keep your eyes open

I've been blowing it. Riding again is good, but I need to remember the ridings which are further afield. There's no reason not to go out the Valley to that one road that goes up to those trails.



Winter was here today. It will come and go some more before (what passes around here for) cold settles. Soon be time for trail maintenance and for the cataloging of trails. There's more out there than I know about right now. I must find some.


Should be tattooed on the back of my hand.





Sweaty ride up the hill to the Good Spot. I'm still refining my kit for the cooler weather. Oak leaves and Monterey Pine duff are deep and slippy right now. The Kampy Monkey felt very odd after 1) being off the/a bike completely for 2 weeks, and B) coming back onto the townie styled Long Haul Trucker exclusively for the week following that. I need a 27.2 seatpost with no lay back for this bike. I may need a shorter reach to the bars even after that. I need a pair of bibs. I need a nap.



That is the lurking Oak stump that is right in the fall line at the very bottom of a steep off-camber dip at the very end of the hill. I clipped it at speed. It was noisy. All the air escaped the tube immediately. So I stopped and fixed that.



This sign should say: "Clean up cleanable dead falls." There were 2 other tracks (not mine) on that trail, and lots of evidence that they just took the fast line and left plenty of easily moved logs. It is nice to ride with folks who step up and clear trail. All it takes is the willingness. To take the time out of your important training ride. To figure out how that 30 foot-long x 8 inch-in-diameter log can be moved off the trail. To actually do this, rather than not.



Dude. See how polished those rivets are?