Cumming GA

Rain, RAIN! ...and the devastating stress of life. Those are the culprits. They're making me slow. They're making me unhealthy. How do I catch them? How do I put them down? Can it even be done?

This past weekend I had CoTrails meetings all day. We're making a lot of progress and it's very important, but of course, I'd rather be playing in the woods than working. That said, it rained ALL weekend. Literally, ALL weekend. So I guess it worked out just right. I got to hang out with Clark, Suzy, their herd of greyhounds and a couple of their friends. Josh Fix was up for an entirely unrelated Trail School. I got to eat dinner with Woody and his wife and of course I got to spend a time with all my CoTrails and FS friends, and an entirely different Woody of Trail Dynamics fame. It's unfortunate you can't stay fit by learning and working and socializing and watching it rain. If you could, I'd have it made.

There was one day earlier this week that I might have gotten out for a few hours, but I was just way too busy. This morning I got up, determined to put down some miles before lunch but it was super foggy and though I couldn't see it, the drip-drops on the chimney told me it wasn't just foggy.

Around 2 it cleared though. The streets were wet but there was no actual water falling from the sky and I figured that was about the best I was going to get.

I kind of had a mission today. I GPS'ed Central Park 500 years ago but for whatever reason I didn't take a photo of the lot or the kiosk and that generic little trailhead symbol on my map has been bugging me ever since. I always figured I'd be back for some reason, but the girls are too old for the playground any more and we just haven't been there in a while. No more! I rode directly there and took my precious photos.

Ha!

Then I just kind-of wandered. I found a short little dirt road off of State Barn. Who knew that was there? I wonder how much local dirt there is around these parts.

On the back side of Sawnee Mountain, north of where I usually ride, I discovered a bit of rustic flair between the Sawnee Feed Company and a few homes up the road.

I climbed over Sawnee itself from the back and spun a loop up through the park at the top. I've still got power but it feels like certain individual muscle fibers just don't want anything to do with climbing.

It was sort-of dryish on the west side but coming back down the east, it was wet again.

Somebody's bull had gotten over the fence at the base of the mountain. It was just standing there, half out in the road. There were cars stopped in either direction but it was completely oblivious, looking straight ahead at the cows in the pasture across the street. I rode up though and that was all it took. On sight of me, it spun around and leapt back up the hill and over the fence. I've never seen a bull jump like that. It was really amazing. So, note to self, without a fence in the way, cows are scared of bikes. Maybe.

Around the corner, there was a guy working in the same pasture. I tried to talk to him but he didn't speak much English. Darn my luck. Falo Portugues mas nao Espanhol. Actually it wouldn't have been any better if he spoke Portuguese. I know all kinds of words related to business and computers but I realized, standing there, that the words "cow", "fence", "hole" and "road" weren't coming to mind.

Rolling back into town it started sprinkling. I debated cutting it short but I really wanted to do my little Melody Mizer loop. Who cares if it rains? It wasn't cold.

And it rained. Rained and rained. But it wasn't bad. When I got home Sophie was all: "You're wet! Wet and red! You forgot to put on sunblock! No, wait. You're red because it's winter! You forgot to put on... snowblock!" Heh, snowblock.

What a day. It's still raining now. Maybe this weekend it will be dry. I can't even remember what the woods looks like.