true confessions 21

Subject: friday ride report

Well, it was another beautiful day in the valley and the Jim train was right on time. We quickly pedaled up white hill and did the usual kamikaze downhill on SFD into fairfax.We wondered aloud as to who from the east bay would show up and were [ at least me ] pleasently surprised to see MtnVal ready to roll. Kissy-kissy and huggy - hugs all around as we hadnt seen her on a friday ride for some time.

They deferred the route to me and we settled on a " lakes tour". We noted that all riders today were AARP members, a first time for that and that i was the ' kid ' of the group. We set a nice pace into the park and before we knew it we were beyond 5 corners and stopped at the asphalt near Bon Tempe lake to observe a controlled burn. We decided to get closer to the action and ran into a fire crew about to begin back burning operations.

I of course used this as a photo opportunity and got some nice pics of MtnVal with ' da doooods'. The prof knew one of the crew chiefs and after putting 2 and 2 together realized that all rangers would be busy with the fire leaving the FKFW's in control of all the trails. We left the fire behind and headed to lake Lagunitas, it was beautiful, with hardly a soul to be seen. we came across Daddy, Mommy, and 2 baby deer, daddy deer stopped long enough to get his picture taken , he was a beauty, 6 points.

As we began the lakeview trail we questioned MtnVal about the unfortunate fire she had and the longer she talked the harder she pressed on the pedals until she began to tire Jim and I . So instead of falling behind we stopped talking about it. a lot of pent up anger there!

Before long we were cruising along Phoenix lake and decided to do Bald Hill. We came upon a police car about 1/4 of the way up and wondered what that was about, watching for pot smokers perhaps.Anyway it was a steep climb and I had to walk the final 100 '. The views to the south were great but the views to the north were increasingly hampered by all the smoke from the burn , so much in fact that it gave the sun a reddish tinge.

Again, I was last in the pack all day and after riding with Barbara on tuesday and MtnVal on friday I think that the phrase " girls kick ass" should be changed to " girls kick MY ass"!!! Anyway, the over 50 crowd dropped down the north side of Bald hill and came upon MtnVals " favorite running trail" on which we proceeded down into Fairfax. MtnVal hadnt had enough and we rode right by her car and headed back to the valley via Railroad grade. When we got to the top Jim and I dropped down SFD to our respective abodes and MtnVal shot down SFD toward Fairfax. A good time was had by all.

Since we were once again ' digitally challenged' we have no statistics to share, by the time i got home I knew we had covered alot of ground, I was beat!

The Shredder