no-pace, no-hammer, no-drop, chilly trail ride

Laura OLPH had hoped to do a no-pace, no-drop ride today so that she could invite some of the C+ rides with whom she used to ride before she got bitten by the hill bug, but the predicted 37ºF high today meant that they probably wouldn't come out. She settled on a 20-mile route around the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, in hopes that at least some of it would be in the woods and out of the chilly wind. Well, some of it was.

Laura and I rode in together from her house, and picked up the others at the parking area near Foxcroft Road.

A pleasant surprise: a Jaguar rolled in, containing Dave C and Florida Flatlander Cheryl. They weren't riding, but it was good to see them.

The 30mm tires on the Krakow Monster are just about wide enough to handle the trail. Much of it is paved (in some places we followed roads); some is gravel; there was a badly washed-out section behind a school which was a trial for me. The others were on bikes that ran from cyclocross to real mountain bikes; they seemed to have less trouble with the varying surfaces than I. (Perhaps I was reacting to the cold; it was barely 32ºF when we left.)

We took a shortcut along a pipeline right-of-way, which had grassy gullies; I tried to turn out of one and went over. I banged my leg up a little on my pedal, but it turned out to my more of an injury to dignity than flesh-and-bone. (Muddied up my brand-new tights, though!). And I think, before I do another trail ride, I'll remove the fenders: first, I can't clip in with 'em on because I get toe-strikes on the fenders in slow turns, and second, leaves and such get caught and make the most annoying noises.

On the bridge at Province Line:

At the end:

Route page. And from my stats, I see that I've gotten 83 rides in this year, a little over 3100 miles (pretty thin, actually), and I've ridden at least four times in every calendar month of 2016 except this month... and I only need one more to make it. (Not tomorrow, though; hot date with TEW!)