The Registered Nurtz received a temporary upgrade today. I was feeling
pretty frustrated because our local riding group was shredding at
Gasworks Park and I had too much work to do to make the trip downtown.
After several hours of sweating over the keyboard, I decided to pop out
for a muni ride in my local trail system.
Things felt pretty good right away, and I decided today would be a day
for some climbing. After a light uphill on the trail out of my
neighborhood, I dropped down a short hill and into the woods trail that
circles the Queenslake Bog, a low-lying swampy area of forest that’s
been mostly unchanged for the last 10,000 years. Not far into this loop,
a paved trail drops in from a nearby neighborhood to join the dirt
trail. The paved trail isn’t long—50 yards or so—but it’s super steep.
My first/last experience on this hill was trying to ride my muni down it
on a damp day…I hit the steep part, tried to slow down, and the damp
moss on the pavement just slid my wheel out and I landed HARD on my
[censored]. Ouch! That was a year ago.
But today was dry, and I was at the bottom of the hill instead of the
top. Decided to give it a try, with zero expectation of making it. The
Moab climbing last month must have helped, because I was able to dig in
and roll it all the way to the top. There were a couple places where I
b-a-r-e-l-y got the pedal over the top, and I was pulling on the handle
with all my strength. It was easily the steepest sustained climb I’ve
made, so I rode back down to the bottom (with no [censored] crunch this time)
and tried it again to see if first time was fluke. Nope. Topped it
again, then once more just for the sake of the workout. I’m certain if
it was dirt or gravel, I’d never get up it.
Deciding to quit that one while I was ahead, I jumped back onto the
woods trail. The first mile or so of this trail has always given me a
hard time. Lots of short curvy uphills with roots, a combination that
always seems to take me down. Today was different…I still had a couple
good UPDs, but got through the challenging section without having to
stop for air, and with only three root- or log-induced dismounts
compared to my usual 8-10. Yeah, feeling good now. Pedal on Garth.
After clearing the rooty section, the trail smooths out for a mile or
so, eventually crossing a set of ball fields where I practiced a bit of
curb-riding to test out the “balance with your core instead of flailing
your arms” advice from a recent RSU post. Seemed to work, although I
was incapable of doing one without the other. Flailing is still the
default…
But on to the next hill. The trail now enters an area of heavier jogger
and b*ke traffic, and changes from dirt to paved. There’s one hill here
I rode a lot in preparing for Moab…the sidewalk climbs the hill via a
series of six switchbacks, while a gravel/dirt trail goes straight up
beside it. You can see this gravel trail—and my son riding down it—here:
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albuw44/munishots10007. The paved trail
winds back and forth just out of sight off the left side of the photo.
To prep for Moab, I'd ride up the long paved hill, then down the
shorter, steeper gravel trail. Then one day in mid-March I decided to
try to climb the gravel hill, with zero expectation of making it. I
surprised the heck out of myself when I rolled it all the way up, and in
the month since, I’ve been using that as my training loop: Power up the
gravel hill, then ride down the paved switchbacks to catch my breath,
then up the gravel hill again. Repeat until nauseous. Today I decided
to run it a couple times, and started right in. It’s not real long, but
climbs about 40-50 vertical feet over a couple hundred yards (I think).
The first part of the hill is steepest (photo), and at the crest of this
section there were four youth, age 17 or so, standing in the trail.
They had clearly just finished some illegal smoking (yeah I can tell)
and had moved on to more legal Marlboros. I was fully expecting a “dude
where’s your other wheel” as I rode through their cloud of smoke.
Instead one of them said “Hey, is that hard?” “Brouftht!” I replied as
I passed them, sucking wind so bad from the climb that I couldn’t even
say the word Yes. As I continued pedaling away, desperately trying to
stay on the pedals, another one yelled “That’s savage! You’re savage,
man!”. “Thamfts!” I huffed, this time able to get slightly closer to
the word I was looking for.
That left me feeling pretty good, so I headed for the final climbing
session of the day: the Impossible Hill. It’s this one dirt hill that
has always given me a terrible time. It’s easily accessible from my
neighborhood trail system, so I’ve had many opportunities to try to
climb it, and just as many opportunities to fail. So many failures, in
fact, that my son and I gave it the Impossible moniker. The nickname
made me feel better about my continuing string of failures, until the
depressing day last autumn when I took some better local riders—Harper,
Unirene, and John Childs—out on these trails. “This hill's tough", I
said. "I’ve never made it all the way up without falling”. “What?”
they said, as they all rolled it without missing a beat. I’m amazed I
ever found the motivation to try it again. But I did…and did…and
did…again and again without success. The little train that couldn’t.
Insert Card...Credit Declined. But the persistence finally is paying
off. As of last weekend my record was 59-0. As of today it is 63-2.
Things are moving in the right direction.
Miles: 5.01. Average speed: 5.4. Top speed: 9.2. Pedal Time: 55 minutes.
It was nice to hit the trail today, and for a change not have the trail
hit back.
--
tomblackwood - Registered Nurtz
Tailgate at your own risk.....
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