Instead of the usual road ride I do on Sunday, today I decided to head up to Ft. Yargo and ride the mountain bike around the trails. I still feel kind of like a kid in a candy store going out and doing trail rides. I did not even have a mountain bike for over ten years, and getting this one was a stroke of luck - it's good to have friends with sponsorships! I'm riding a Salsa El Mariachi 29'er, full rigid (no suspension fork) and set up as a Single Speed. For those not "in the know", Single Speed is where you take a standard type mountain bike and remove the shifters and derailleurs. It's just one chainring on the cranks and one cog on the back wheel - just like a kids BMX bike. Not having gears lets you just focus on riding. Hills mean pedal harder. Downhills mean pedal as fast as humanly possible then coast the rest of the way. The rest of the time, just ride as hard or as easy as you want and don't worry about it. That's about it...
I think the outer loop trail is between 10-12 miles long with lots of great singletrack. The weather was beautiful - at 8:30AM it was still in the upper 60's. I was really surprised at how few people were out riding - I did not pass one single rider while on the trails and only saw a few in the parking lot. Of course, I am DEEP in the Bible Belt so most folks are at church, which is fine by me since I don't have to deal with the crowds. Around here I guess I'm considered to be a Godless Heathen. Oh well... The group I ride with have taken to call ourselves the "Holy Rollers" just in case some morally offended Evangelical asks us why we aren't at church. Works for me! It's nice to be out in the woods enjoying the outside, and Ft.Yargo is a beautiful, heavily wooded park. It made for a very enjoyable Sunday morning.
1 comment:
I don't ride a mountain bike very often, so I haven't ridden over at Ft. Yargo since they made all the awesome improvements on the trails. My husband and I rode over there a few weeks ago. He had won a mtn bike, and I bought one at a garage sale. We rode about an hour and a half, and the next day he said, "My butt hurts!" I had to laugh. I said, "You have to do it more than once every 40 years."
I am going to get over there and ride the trails sometime this fall.
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