After spending the first part of the week working out on the road (with eventual trail reward), I decided to flex the technical muscles.
This meant climbing my brains out on Gnat’s Ass trail. I had a good run, but my 36t granny cog (100% necessary on this climb for weaklings like me) still slipped a few times under heavy load. I thought I had the issue fixed, but I’ve got more work to do.
I kept it pegged until I hit the descent to Agua Caliente Canyon, where I lost confidence and walked.
The contrast between the brutal climbing effort and the calm of the canyon, with its quietly trickling stream was impossible to ignore. I decided to do something I’ve never done here. Explore the canyon. I walked downstream and found this:
Holy freaking swimming hole. Gnat tank is dry as a bone, the creek is barely running but I think you could dive in from where I stood and be OK.
I didn’t test that theory, but I did sit on the rocks to snack on dried fruit. I nearly got lulled to sleep by the waterfall’s cascade into the pool.
I picked the Behemoth back up and started walking up the canyon, just like usual. There’s some riding possible on the climb back to Milagrosa, but I walked it under guise of AZT 300 prep.
Spring is here.
I was getting the groove on down Milagrosa. Confidence was high enough that it almost seemed too easy.
But I was nearly thrown off my game by two errors of omission:
Missing rock #1. Here’s missing rock #2:
Both were favorites of mine. The former I have never ridden uphill, but downhill is a head trip if I’ve ever ridden one. Not so much anymore. The latter formed a small balancing act with prickly pear consequences. No more.
Grr.. grr and lame-o blame-o, but why let it ruin your ride? The trail’s still there, it’s still a hoot. I’m just happy there aren’t more trail users inflicting their will out there.
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