no ridden on in a while, and I was mostly just aiming straight ahead.  I didn't really feel any faster, just less thoughtful of how I would get where I was going.

I had never seen this particular view while climbing

Mount Doom.  Looks like a mountain over there.

I guess my head was always down huffin' and puffin'.

In the first 5 miles I had caught the guys ahead of me, which probably wasn't the best warm up.  I felt good through the second trail head after a pretty moderate climb up Mount Doom.  Through the fern forest and having fun. At the mile 19 I did a time check and decided to road it back.  Still much to be done today.