Joined the Club at Lurleen

Yesterday evening in anticipation of today's ride I went by and picked me up some stuff to make Spaghetti. I was too lazy to make my own meatballs so I picked up some frozen ones also. I try to pasta before longer rides as I always seem to feel better during the ride if I do. (This could be all mental, but I really just wanted some spaghetti and meatballs so it was a good excuse).

I woke up and got ready. Moran was going to meet me at my house and ride with me. I was running a bit behind, so we didn't leave until close to 7. He decided to drive separately as he was on call and I don't think he was wanting to spend the whole day there. I was originally going to have to leave by 3 to get back home for dinner with friends, but that was postponed till next weekend, so I was given the go ahead to stay as long as I wanted. On the way I realized that I had forgotten the camera. I hate I was not going to be able to get any pictures of the event.

We arrived at about 8:30 and probably hit the trail close to 9. We went counter-clockwise as was suggested by some of the other riders showing up the same time we did (however these riders ended up riding clockwise). We definitely were going the opposite direction of everyone else, but I thought it was a really nice ride. I have only gone this direction once before and it seemed to be the easier way to go. We passed most of the BUMP folks and they told me where they were parked. We finished up and swung by their campsite. I couldn't talk Chris S. into riding another lap immediately, but found Mitch lounging in the AC and he decided to try to get another lap in before lunch with me.

Moran decided to sit this one out and I though the might stick around and do a second after lunch as he was hanging out at the car when we left. I ate a snack and refilled my camelback before heading back out. Mitch wanted to go Counter Clockwise so we headed off. He set a perfect pace on this lap that kept me moving a bit faster that I would have gone by myself, but I was relatively comfortable and recovering quickly after the climbs. This lap was a bit more hot and humid than the first. The first one was perfect weather and I stayed pretty comfortable. The trail definitely seems easier this way as there is a lot of downhill on the second half. We finished somewhere after 1:15. I swung by my truck and noticed that Moran had headed back home. We went up to the pavilion to get lunch.

They had BBQ (I forget where they said they got it) that was quite good. and Mitch had brought some watermelon. I didn't want to gorge myself because I was still debating on the number of laps I was going to try and ride. After we ate and relaxed a few minutes (quite a few minutes to let the food settle) we went to try to find everyone else. It appeared they had already left, so I refilled the camelback and we decided to head Clockwise for the next one (because I had not been that way yet). I have to say that Clockwise is definitely harder, but much more fun. There were a few jumps over water pipes going this way at the beginning and I was able to clear all the trees going across the trail as well as some off to the sides. There was one tree that I believe was slightly larger than the one near the base of Camp road at Oak that I made it over (this is the first lap I tried). I would ballpark the height at 16-18". I had tightened my pedals but I still hopped out of one of them trying to hop the back wheel up, but I managed to still stay on the bike and somewhat ungracefully clear it. There were a few more log piles that I rode. one was about 5 smaller logs piled up loosely that was not too difficult (someone had laid these out pretty nice). There was also 2 roughly 12" logs that almost got me. I got my front wheel over, but right as my front was coming down, the back tire was in between them and it brought me to a stop. I had to do a small hop to get the back moving and thought I was going to go over the handlebars, but somehow recovered. The last thing I found was at the top right on the ridge right before heading back down. There was a short skinny that was propped on a log so there was a small drop off the other end before heading down. I had not noticed this before as going the other direction I just never saw it. I was a bit nervous as the drop was just enough that I needed to keep the front wheel up but it was quite fun. Somewhere around the midpoint I started feeling the hills. I knew this was not a good sign as I knew a fourth lap would be quite a struggle. We finished it out and there were a few climbs at the end. I was not cramping at all, but was just running out of energy.

Right as we were getting back to the parking lot, there was another rider stopped in the road. Mitch was ahead and I heard the other rider say snake. Mitch must have just seen it because he locked up the back tire and slid sideways to a stop. Of course that got a comment from Monty who was standing not too far away at the campsite. He came down to look and it was a rattlesnake (probably 2.5' long). We watched it slither across the road and went up to the campsite. Everyone was sitting around and we joined them. Jim had some cantaloupe and honeydew and I ate quite a bit. This got me feeling better and I was considering riding another lap but no one else really wanted to. I was at a good point and one more lap probably left me struggling with stairs the next day. This was all I needed to talk me out of doing another one. It was already after 4:00 so we hung out at the pavilion for a while and then headed home.

BUMP had a great showing at this event with 9 riders (Me, Mitch, Moran, Strayner, Allen, Monty, Linda, DeShazo, and Jim). I had a good time and think we should do something similar at Oak Mountain. It would be nice to have some sort of 48 club (or whatever 3 laps is) that will give people a goal to reach. I would probably never had ridden Lake Lurleen more than twice without someone setting the goal to reach. However, I think LL now has quite a few with 4 and even 5 laps under their belt in a day. I was hoping for a commemorative pint glass to honor the occasion, but I may have to settle for the self satisfaction of doing it.