Over The Hill and Through The Woods...

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of riding the mountain bike again. I haven't been on the mountain bike since July. This has been pretty hard for me. Since I have been without a car for the last five or six months, I just haven't had any way of getting to the trails. Well, last week I finally got my truck running so I would at least have some form of transportation just to get to the trails.

I got up nice and early to get my gear and bike ready. As soon as I stepped out of the front door, I realized this was going to be one cold day! The temps were in the mid 20's and the weatherman was saying it wasn't going to get much warmer. Luckily, I packed every piece of cold weather gear I had and hit the road to pick up my buddy, Dan Hensley in Nashville.




Around 10:30am, we finally made it to the trails at Lock 4 in Gallatin, TN. Dan and I both looked at each other once we got out of the truck and knew it was going to be one cold as hell ride! Once on the trail, everything began to warm up nicely except my toes and fingers. This is always a problem for me. Now matter how good my gloves are or how warm of socks I have, they still will be cold. The trail was in great shape but was mostly frozen over. Riding the trails kind of felt like an audition for "Cinderella on Ice". After one lap, the sun was warming the trail and all the frozen stuff started to turn to mud and we decided to bail on a second lap in an effort of not destroying the trail.


We got back to Dan's place and knocked back some whiskey and beer and saddled up on the bikes again for a nice urban ride of Nashville. We headed over to one of Dan's friend's places, Sharp Emmons. This was the first encounter that I've had with Sharp but I can say nothing but good things about the guy! This joker takes his 3 year old daughter to day school by bike, in 28 degree weather!!! He has a super rad family and definitely lives the hardcore bike life! We continued our urban ride with Sharp's trailer in tow and headed across town to pick up his daughter from school. It was great riding around the Nashville metro area with everyone thinking we were crazy for riding in this weather. I honestly couldn't have picked a better day to ride. Yeah, it was cold but the sun was out and not a cloud in sight. The wind wasn't too bad either. Sometimes you have to just get out and ride and the negative factors will just disappear.



Good times were had and I'm looking forward to my next trip up to Nashville to do a little more riding. Actually this Friday will probably be that day. On Friday, the great folks at "Ride For Reading" are hosting another ride to deliver books to local school kids. This delivery is all done by bike! If you're in the area, bring your bike and a bag and join the crew!