Two f’r Tuesday

Went up towards Brown this afternoon with both my mountain bikes (Mindful Mule, the quasi-vintage rigid ‘94 and Metamorphosis, the full suspension/disc ‘04). No, I didn’t ride them both at the same time. I’ve learned my lesson about that. Lately my roadie friend, Dan the Man, has been thinking about heading back up the mountain trails on the bike. So, today we went for a test ride so he could get the feel of suspension and disc brakes and be reminded of how awesome it is up in those mountains. I ran out of water at the junction road to Millard (about 2/3 of the way to the top of the Brown route) so we turned around. I hadn’t been up on that trail with Mindful Mule since Metamorphosis arrived on the scene a year ago. It seems like much more than a year. I can hardly remember riding Mindful up there. But, she performed quite well today. She’s a little heavy and noisy with all her lights and racks and general urban utility getup, but other than needing to take the downhills a little slower than normal, she pretty much still rocked it.

After the partial Brown route we refilled water bottles and headed up the creek trail for some shady, light technical riding and stream crossings. It was a nice warm day again (but not hot – we’ve had a very mild August) and the water felt great on the feet as we crossed. My toes even got cold – summer must be ending.

The ride was a blast and it was great to be up there with Dan again. I think he liked it, too (maybe he’ll post a comment).

As for the cherry bomb, well, it was bombin’ pretty hard the whole ride, but it was worth it. I do think it’s getting a little better everyday, but I just can’t wait around any longer for it to completely go away.