Biked Cathedral Pines tonight again since it looks like rain may dampen any bike plans for the weekend. Odometer read 9.6 miles total with all black diamonds, and did it in 1 hour, 7 mins. That may seem slow, but its my best time this season. Perhaps that last ride at Glacier Ridge helped me man up a bit!

I picked up 2 minutes to my first stop by purposely pouring it on in that first stretch (I think I usually take it easier as I warm up into the ride), then I just plowed through the rest racing the sun. That time includes the three killer hills in the back of the park and I'm not even sure if the first one is really part of the official trail or not. The one I mean is when Deer Run finally loops back onto the main trail and you take that dive down toward the stream, there's a quick left up a nasty hill. I can almost never make that one and tonight was no exception. I got past all the logs in the trail (sometimes my tires slip on them), but past that about 3/4 of the way up is this nasty mogul, and trying to do this particular mogul while climbing what amounts to a sandy dune is damn tricky. I managed the next two with ease, though.

There was nobody there at all on a Friday night (everybody out with friends I guess), and the RVs were scarce in the field since there was obviously a Boy Scout jamboree going on this weekend, so it was just me and the trail. I saw one deer off the path a bit on the Boundary Line section, but most of the woods life was squirrels who I spooked at every turn of the wheel and could hear them scurrying up trees and through the underbrush as I whizzed by. I still don't have a lot of the typical biker gear, and usually wear a cotton tee, so of course was completely soaked in sweat at the end of the ride - but it felt good.