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   Texas Riding
  

I have been remiss at publishing new travel logs, not because I haven't been traveling but, because all of the trips have been pretty boring.  Although I have been hooked on riding, actually I haven't been so much hooked on riding as I have been gaining so much weight (16 Stone 4 pounds for my British friends, the rest of you will have to do the math) so it is either ride or get the doors to the bedroom widened.   I try and ride at least an hour each time I ride and I try to ride at least a few times a week.  Depending on the wind, weather, and how busy I am, it works out to be right around 20 miles for each outing.  The wind seems to be the biggest influence since I have a small engine and I am pushing  a pretty large load.  If I come up against a stiff head wind  it will considerably shorten the distance but not the time I spend on the road.     I have gotten myself  in trouble by misinterpreting  a strong tail wind as an improvement in my physical condition.    The ride back with a strong head wind  has left me in tears and tempted to make the unthinkable call to Cheryl to please come and pick up my big fat behind, but I have always resisted since I have never fallen out or fallen behind and would rather get a ride in an ambulance than a ride home with my disappointed wife and gloating son. I spent the first couple of months riding the narrow streets of  Fort Worth until one of the guys at the office told me about a trail in Grapevine.   It is about six miles from the house and has a few miles of single track trails.   Single track is the best type of trail.  It is too narrow to allow anything but a hiker or a biker.  They require good concentration  and the closest thing you might have seen is the "speeder bike" scene in one of the "Star War" movies.  The first time I rode them I was hooked. I was use to mountain biking in Utah which is a lot different than trail riding. I thought that Matthew would love trail riding.  It would be something that he and I could do every weekend but alas that is not the case.  I am not sure if it is because I yell at him too much or that I'm just a bit better at it than he is.  He has to be the best at whatever it is he is trying he gets that from Cheryl.  I on the other hand only have to be good enough to not get killed. I tried to help my cause by putting his bike on the back of the car and have driving him over to the park where I like to ride, but he still doesn't like it. I can only get him to ride if I have grounded him and then allow him out to ride with me.   If the weather is really nice I always hope he has done something wrong while I was traveling.   I ride down to Dove street which is a bit narrow to ride along but does come right up on "Horseshoe trails" where I like to ride.    I have had a couple of close calls where cars have tried  to crowd me off the road.   A bike has the right to take up the whole lane but most drivers don't understand or agree with this so I end up being surprised by how close people drive next to my bike.   It is also the reason that I like riding on single trail dirt trails.   I started riding in the winter and now that we are well into spring I'm surprised how cut up my legs are by the new growth and  branches.    Depending on how tired I am I can also spend more time sprawled out on the trail instead of riding it.   If I'm fresh I can pull the front tire up and over tree roots.  If I'm tired they end up being more like a brick wall, which I  then run into and launch myself over the handlebars.  I sometimes ride "Horseshoe Trails" on Friday or Saturday and then "Knob Hills" Trail the following day.  The trail head for "Knob Hills" is  just about 11 miles away so it is a 22 mile ride without any trail time and is more technically challenging.   I made the mistake of riding over there last weekend when there was a pretty strong wind.  It was dry and most of the time it is wet.  I don't mind riding in the mud because it makes the bike look cool, but it is not good for the trail.     I took a hard right at the beginning of the trail head and got myself in trouble.   The trail was really over grown.  The tall grass scrapes against my legs and hides the trail so a couple of time I started to ride off into the middle of the field.  The guys that maintained the trail also built some wooden trail bridges which are far too technical for me to ride so I end up using the technique in the photo above to carry the bike over the trees or creek beds.  I look just as stupid on the trail as I do in the photo.    I spent a good amount of time on this unimproved trail almost falling into the river a couple of  times and was so beat when I finally broke out that I felt like I was coming out of the Georgia bush after Ranger training.     I was so tired and confused that when I saw another rider I asked, "Is this a loop?"    He answered, "No, it is an out and back."   I follow up his reply with, "Am I going the right way?"   Since an "Out and Back" naturally implies that there is no right way the guy just looked at me funny and kindly said, "No your going the right way, just make sure you turn around and come back when you get to the river."    I assume this was in case in my weaken state I decided to end it all  by drowning myself in the river or since I might assume that it was a loop I might try and wade across in search of the return loop. I didn't make it to the river. I did a couple of more very steep ravines lost my air pump and bike light on some rocks so decided to call it a day.    I rode the normal trail back and ended up losing my helmet mounted rear view mirror as I crashed through some trees like I was a wild bull elephant in search of a mate. I got back to the FM (Farm Road) 1171 and headed back home, which as I wrote is 11 miles away.   I discovered that I was bleeding, tired, sweating, gasping for breath and now riding directly into a 15 mile an hour headwind.   I am not sure if the tears in my eyes were from the head wind or if it was because my GPS indicated that I was now traveling at 5 miles an hour.   Which means I had a little over two hours of very painful riding in front of me and almost two hours behind me.    At least I would get a good work out for the day.   It was also Sunday and I was going to be traveling all week so I wouldn't have to ride the bike again  until the next weekend.