My Mother's Day gift this year was a nice long ride with perfect weather. With PotatoPatch being freshly graded, I headed over to the Bull Mountain area to ride the Fools Gold 50 route. I have never done that particular race and I hadn't ridden many of those trails in several years. Just to make sure I didn't slack off, I rode my singlespeed, as it was supposed to be MY day, and I really didn't want to have to think about shifting gears. Another plus, was that this would be a test run for some longer races on the SS.
The route was definitely challenging and there were some trails that I'd never ride if they weren't part of the route. Unfortunately, the reason I'd never ride them is because they are just crappy in general..eroded and/or sandy. There were a couple of short singletrack connectors that just seemed like a waste of energy and didn't flow very well. Assuming I was on the right trail (Moss Branch Connector?), one had a straight-up hike-a-bike that I didn't see anyone being able to ride. I guess its just in there to up the suffer level a bit.
The Bull Mtn section ended up being much easier than I anticipated...I thought climbing the singletrack would be horrible, but it wasn't too bad. I think the worst climbs were over on Black Branch..seemed like I was climbing forever over there!
All in all, it was a good ride on a perfect day. I rode solo to minimize having to stop and managed to ride just under 5 hours without having a body meltdown - so that is very encouraging.
I returned home to find a yummy dinner waiting for me and a picture that Chris and Jayden drew with markers. It was definitely my kind of Mother's Day!
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