Went back to EF with pete after a long time away from those trails. I always forget what a great place it is to ride and let the longish drive discourage me. Pete and I got an early start and were on the trail around 10ish. It was a picture perfect fall day of riding. The weather was just cool enough to have an edge to it while riding up the road. That edge quickly disapeared as we started grinding up the couple mile fireroad climb to start. While some folks I know don’t like that fire road climb, I actually prefer it as it’s pretty gradual to start and warms you up nicely without a huge shock to the system. I’m not a fan of steep nasty clinbs immediately at the ride start. I’d much rather warm up and do my climbing when warm. The leaves are just starting to turn down there and it’s already very pretty. In a couple weeks or less it’ll probaly be really awesome. All in all it was a great day of riding. Pete showed me a great bbq joint on the way home which made for awesome post ride grub. Definately will stop there again.

The ride as always as challenging and rewarding. It was good to confirm my tech skills are more than up to the task. My endurance is pretty good but I need to get my speed back. I think thats going to come with time as I get my hours in the saddle back up where they should be. Feels like I’m slowly but surely grinding myself back into shape.

Couldn’t help but wonder while out on the rocks at EF why I really like this place but hate the watershed close to home. Can’t be the rocks alone as EF is plenty rocky. As are a bunch of other trails I like such as Gambril, Buzzard Rocks and more.

I’m starting to think that for certain types of rides I have to choose my riding partners carefully. On a day where I’m going to beat myself against the rocks and abuse myself overall  I think my group or riding partner have a big impact on my mood/expirence. Pete and I always seem to have great rides. We’ve ridden together for years and he’s pretty mellow. As a result it tends to rub off and I mellow out some. The only rides at the shed I really think fondly of were with my old pal chance and or pete. I think maybe I’m a bit more short tempered if I’m really beating myself up and having someone around that tends to balance that out makes the diff. I may have to drag Pete to the Shed before long to test the new theory. I’m beginning to think that group dynamic has a bigger impact than one would think on a ride.

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Posted in Ride Reports by Crashmore No Comments Yet