Well, a little over three weeks had passed since my last ride (which I described in my last post).  The shoulder was finally feeling better – thumb not quite 100% - and the weather was great.  I could not pass on getting the bike down and getting back on the trails.

So, I left work headed home, changed and went to pull the bike off the hook in the basement.  As I reached up to get the bike, of course I felt the pain in my shoulder.  Not real pain, just that shadow of past pain, a lingering reminder, like the one from your childhood that reminds you not to stick your fingers in the spokes while the tire is spinning.

Soon enough I was off and on my way to the park; excited to both ride again and see the “dumbing-down” that everyone was talking about.  The ride to the park was the fairly uneventful, trying not to get creamed by cars on their rush hour commute.  The first few sections were also uneventful. 

I have to say, after the two wash-out wrecks during my last ride and my lazy ass not getting around to changing out the tires, I was a little timid on the turns. 

When I was crossing over from No-Net to the Seminary Trail a trio of riders were entering the same trial from Big Rock and took the lead ahead of me.  They were going along at a pace slightly quicker than I, and while I could not see them I could hear them.  I was a bit bummed at the dirt ramp that someone built at the log crossing at the beginning of this trail. 

So we are all cruising along the trail and approaching the stream crossing.  I hear from the group in front “they really need to dry that thing out”.  So I’m processing this statement while approaching the stream crossing.  Still being a little timid (and I guess a little stupid to boot) I start crossing the stream way too slow.  I’m about three quarters of the way across the creek and notice, immediately on the other side, a big black mud bog…the very same one that has been there since the small re-route about 10’ up-creek.

Well let’s just say that if there was something, anything, that I could have done I was too slow, stupid or just caught in the headlights to figure it out.  My front tire oh-so-gently rolled into the mud bog and instantly stopped in its tracks while I, and the reminder of the bike kept moving.  Of course we were no longer moving forward horizontally.  We were now on some perfectly charted arch that is probably taught to high school students using some arcane mathematical formula that, for at least 99% of the students, will never, ever be relevant again. 

Unless you happen to be riding along and your front tire gets stuck in a mud bog.

So up I went.  Over I went.  And down I went.  It all seemed slow-motion but not quite slow enough for me to do anything, or at least much, about it.  I landed right on the same shoulder which I hurt on my last ride three weeks ago. 

I guess I was lucky enough that I landed in a nice mud patch so it was a relatively soft landing.  Given the location, it was probably a nice bacteria filled landing too. 

Muddied but not bloodied, I got back up and kept going.  Disappointed by the reroute around the big root and the removal of the u shaped tree limb (the same that always seemed to catch one of my pedals).  I understand that change is going to happen, but how am I going to get to be a better rider if trail keeps getting modified to be easier?  Then again, two rides/two wrecks…maybe I need the trail to get a little easier.