"God, we are so lame!" I said as Mandy pushed her bike up behind me. She just laughed and nodded. We'd just pushed our mountain bikes past another mud hole. Since we'd walked around all of the mud holes we couldn't ride around, so far we had walked as much as we'd ridden.
We had good reason to be hesitant. The mud was very slippery, and between my bad shoulder and Mandy's bad knee and shoulder, neither of us was willing to risk a fall. It was a good trail nonetheless, short, but I still managed to get my legs muddy. Mountain biking + mud = grins on Sharry.
We'd chosen to ride from Mandy's house near Palmer out on the Jim Creek trails. We randomly chose one to follow, taking turns at Ys without really knowing where they went. Before long, our muddy trail came back out to the Jim Creek road. We turned left down, down, down the gravel road. I admit, I was leading and chose not to stop, but I was wondering if we'd ever get to the bottom of the hill. Eventually, the hill did end by Mud Lake.
Mandy said we weren't far from Jim Lake, but given that I still had to shop at Three Bears and drive back to Valdez, I decided it was time to turn around and go back up, up, up the hill. Actually, it wasn't too bad thanks to Pali's low gears. I did stop once midway to pant - I blame the elevation; 400 feet is much higher than sea level! - but since I did a wheelie trying to get started again in such a low gear, I deemed it wiser not to stop again until I reached the top. Happily, not a problem for legs or lungs. The gravel road came right back out at the pavement of Maud Road (where Mandy lives), so the ride back was short and sweet.
I desperately need, and want, to get out mountain biking more. I think I'd really enjoy it, but I'm so inexperienced that I'm overly tentative. I know I tend to slow down when I need to speed up to maintain control. I need to find someone to ride with who's better than I am, but not so much so that I feel intimidated. Ah, well, maybe next summer when my shoulder's back to normal better than ever.
