Singlespeed sufferfest....or the black dirt that ate my soul....

so the darkhorse singlespeed crew rallied sunday am for a little throw down in the stewart state forest. shiny new and old steeds alike emerged from winter hibernation to see what the trails had in store. all but CDUBS sported their one gear machines. he however has more bikes in varying states of disrepair and as such was relagated to a geared bike. heathen!

we hit up some dirt and soon found out that picking trails carefully would be the measure of the day. the oatmeal paste mud was exciting! trails that are bomber fast had us pedaling dowhill. about 8 miles in "el jefe" asked for my opinion on our current direction. i apparently answered in a bit of a curt fashion. "ride it out" was what i said. this incited the commandant to reply in a not so cordial manner and turn up the pace. i suffered.

ever have one of "those" days. you know the ones i'm talking about. the mind says go and the body gives you the finger! yeah thats where i was at.

course direction was changed and it was decided that we would hit up the "black dirt". this is a little known section of stewart that we ride on occasion. it is usually dry, drains well and rolls along at a good clip. you can cut from one side of the park to the other in short order usually. sunday was different. i had no gear. the black dirt grabbed every knob on the tire and tried to pull it into the abiss. i slogged along well behind the bunch while they made jokes about my guppy face. in short it was horrible. bad day on the bike. sweating and then cold. heart rate all over the place. just not a good showing for the maiden voyage of my new 29'r. come to think of it thats probobly the only thing that got me off the couch. i wanted so badly to turn the pedals on that bike in the woods. well nowhere to go but up from here i suppose...

from the black dirt we hit up some of the fireroad/pave and looked to pick up a few trails on the way back to the lot for a much deserved beverage. along the way we ran into a crew from Conn. and let them tag along for a bit. little snowmobile trail action, a stream crossing and a couple hills and it was back to the lot.

a great ride regardless.

spring is in the air. if the weather holds the trails should be in great shape in the coming weeks. hopefully i can say the same about myself........