Today I met up with my friends Melissa and Jose at Wilderness Park Trail for a ride. Jose just bought a Specialized Hardrock Disc and he was naturally excited to get it on the trails for the first time! Melissa has a hybrid, and since I planned to take it easy (for all of our sakes, them as beginners to the trails and myself as a beginner with the Eggbeaters) I thought her bike would do just fine for the main loop. I was so excited! I haven't been on a ride on the trail system down here without Brian yet, so I was all independent today :) Plus I kind of got to play ride guide which was totally cool. I will never win any orienteering awards, but I hope they had as much fun as I did anyway. Last night I got the bike strapped up to the car and my Camelbak filled and in the fridge long before I went to bed. Woke up early and had coffee and oatmeal and hit the road! I was early and got to lounge around the park area while facebook chatting on my phone. Ah, nature!
When Melissa and Jose arrived they unloaded their bikes and I was a little worried because Melissa's hybrid has skinny little road tires. I wasn't sure how she would handle on the bumpy rooty areas of the main trail, so I assured her that if at any time she felt uncomfortable, I was totally cool with doing the paved loop. Well let me tell ya, sister friend rocked that bike! I think if she got on a FS she would show me a run for my money, and we would have a blast.
We set off thinking we would go 6 miles to the orange grove and turn around, completing 12 miles of good times. When we got to trail marker #3 right at the beginning of our ride it was obvious that the controlled burn was very recently, like yesterday. It was not smouldering, but you could still smell it. The trail looked like another planet. I said I wanted to stop and snap a pic on the way back. Didn't happen. We turned around at mile 6, but when we got back to around mile 4 again, VOILA there was a barricade in front of the trail we had just been on.
We must have barely missed the park ranger who placed it there via the access road. Only problem... he was already gone and we didn't know which direction was best to head on said access road, which is just a double track with virtually no landmarks. We picked the correct way to get ourselves to the Trout Creek Loop, and then we decided the best thing to do was just take the trail back the opposite way. Our 12 mile ride ended up being 19, and my friends were pooped! I actually felt really good today. We averaged 7.4 mph and Brian and I typically average 9, so today was a nice pace for me to get to enjoy some conversation and still work up a good sweat. Melissa has a cardio trainer and it said she burned 782 calories, but I'm thinking maybe it was more because it was super hot and we were suh-weating.
Mosquitoes weren't "too" bad today and we managed to snap a few shots at the Hillsborough River overlook.
And leaving the River Overlook we saw 2 gators. See if you can spot them :)
They weren't very large, one was maybe 5-6 feet and one was maybe 1.5 but it was still fun to see them out there in their happy place. Would love to lug out the Pentax one of these days when the mosquitoes aren't so bad and snap some good shots of the birds in their habitat. There have been some gorgeous photo ops but the Epic 4G's camera doesn't cut it.
I napped during our awesome storm when I got home, and for dinner I'm enjoying some Thai take out (naturally). Nam Sod, sub chicken for pork for a leaner choice, and a side of steamed veggies.
So amazingly good. I could eat it every day. I've tried to make it at home and it is never the same. I need to get friendly with a Thai chef and have them enlighten me. Tonight the Thai place of choice is the one closest to home since I'm super lazy today. Thanks
Siam Thai for feeding me so well! Love you XOXO
Better go to bed so I can see how the legs are feeling tomorrow. Night!
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