Muse back!
April 08, 2008 / Tuesday
Las Trampas Regional Park
I needed to get some saddle time on dirt, so I brought my bike into work today and made a quick afternoon hop over to Las Trampas Regional Park. I'd originally planned to ride Pleasanton Ridge, but Las Trampas is closer, so Las Trampas it was.
My body is still recovering from the weekend, so I'd planned to take it easy and just use the ride as a way to stay comfortable out on the trails. I figured since it's not a very big park I'd do a couple easy loops and call it a day. Boy was I wrong.
The park's not big, but there are no easy loops. For one thing, there aren't enough bike trails for loops. For another, after I got past the initial boring stretch of fire road from the staging area I turned the corner and found myself looking up a giant hill. I climbed the giant hill to a non-fire road trailhead and saw an even gianter hill. At some point, I started pushing my bike up the gianter hill; I just wanted to see where it went. At some point later, I stopped, because it's really hard to push a bike up a 32% grade (says my Polar setup), especially when it consists of tree roots and leaves.
Back to the staging area I went. The fire road was loose with gravel, so the decent was not much fun. I then took a trail on the other side of the park. Another boring fire road. It got steeper and steeper, and I eventually found myself struggling up a 16% grade (says my Polar setup again), pushing, panting, and looking up to see a bunch of cows staring back at me. I'd have been staring at me, too. Who on earth would want to ride this trail? There's nothing on it but pain.
I got to the top, rode a little ways, and saw that the trail ahead dropped straight down the other side of the hill. Riding down it would have meant having to ride up it on the way back, and given that I'd wanted an easy ride, I decided to head back.
Maybe the next time I'm looking to torture myself with pain and boredom* (which magnifies the pain because there's nothing else to focus on) I'll come back to Las Trampas. Until then: been there, done that, no need to do it again.
* While the trails were boring, the rolling green hills were beautiful. Spring is a great time to be out and about around these parts... as long as you remember to take your anti-histamines.
April 8, 2008 04:23 PM | Mountain