Blankets Creek, Rope Mill, and Toonigh Falls

This past week was absolutely exhausting. I put in some good after-work miles three of the days, but spent the other two buying a car for my youngest, putting tires on it, and getting all the paperwork in order with the tag office and insurance. All that on top of just normal work. Exhausting. You'd think I'd spend the weekend in the mountains, given how well it went the previous weekend, but no. This past Saturday I had no motivation to drive anywhere. I'd done all the driving in the world last week. Instead, I got up kind-of early, and took it easy at Blankets Creek, Rope Mill, and Toonigh Falls.

In fact, it was such a lackluster ride, that I wouldn't normally even write about it, except for a couple of interesting details.

Apparently lots of people hike to Toonigh Falls from Rope Mill and from the local neighborhood. I had no idea it was so popular. I passed like two dozen people on the way in and out. At least.

The falls:

When I was there last, I saw a trail leading away from the top of the falls off into the neighborhood, so I figured I'd see where it went. I'd hoped that it led to the back of the neighborhood pool or the end of a street or soemthing, but no, it splits in two, but both branches just go to people's houses.

Drunk people at the falls got a kick out of watching me cross the top with my bike. "A real pro would ride it!" "Ha ha! A real pro would know better than to even try to cross this!"

On the way in, I passed a group of people laughing about something in the trail. It turned out that a pair of turtles were getting it on, right there, dead in the middle of the trail. The male had fallen over backwards, but was undeterred. How often do you see that?

On the way back, they were still there, in the same spot, still at it.

Go for it you guys! Make more turtles.

Back near Rope Mill, a family was heading out towards the falls, and the dad was like "Come on Iz, right through here..." Iz? I have an Iz! "Did you call her Iz? Like Isabel?" "Yeah! But Iz for Isadora. We almost named her Isabel." "Cool! I have an Isabel and we call her Iz. You don't usually hear that. Cool that you guys came up with the same nickname!"

And that was about it for interesting stuff. It was a fun ride, but it was also super hot, a little wet, and wasn't really feeling it that day. I didn't even ride all of the trails.

Yesterday, I fixed cars all day, which sucked, but I wasn't in the mood for physical exertion, so I guess it was a good day for it. I got in some easy road miles today, but IDK, I'm not feeling that great these days. I've been making a concerted effort to stay hydrated, and it's been helping, but I have that same discomfort in my chest again. Just sitting here now, I have it. Not bad, but it's there.

I don't know. I don't like it.