It's a gorgeous Saturday morning, Sam's taking a Wildland Fire Fighting class today, and the boys were content playing video games, so I decided to go for a ride through the desert and see what I could find.
I hit the road on my usual route, across from our subdivision. The creepy motorhome that I encountered a couple of weeks ago is still camped out over there, so I told the boys that if I went missing, that's who took me. Leaving my life in their hands made me feel 100% safe.
There were a couple of guys ahead of me in some sort of dune-buggy like contraption, kicking up all sorts of dust, so this time at the fork, I took off to the right and up a long trail to the top of a hill. Below me I could see the wash that I'd explored a few weeks ago, so I headed down there and once I got to the crossing of the road and the wash, I made my way north. It started out relatively wide and smooth, though the earth was so dry, it was basically just 8 inches of dust that I was riding through. My cheap little bike is not made for traveling through dust which made for an especially invigorating workout. I ended up crashing a few times, tipping over and, at a couple of different (particularly painful) points, ensured that I'll never be able to bear children...which is actually the silver lining to the whole situation. Needless to say, I promptly lowered my bicycle seat a few notches.
I huffed and puffed and wound my way up the "canyon", taking little offshoot routes as they came. Eventually, I found myself in quite a narrow part of the wash and had to ditch my bike at one point because it simply wasn't wide enough to pedal.
After killing about an hour exploring the washes, I hit a big hole in the ground full of water and god only knows what else. I knew I'd probably fall in if I tried bypassing it, so I made my way back to my bike and headed back south to see what I could find there. About 7 minutes in, the terrain became so unbearable that I had to just walk and guide my bike through the rocks and dust, even picking it up carrying it at some points. I can now see the value of spending an extra couple of bucks for a lighter bike. I liken this little adventure to guiding a 95 year-old osteoporosis-ridden woman and her walker through a muddy swamp. Not a good time. Once I could hear cars on the nearby road, I tapped in to my inner She-Hulk and I lifted the bike up over my head and chucked it up on the ledge of the canyon and climbed up to retrieve it. I guess that's one of the benefits of not having an expensive bike.
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I attempted to carry my bike around this little bundle of joy, but eventually gave up and just dropped it and then climbed down safely  |
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| Thinking it's about time to invest in a bike that's actually made for terrain like this |
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Not sure exactly where I was that that point, I hopped on and just rode through the desert, along the main road, knowing that I'd eventually meet back up with my original trail and ultimately, the secret entrance.
I made it out safe and sound after a rough couple of hours but had a blast. I feel like I got in a nice cardio workout and, due to the amount of time I spent carrying my bike around, a pretty hefty weight-training session as well! Tomorrow, I'll be heading back to the White Bridge to get in one last kayaking trip with Keith and Nora, and hopefully some awesome fall leaves...and I'm sure I'll be writing a post all about it :)