Road Riding: Changing Colors

It was maybe two weeks ago that I happened to take a good look at my mountain bike leaning against the wall in the basement--the same bike I’ve ridden maybe three times since buying it earlier this year--when I thought to myself, You know, I really should carve out some time to get on that thing again before it gets too cold.

Sure enough the opportunity arose. Yesterday morning my lady friend Stephanie and I hit the road and headed north (actually, we first had to drive south until we made a right onto 287 West and then another right onto 87 North) up to the New Paltz area to do some off-road riding with a crew composed of Dr. Rob, his wife Cecilia (apologies if I misspell any names), Anne D., Benny and his wife May. Were we all riding? Nope. The girls, with the exception of Anne, went out for some hiking around Lake Minnewaska and then shopping through town while Dr. Rob led the rest of us through the trails, but before I even get started on that, Benny and May presented us with a mussette all but stuffed with Clif bars, Clif gel shots, and Clif shot blocks while we were getting ready.

“Mother of God,” I mumbled under my breath, my eyes feasting on the horde of nutritional goodies. Grabbing some orange Shot blocks and a vanilla gel, we were ready to roll.

We hit the road and got the legs warmed up with a ten-minute climb up to the trail. It’s never easy to start a ride with that much climbing, but sometimes you just do what you have to do, especially when the air’s as cool as it is and you know you’re in for a hell of a day.

(Honestly, my only concern starting the ride yesterday was that terrible duo, Dr. Rob and Anne. If those two nut jobs decided at any point to put the hammer down, I knew I’d be in for a painful morning. Thankfully, neither of the two decided they were in the mood to try and kill me, so it all worked out for the best and I can actually walk today.)

Overall, we had an unbelievable day, at least in my opinion. The weather cooperated, none of us had any mechanicals, no one crashed (except Anne, and I wouldn’t exactly call her tip-over a crash considering we were doing all of 3 MPH heading up one of the steepest parts of the trail and she was laughing as she went down), and everybody made it to lunch. Is that a good day in the mountains? I would say it is. I would say it was a terrific day.

Wait. I forgot about the traffic on the way home. Ah well. Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. Know what I mean?

After roughly three-and-a-half hours on the bikes and a much-needed lunch at the Gilded Otter--where we met up with the ladies after their excursions--we were done for the day when that fabulous mussette that Benny and May had so graciously offered earlier in the day came back out of Dr. Rob’s trunk.

“Take the whole thing,” Benny offered. “I’m swimming in that stuff.”

“Are you sure?” The man had might as well just presented me with a check for a million dollars.

Anne didn’t want any and neither did Dr. Rob. “Are you sure?” I asked everybody again. I should’ve asked Stephanie to pinch me just to make sure I was awake. In the bag were at least half a dozen Clif bars, just as many gels, and a lot of Shot blocks.

“Take it,” Benny said.

That man now has a friend for life.

Below are some pics . . . oh, wait. I almost forgot the donuts. The girls picked up a box of apple cinnamon donuts in town before lunch. Polishing one off, Stephanie and I hopped in my truck. On the way out of the parking lot, I rolled down my window when Dr. Rob offered me another donut.

“Man, this was the best day EVER!” I said, grinning from ear to ear and stuffing my face with yet another donut.

Anyway, below are the pics from our excursion. Looking forward to the next round, amigos!