Single Track Lawlessness

Image via WikipediaBy: Jeff

 Last Sunday Brent and I decided we would like to do some Mountain Biking.  Now again I will mention that we live in a fairly flat portion of the world, so let's call it trail riding.  We had heard about a park not to far away called Dr. T.K. Lawless Park.  It has about 10 miles of meandering single track through the woods.

It is about a 45 minute drive for us to get to this park. We had done our research and knew that there is a $3 charge to get into the park, however we had also heard that no one is ever there to collect the money.  So being that it was an early Sunday morning we pull into the parking lot and we are the only car there.  No person to collect money.  The next thing we see is a sign that clearly states "all bike trails closed Nov. 1, see you in the spring".......ummmm it is Nov. 14 and their website clearly stated "all trails are open".  So we pondered for a few minutes as to what to do.  This place is in the middle of nowhere, and no sign of anyone coming around, so we decided [as if we were breaking a law {lawless is in the name of the park}] to go ahead and ride the trail anyways.

Now Brent has been trail/mountain biking before, I have not.  I've always owned a mountain bike, but never did any actual trail riding.  So I let Brent lead.  I immediately take note of how much more concentration it takes compared to riding on a road.  Now mind you there are no big hills on this course, but you are never going flat either, it is up or down.  When going up your pedaling hard, when going down you are concentrating on the terrain.  Essentially you never get the break of coasting like you do in road riding.  We pass the first mile marker, which seemed to take forever to get to, and I am all ready starting to get into the red.  Just when you think you are making progress on your fitness, there always seems to be something to humble you.  Brent seemed to be handling all this just fine, me on the other had, not so well.  I have to admit it was a lot of fun, but it embarrassingly kicked my butt!

The trail at the park is very nice.  Obviously this time a year it was covered with a lot of leaves, but it provided for a lot of different obstacles and turns.  I look forward to riding it when it is officially open in the spring! It will  be a place we visit often.