Snow & Mud

My winter riding didn't go as expected this year. Two massive snow storms and the ungodly amount of snow they left on the ground made riding close to impossible for me. Two weeks ago Isaac got himself a used cross bike and crank, and threw some Rival on it, so we decided to give the trail a try. There was WAY too much snow, but we kept pushing to the Perkiomen Trail. Surprisingly, we both only fell once. Isaac went right over his bars and scuffed himself up. Mine was a combination of tired and lack of concentration; it was a nice, slow sideways dump. The ride was judged as an over-all success and we were looking forward to the snow melting and getting in some mud time.

Last week I managed to tweak my right knee coming down the stairs. Just for the record, my knees are complete garbage. The "injury" kept me from walking for two days and has me limping like a jack-ass. Today was a beautiful, sunny day and at 50+ degrees, I couldn't help but go out and test how my knee was doing. Isaac and I headed down to Betzwood where we got on the gravel path and rode up to Pawlings road. A bunch of trees were still down (the snow destroyed many a tree in the area. Most seemed to be laying across the bike paths) so we got some muddy grass/ cyclocross style dis and remount action. At one point Isaac decided to try and hop a downed tree. The outcome was as you would expect.

So, I love riding my bike through mud. The Guru is caked. My bottom bracket area looks like when you stare down the hole of a porta-potty. My rear brakes don't look much better, and there is a lot of grime for me to clean out of there so that my bike will come to a stop without it sounding like I've both run over a cat and am mixing cement. The back of my jerseys look like modern art, but actually done by a person of talent. It's supposed to be sunny and in the sixties later this week. There will be more riding done, I assure you.