7.05.2010

Thank you Mom Nature

The weather has been incredible the last week or so; finally dry trails everywhere.
Wednesday I headed to the mesa and ended up meeting a few peeps out there.
First it was Mike and Gina coming out of Garden Grove. We headed out and eventually ran into Chris and Tommy on hangman trail, right at the noose actually.
Thursday, the same. I headed out shortly after work. The trails were even noticeably dryer. I could feel them getting faster.
Friday I shut my outlook off early and headed out to the mesa. I thought I'd see Chris and John out there. I saw John on top of the mesa, then saw Chuck right after I slid out and did a 180 after a sweeping left turn- I actually separated from my bike, then saw Rick and Steve. Chris then ran through the ravine and caught up to us. Good times.
Saturday Zach and Sara came over. Jeremey met us as well. We headed out for a good couple of hours. We ran into John, Tim, Chuck and Chris all working on a bench cut on the new trail... ugh. I felt guilty for not being out there with them.
It was great riding with Zach and Sara. I wish they were in a bit longer, but it looks like we may get to ride with them on Wednesday if the weather holds. *crosses fingers
Sunday John headed out to do the Joliet Metric Century. I really didn't have a plan until I saw a ride posted for the mesa. I didn't have a sitter so pouted for a bit.
My in-laws wanted to hang with the girls, so score! I made it back just in time to meet the guys at 10am. Super fun ride. Afterwards we jumped in Siwinski's pool with all our riding gear on and had a beer. It felt so good.
Later that day we took the girls for ice cream; then headed out by bike to watch the fireworks. I've always thought Oak Forest put on a good show, but 40 minutes was a bit much. Zoe whined the entire time.
Today we started the day just lazing around. John said he was pretty worked over and didn't want to do anything. I couldn't imagine not riding today. Initially I thought about taking the neighbor kids out to the mesa, but that wasn't working out. So I thought about riding out to Swallow Cliffs and back.
Right when I got on my bike my upper body was tired. My legs didn't feel too terrible, it's been awhile since I've ridden that many days in a row.
I headed onto the bike path and jumped on the roads out to SC. The gravel was super deep (they, CCFPD, have no idea how to maintain gravel trails- or anything for that matter). I finally made it across LaGrange and hopped onto the singletrack. The stuff on top by the slides was mint. A couple of new log crossings. Once I crossed over and headed over by Cherry Hill woods that was pretty overgrown... but almost cool because it was SO green not to mention you couldn't see the trail. Total singletrack. Game face on.
I rode everything twice (out n back) and called it a day. Once I hit the road and a headwind, my legs were feeling pretty worked. I was glad to roll up the driveway and John be almost home from grabbing a pizza.

Family, friends, riding and great weather have made these past few days friggin' awesome!

p.s. I'm too lazy to post pics.

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