[published in Cycle California, April 2008]
last night was the last of this year's wednesday night rides at china camp state park, home to a wondrous network of single track and fire roads which wind through the wooded landscape. the various trails are a perfect mix of technical, downhill and uphill, as well as just smooth sailing. sometimes so deep in the forest you forget where you are, sometimes breezing through rolling hills of green and brush and marshland overlooking San Pablo Bay. small lizards scurry across the path. and here and there you encounter a stag or doe grazing alongside the trails. china camp, named as such because a Chinese shrimp-fishing village of about 500 people thrived there in the 1880s. In its heyday, china camp had three general stores, a marine supply store and a barber shop. Today there is a small general store/'coffee shop' that is sometimes open (no schedule of any kind), a museum, and a few picnic tables on a very pebbled beach.
it was cold and windy last night. the kind of wind that knocks over potted plants and breaks off branches from the trees. i had spent the day, cozied up at home--drinking tea, working from home. perfect. so the idea of switching to mountain bike mode was not particularly appealing. but i hadn't seen lorna in a while and i missed her. plus i love to ride. and of course it's good for me, which gets me to do a lot of things. so after coming dangerously close to canceling, i decided to go.
the slate colored sky with areas of soft orange/rose clouds harbored hints of the rain that finally came this morning. although i was always the last one in the row of six mountain bike gals, it was a great ride. towards the end, as we were cutting through a shortcut trail that was steady downhill, i realized that the last time i had been on this dirt was with my daughter several months ago. the dramatic downhill, ruts, rocks, and dust had been enough to shake my self-confidence all to hell back then. so in spite of my daughter's encouragement and assurance that it really wasn't such a big deal, i was mostly off -bike, trying not to loose my footing as i held onto the handlebars and maneuvered (with trepidation) my bike and myself downhill.
but this time--it was different. i stayed on the bike, survived a few iffy spots and felt like i had really accomplished something at the end. and that was when i realized i had a flat tire. first one i've had in more than a year of mt. biking. that says something. not sure exactly what. but on the last wednesday ride of the season, i somehow like the symbolism.
No comments:
Post a Comment