In Which a Warm Sun Tempts The Beast

Boyson Trail near the intersection with the Lindale Trail. Very rutted, looks wet, but it's not as mushy as it seems. I did kick up some limestone mud onto my water bottle, but I didn't make new tracks in the mud. I bet anybody who was out this afternoon did!

I wrote not too long ago on this blog about attempting to ride The Lindale Trail to the Boyson Trail, and how I turned back quickly due to sloppy conditions.

Well, this morning I went the gym just in time to catch the 9 am. episode of “Law & Order.” I wrode The Beast there, because I have not made it to the bike shop to get a new tube for Francis.

I was done by 10—a new episode was starting, but I forced myself to leave because I knew that if I watched the first 5 minutes, I would be there for more than two hours, and I also had the crazy idea to try riding the trail.

It was going to get warm today, but it was still cool this morning. And maybe the trail wouldn't be too sloppy if I rode it in the morning hours before it thawed.

Well, I think it might have been in better shape even earlier. By 10 .a.m., the warm sun was already turning the trail to mush in parts. But the mush wasn’t very deep yet. I noted that the trail was very rutted with tyre tracks and footprints, but I made little impression as I rode along—and I’m sure I’m much heavier than most of the people who made those previous footprints and tyre tracks.

There were a surprising number of people on the trail, several pairs of walkers (always in pairs, for some reason) and a few random joggers. And, as I was going east along the Lindale Trail, off to my left in the woods, I could see a whole string of bikers headed west—not on the trail, mind you, but going through the woods.

Fat Tire bikers (I use tyre on this blog, but I guess the brand is Fat Tire) on the trail.

Well, I continued on my way, going to the end of the trail by Menards and then doubling back. I didn’t cross the bridge that leads to the park at the south end of the Boyson Trail, because time was getting on and I knew I had some speech proposals I had to read today.

Anyway, as I was heading back towards the Boyson trail on the trail to Menards, a group of fat tire bikers approached going the other way down the trail. I think they were probably the same bikers who had been in the woods adjacent to the Lindale Trail. I guess those fat tires can go almost anywhere.

View from a birdge on the trail. Even in winter, it is good to be out.

I headed home, taking my final leg of the journey over the Bowman Woods hill on Brentwood Drive. On the side street I turn off on to get to the hill’s summit, I noticed some trees missing, including the old “summit ash,” the tree that always marked the top of the hill to me. Yup. The city has been at it, removing ash trees.

That was one minor sad note on an otherwise nice biking morning. Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, so it might be a while before I am on two wheels again. But it was good to be out today—and good to be on The Beast. The trail wasn't too mushy, but it was best on a mountain bike!

The creek bridge on the trail that leads to Menards. I like the shadows, and you can see some walkers, too.