So many things happened out on the trail today that there's not enough space to contain it all . . . first off, it was raining - we were told it was a freak of nature as it just does not rain this time of year . . . lucky us. We were on our way to the trail and had to turn around for a left behind helmet. We got to the trailhead at 7am, an hour later than hoped for, but pretty descent none the less. We knew the Eastern half of the trail was not going to be all that great, but we had no idea what we were really in for. After everyone made a deposit in the bushes, we were off! The first couple of miles went well. A little thick gravel once in a while, but nothing we couldn't handle. Then we went through a little mud here and there. Nothing grand, but it kept sticking to the bikes and kept getting thicker and thicker . . . then, we really went through a mud bog that none of us were able to pedal through! I would describe this mud to be very similar in nature to that of cement, including the little pieces of gravel. At this point we were only about 5 or 6 miles into the trail. So we spent some time trying in vain to wipe the mud from our bikes. Mud was everywhere! As we were getting ready to try to pedal on and hope to find a source of water to wash the mud off our bikes, Zak's gears broke right off the frame of his bike. The next town was about a mile off, so Melanie & Kera rode ahead to scout out a bike shop while Zak & I started walking with our bikes. That mile turned into 2 miles of pushing our bikes to civilization. There was no bike shop (it was Sunday anyway and everything was closed), but there was a hose outside a small cafe that we were permitted to use. So we spent over an hour washing the cement-mud from our bikes and skin. We had to call David to pick up Zak and his bike, while Melanie, Kera & I wanted to go on. So, we went back about half a mile to pick up the trail only to find right away that the tressel was closed and the trail stopped. You need to know that we are following signs for the John Wayne Pioneer Trail, but there are no indications anywhere that the trail is closed, or there's a detour, or simply that the trail is not maintained. So back into town we went trying to find a way to bypass the tressel. David catches up with us, so we pull out the gps and make a plan. He drove us to the nearest spot for picking up the trail. David drops us off, we take a few pictures, glad that it has stopped raining and ready to get moving. About a half mile later, I got a flat tire. We spend some time taking care of that and get a call from David that about a mile down the trail (he was scoping it out for us as he and the kids were on their way to set up camp 40 miles away), it is overgrown so badly that a moose would have difficulty passing through. Since we didn't have machetes to blaze the trail, we decided to crawl back into the truck and give it up for the day. David says "is this still the same day?" because we've had so many things go wrong. At this point we had been at this for 6 hours and were completely worn out, wet, and frustrated. Those were the hardest 10 miles I've ever ridden! I know there were other things to mention, but I'm tired and I can't remember them at this point.
This trail is really bad. There is no way were going to be able to ride it, so we're making a plan for tomorrow to follow surface roads that run nearby the trail. I hope it's not raining!
No comments:
Post a Comment