Its that time of year where, within the space of a month, the weather goes from short sleeve jerseys and shorts to multiple warm layers and snoods. Yep, its Autumn in Northern California and the crisp, cold weather, clear cobalt skies and tacky trails mark the end of another summer season of shred. As is tradition, the holiday season is celebrated with a lung-busting slog up Pine Mountain along with a few hundred other keen souls for the Thanksgiving Appetite Seminar!
I'll spare details of the route as it is exactly the same as last year, and the year before that. Suffice to say we climbed a lot of steep rocky fireroad in order to descend with wild abandon some other steep fireroads. This year the mud was back in full force. Each wincing grind and grimace of my slop caked bike felt like a massive "fuck you!" to my poor components. Due to harsher conditions and a few group mechanical incidents our ride took almost four hours. Cleaning off the clay like muck took a further hour and a half..... plenty of calorie burning to justify the rest of the day's eating and drinking!It felt good to be out in the beautiful Marin mountains, bathed in sun and seeing lots of MTB buddies along the way. The mud really messed with my mojo on the descents though. I don't feel like I rode hard or fast, but I got some solid exercise in and felt better for it. Work is crazy (as usual) so escaping into the fresh air and punishing my legs for a few hours definitely beats sitting in front of a screen. For that reason, I'll get the Trance fixed up and hopefully punish it once again next year - come rain, mud or shine!
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