(Sorry if this is screwed up, my editor is being flaky.)
Yesterday morning I took a samba class from Beto Guimaraes. After 2 hours
of shimmies & getting down & back up again, my legs were pretty fried.
They weren't in any better shape this morning, in fact they felt worse, so
yeah, it seemed like a perfect day for my first attempt on the Millennium
Trail.
Mr Gab says "Where's that?" I tell him, "Well, according to Eleanor, it's
this long grueling climb on the side of a hill, with about 20 tough
switchbacks." He turns his sarcasm ray to stun and shoots back "Wow, that
sounds like fun! I sure wish I could go with you! HA HA!"
It was every bit how Eleanor had described it. Almost an hour and a half
of non-stop climbing. The singletrack was about 10" wide in some spots,
carved into the side of the hill, with very soft shoulders. Good exercise
in looking where you want to go. 🙂 The switchbacks were tough & I only
made about 3 of them. Once we left the hillside & got into the woods, the
switchbacks were littered with leaves & needles, normally my fave riding
surface, except in corners. I kept flashing back to AMB-ID04.
Midway through the uphill section the quad burn from yesterday
disappeared, only to return with a vengeance 15 minutes later. That last
mile or so was a killer, but you know, I'm starting to like the pain.
At the top we took a brief snack stop & Eleanor did a preventative rubdown
with Fells Naptha due to the overabundance of poison oak. About 1/4 mile later
the trial came out around the hillside & treated us to a sweeping view of
White Salmon, the Columbia, Hood River, and Mt Hood topping it all off.
Then we headed downhill (THANK GOD said my legs) through the fall leaves.
The colors were so intense today, it was like riding through a gold cloud.
(I ate the brownie Crazy made me. 😉 )
So now I'm sitting here posting this, waiting for the beer to kick in so I
can get back up out of this dern chair.
trail info:
length: 2 hours, 1 1/2 if you have fresh legs.
tech difficulty: 4 (in 1-5) due to exposure, steep switchbacks, and very
loose trail surface & shoulders
views: fabu
places to pee if you're female: none that are safe, there is too much
oak.
gabrielle