Trails

A few weeks ago, I got rejected when I rode to the mountain bike trails at Shawnee Mission Park. Well, I guess the parks department finally decided the trails were dry enough to let people loose on the singletrack this weekend. I can say that the trails were far from dry in many places, though. I did my best not to rut the trail out too badly, going around the mud where I could.

Shortly after I arrived, Chris showed up with his Long Haul Trucker. It must have looked somewhat interesting. A big, heavy urban bike and a steel road touring bike, tooling around on the mountain bike trails. I believe the term for this is "underbiking."


Mostly, I just wanted to wring the Urbana out one last time before I write my final review. The huge tires almost act like a suspension fork. I even managed to get a little air in a few spots.


I haven't ridden singletrack in a very long time. I had forgotten the serene beauty of the trails, and how much work it is to constantly maneuver the bike around obstacles and tackle hills. I'll probably feel the burn in the morning.



Random Tunage:
Amber - Anyway (Steve Porter Remix)
B-Movie - Nowhere Girl (Adam Freeland Remix)

Oh Deer, what a mess!

I took The Goat out for nine slow, sweaty, grimy miles at Shawnee Mission Park. I almost hit this deer. She wandered off the trail, though, completely tame and unafraid of me. I was mere feet from her when I took this photo. I probably could have hiked over and pet her, but you don't want to see what happens when a deer is both afraid of you and close to you. It isn't pretty. I rode off.


Mud pits on the trail are a bit of a paradox. To be earth and trail friendly, you're supposed to avoid riding straight through muddy ruts because it erodes the trail and makes it worse. The paradox? By trying to go around it, your wheel will inevitably wash out, slide into the rut, and either make you very messy if not cause you to lose control of the bike. And you'll still make the rut deeper and erode the trail.

Fortunately, I just got really muddy and didn't eat it. But I further eroded the trail.


These are a bit out of order. This is before I got all messy, at the intersection of the "difficult" loop and the "easy" loop. I rode all parts of the trail once, and sections of both the easy and difficult loops multiple times.


Trying to "capture the trail" again, but my secret is usually to wait until the sun is going down enough to filter the light through the canopy at an angle. It hadn't quite set enough for my liking when I took this.


Trailhead.


Random Tunage:
Gravity Kills - Guilty
Ecano - Run

Singletrack

Singletrack, originally uploaded by KC-Bike.

See the rest of today's photos here.

I hung out with Jason over lunch at ChefBurger. He's always a blast. I ran into Karen on my way home, too.

I met my wife for supper about 5 miles from home. We put The Twelve on the back of the Explorer and came home. I spent some time getting The Goat back in singletrack form, then took it out for about an hour on the trails at Shawnee Mission Park for 5 slow miles of the funnest suffering I've had in a long time. I'll pay for this in the morning, I'm sure.

I love my Tunage and don't often get to listen and ride since I don't listen to music when commuting. My journey this evening was powered by this soundtrack of random tunage picked by iTunes' party shuffle (and the songs then transferred to my LG Chocolate for listening)

Consider it a mega version of Random Tunage:
Real McCoy - Another Night
Nine Inch Nails - 32 Ghosts IV
Peaches - AA XXX
Hooverphonic - Battersea
Alice DeeJay - Better Off Alone
Dave Matthews Band - Crash (live)
Dirty Vegas - Days Go By (Oakenfold Remix)
Prince - Guitar
Nine Inch Nails - Something I Can Never Have
Orbital - Planet Of The Shapes
Orbital - Dŵr Budr

Glutton For Punishment

I took the evil Express bus home tonight. I got out just in time to watch it sprint past. All out, I chased it down 10th street to the bus terminal, hopped a curb, and came to a skidding stop while frantically waving at the bus driver. The bus was running behind schedule by the time we got out of downtown, and Quivira was a serious mad-house. I opted for the pedestrian sidepath instead of the main roadway.

Somewhat enchanted by last night's spirited bike safari, I decided to have another go at it tonight. Chris was peeved that he couldn't make it last night, and was thinking of trying to go out there, too. I ended up arriving a bit before 7:30, just in time to watch some cross country runners exit the trailhead. We encountered a few more of them just a few hundred yards into the journey. After that, not a soul in sight.

The main trailhead dumps you right into the middle of the easy loop. I took the opposite direction I rode last night to get to the difficult loop, then we destroyed the terrain from there. I definitely feel a lot more confident and in control now than I did when I first got out there last night. This will definitely help me come winter time.

Now I really hurt. Total trail distance: 5 miles. At least I remembered to stretch afterwards this time.

Random Tunage:
Underworld - Crocodile (Oliver Huntemann Remix)
Junkie XL - More (Junk O Flamenco Remix)

If you dig electronic music and don't mind a bit of vulgarity (for the JXL track) you really need to check both of those out.