Sunday, April 29, 2012

Alternatives....

One rule that mountain bikers abide by is that you never ride single track when it is wet. It can cause damage to the trail that many volunteers spent countless hours to build for everyone's enjoyment. So with rain approaching Saturday morning I knew that the mountain bike trails would be off limits.

Fortunately, Elm Creek Park Reserve has a variety of trails available for riding, hiking, horseback riding, etc. and I decided to take advantage of this. I started my ride shortly after the rain began to fall in earnest. The rain was one of those very cold spring rains and temps were in the low 40's (F).

As always...riding the El Mariachi was a dream. I've really come to like this bike and believe it's ride is unmatched. It's definitely not built for speed as it is not a light bike, but it's comfort is unbelievable. It's definitely made for long days in the saddle.

My ride started off on the paved bike trails and eventually ended up on a mix of horse trails, gravel, and the old "Inner Loop" trails we used to ride before the new single track opened.
Despite the rain it was nice to be out and fortunately for full rain gear, I managed to stay dry and warm.

One thing that I've discovered is that while riding horse trails in the rain, one should keep one's mouth shut. It's not all mud that is flying up in your face:)

It certainly is nice to have other trail riding alternatives.

1 comment:

Scott said...

Great alternatives! Those type of trails are actually my bread and butter. Woods roads. Snomachine,game trails. I hear you about not tearing stuff up in wet conditions. I like the black and white, it really defines the leaves on the forest floor.