Saturday, November 6, 2010

Thompson Park - New Goods

Friday turned out to be a mellow day work wise and I was able to get out by 3 and enjoy an abby-normal (Young Frankenstein reference for you Mel Brooks fans) warm day for this time of year.  We pedaled up to Thompson Park and decided to check if they had completed the new trail building up there.

It was great to do a little exploring and figure out where these new trails linked up.  It was the missing link for the area that now links up to the 9 mile junction.  What is nice about this new link up is that it gives you access to new trail without having to ride on Hwy 2 at all.  You can pretty much avoid the road and the grade going up hill is very reasonable.  It was a quick ride but a really good ride to piece together.  There are multiple loops up there and you could easily put in a couple hour ride without doubling back on trails.  This will be a great place for taking the dogs in the summer too.  It is nice and shaded and has some great little aspen groves (also have been some bear sightings in that area).  The ride profile looked like:

There was about 1600 ft of climbing and it was almost an 11 mile ride.  It was nice to be able to get out and finish the week off on the dirt...There is something very therapeutic about it.
During our ride, Sean's chain-ring snapped like a frosted flake under a car tire.  It broke in two different places.  He has been having drive train issues all year on his singlespeed and this was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back to get a new bike...It was good to get out on the singlespeed again and the knee seems to be holding up so all in all thumbs up, unless of course you were Sean and had to coast back home.  There were a few times when the trail leveled off and I grabbed a branch and pulled him along.  It all felt a little awkward - almost as if we were holding hands while riding.  We just kept hoping no one would see these two lycra clad fellers holding a branch as we rode.  The big picture was that it could have been worse...this could have all happened last week on our Halloween night ride when we were all costumed up and I was wearing a tutu and Sean was wearing his mullet - imagine what people might have thought if they had seen us in that situation then!

and for you Mel Brooks fans...here you be:

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