~ Spring Walking ~
This past weekend was quite lovely. On Friday, I had the opportunity to get off work early, and so I forced Joshua to go on a mountain bike ride with me. The purpose of the ride was simply to "mix it up" and ride on whatever trails we fancied. Josh led us through some of the lower Reserve area trails that we don't ride very often, up the switchback trail to Bucks, and up Shane's "backwards." We also rode up Three Bears a bit. I led the way down, taking us on a trail that I've only been on once - - a trail which had a very steep grunt uphill that allowed me to demonstrate to Josh the quick transition from hike-a-bike to jumping-back-on-the-bike that I employed during my race a month ago. After the downhill, we rode a loop of Buck's. I had an incredibly wonderful time on that particular ride. It felt so good and was so much fun.
On Saturday, we did another bike ride. Josh led us through some of the trails off Camel's Back that I've never been on before. On these, I was very proud of myself for not getting freaked out by the drop off right next to my tires. I've decided that this year, I'm going to work dilligently to not be afraid of the drop offs. I've also decided to challenge myself to ride things that I might feel inclined to hesitate on. So, in that vein, I proposed that Josh and I ride this one section of trail off of Red Sands that I tried over and over and over to ride last year, but was way too freaked out by how steeply it plummets down. Also, the downhill bit begins with a tight downward sweeping turn to the right, with the trail sloping off to the left, which combined with the steepness, makes it understandable why a person might prefer to not ride down it. The trail, however, is not all that dissimilar to a section of the Barking Spider course which I recently conquered, and so I decided that I was going to ride it. Not hesitate, unclip, and fall over to the side once I approach the downhill and see how steep it is, but ride it. As we were grunting up Red Sands before that section of trail, I was reminding myself of how terrified I was of the steep bit on Barking Spider, and how now that I've ridden it, it's no big deal - - and is lots of fun. As I came around the tight downhill swooping turn, I resisted all my urges to unclip from my pedals and bail, I kept my hands on my handlebars, and just rode it. And it was great! I rode it pretty slowly, but I had to move my butt way off the end of the saddle to to back of the bike, to keep my weight off the front of the bike. Josh exclaimed more than once that it was the steepest thing I've ever ridden, and I felt like quite the accomplisher. After that, we rode Freeway and came down Hulls. I had a blast. Then we went for beers.
Yesterday, I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to drive to Twin Falls for work. blech. Normally, it takes 2.5 hours to drive there, but as it was so early in the morning, there was absolutely no traffic and I made it in an hour 45. So, I was very early to my thing. My thing lasted all day and I worked hard for my money. Then I drove back to Boise. The traffic was horrendous and it took me 2.5 hours. By the time that I arrived at my apartment, I was totally exhausted. I fell directly onto my bed with my shoes and my jacket still on, and just laid there for an hour. Then I got up, around 8pm and walked myself downtown for a bite to eat. Once I left my apartment, I was awe-struck by how beautiful the light was on the spring-time tree blossoms. I walked one blocks and decided that it was absolutely necessary for me to turn around to get my camera. In the few minutes that it took me to walk the block to my apartment and get my camera, the light had already become less glorious. I was able to snap these lovely photos of the tree blossoms, but by the time that I had returned, the perfect light had gone behind the buildings, and I had missed them when they were at their peak gloriousness. ...sigh. I took myself to a nearby restaurant where I enjoyed a bowl of amazing clam chowder and a salad, and sat there for a time reading my book. It was very enjoyable and relaxing. Then I walked around by the river for about an hour before returning home.
