oh well.

that was humbling.

in short, I bailed.

coastiness undid me.

descending and working the rocks

w/ feet static at 3 & 9 o'clock

worked the achilles on the left leg.

noticed it on the second climb of

the day up Ridge Rd. also noticed

the flat legs, the lack of extra oomph

from the motor was setting me up

for a long day.

less than brilliant sensations. the visuals were stunning, sunrise while bobbing and weaving across Ridgetop, then misty valley spinning, warm climb up Ridge Rd into the sun, ignore those warning signs. Canyon Trail was a blast, morning valley scenery was sweet. Refill the water, out across Comm Service. Try to 'spin' up LogSled and work out the kinks. Left leg still annoying w/ every pedal stroke, don't know if it's something that I can just ride thru. Get worked pretty good across Fender and My Fave, the Secret trail down to Cliff was a blast, but that achilles is getting worked and talking back.

End up skipping Grave's and heading right on up the ATV/Finish climb to Big Flat. Rode that at slummy tempo, didn't walk at all, which beat expectations, keep motoring on. Over to Wildcat and plunge down the ruttedness. Big fun, good freewheeling focus, loose babyhead drifting, and painful lofty moves off all those little drops. Reach the bottom and my left leg feels totally blown. Turn right to pedal up to Abby and the sensations raise the bar from a nagging 2-3days strain/overuse recovery, to sharp sensations of "Hey! Hey dumbass! you're starting to look at not being 100% for le Tour." So, at 6hours elapsed, I hobbled off the bike, sat on a big rock, and threw in the towel. Cracked my beer, ate my turkey sandwich and stared at some clouds. Ran thru the options, all of the route alteration options, and they all began with "limp across Abby." Limp, cause I sure wasn't figuring to find any flow with 1 1/2 legs. Finally accepted that today wasn't the day. Took 20 odd minutes to enjoy my sandwich and beverage,and climbed back onto the bike. But instead of turning back for the road, instinct turns me up towards Abby. Just a couple pedal strokes to test it.....left leg feels somewhat bearable, wayyyy better than 25 minutes ago.

Up thru the switchbacks, lots of debate, and I finally opt out any notion of continuing. Thinking again of potential injury vs big picture, can also still hit some good trail vs having to bail onto the road.....swing a quick right onto the Horse Trail option, then spin up Birch Run. From here I can pick and choose the path home, real easy to bail to a shortish fireroad spin if needed. But, so long as the leg is willing, may as well finish with some trail. So, wrap up the day with the original planned finish sequence, fun session across 3mile, then back over to Lewis Rocks and Rattlesnake, finishing with a backtrack across Comm Service.

Final tally was only 62 miles, 9:30 elapsed, 7:50 rolling. The full route will easily go 100+. The south of 30 loop is 25ish, that makes 87. I bailed on Abby and the Drained Res, skip Yellow Hill from the original plan, and add Lollipop + Hanzel & Gretel instead of Birch Run, and I'm guessing there's an additional 15ish. Makes for a difficult day, need the A game, not the B- that I brought to it yesterday. I bailed at just over 40, 5hours rolling, 6hrs elapsed. Then another 25 to eat lunch. Too much downtime early, but lots of picture taking...need to roll it with the more consistent steady gunning, just get back to the car tempo that I finished with, only dropping 15ish minutes over those last three hours. 8mph avg is a good target for the terrain involved, sooo...12-13hours of ride time. ouch.

yeah, so that cherry remains to be picked. was a beautiful day regardless. pre dawn rolling the pedals rubber whir up thru the forest birdies beginning their chirp and a faint whipperwhil down below the campground. country roads truely country without midday 50mph traffic buzzing, sun warming, as you do up the second climb of the day and more filled in mtn valley cloud magic from atop the minor vista, inspiring a flowy session down thru the canyon. Magical time of day to be out on a bicycle.