A Better Sunday

It's hard for a glass-half-empty kind of guy like me to say we had a perfect weekend, but this was one was pretty good. I even considered titling this post, "A Perfect Sunday," but thought everyone would mistake it for sarcasm.

We got up this morning and went mountain biking right after breakfast. Need I say more?

On Thursday afternoon Cindy's suspension fork had come back from getting rebuilt at PUSH Industries. That's a long story I won't get into here, but I installed it as soon as I got home from work that day. I was not especially happy about having had to send it PUSH, but I was sure glad to have it back. Now that it's been PUSHed, I'm confident that it will be better than it was when new. It was the last piece of the build for Cindy's Santa Cruz Superlight. It was finally ready to ride. Do you think Amos would like to ride it?



This winter I didn't have the best luck with bike projects. I bought a used frame for Cindy and then a fork that was not new but hadn't been used, and started putting together the Superlight. Cindy being such aggressive, speed-demon sort of rider, I new she really needed a top-of-the line bike. Well, OK, I wanted her to have a nice, lightweight, dual-suspension bike that would be as comfortable and capable as she'd ever need. Of course I ran into some unexpected problems, but nothing a little more money wouldn't fix. In the middle of that project, investigating a creaking sound in my new (last fall) Cannondale Rize revealed a defective frame. Cannondale was nice enough to send me a replacement frame - a 2010 RZ140 4. Pretty much the same bike with a new name. I even got to move the parts from the old frame to the new frame myself. A few months later... here it is.



Getting back to this morning -- we tossed the four bikes atop the van and headed for Anderson Park. This is the same park Quinn and I went to last weekend. Except for some biking and hiking trails, Anderson Park is pretty much undeveloped. I like it that way, although a bathroom and a small parking lot would be an improvement I could live with. This weekend there were several other cyclists using the park, but the 'shroomers were gone.

We brought Amos with us to test his paws leash-free on the trail. Since Anderson Park is undeveloped and bordered on most sides by river, there is no traffic and almost nowhere for a loose dog to get lost. There are some park rules posted, but nowhere have I seen it explicitly stated that Amos can't run with us while we ride. It worked really well. He was well-behaved, stuck with us, and only once did he take a wrong turn.

We started off on the green loop. I led, with Amos literally at my heels. We just flew. He seemed to know exactly what to do, although it apparently didn't to occur to him to pace himself. For the first 30 minutes he just ran as fast as he could go. That green loop trail is just a really fun, smooth, twisty trail. The biggest challenge is maneuvering body and bars around and between the numerous large and small trees that line the trail. Many thanks to the MMBA volunteers for their hard work building these trails!



The red trail crosses a little ditch several times, requiring caution and reduced speed to keep from going over the bars. We only had one significant crash: Abbey, who has been getting pretty good at crossing logs and other obstacles, tried to cross a tree -- about 7-inches in diameter -- fallen across the trail that was several inches above the trail. She got her front end over it, but her back wheel didn't make it over until she went over the bars. She was bruised and scratched, but not bleeding badly enough for serious concern.



The other riders on the trail were generally interested in moving faster than we were, so occasionally we had to pull over to let them pass. A couple of times Amos just stood in the trail, not realizing that he was in the way (just like he was home in the kitchen).



This is a pretty segment of trail perched along a ridge by the river. Amos was getting tired and was quite happy to sit beside me when I stopped to take pictures and wait for everyone to regroup.



Abbey and I made one last loop on the green trail before we headed home. I wanted to push myself at faster pace, for a good workout. I thought I'd go alone, but Abbey and Amos hadn't had quite enough, so they came along for the ride.



Amos has never covered so much ground at such speed in one day. We had ridden 5.5 miles, but with all the back-and-forth between me and the kids, Amos must have run more than 6. He was one tired puppy. Nonetheless, his decision to roll in a giant pile of poo right before we finished that final loop was certainly not appreciated. We did our best to clean him off with our remaining water and some newspaper before we could let him in the van. Thanks a lot, Amos.