Loop 4

Richard and I were both in talkative moods so this run seemed to go fairly fast. The jog from the picnic area to the start of Blood Rock trail went fast and warmed us up. The walk up Blood Rock trail got me out of my jcaket. We had a nice jog down the CCC road until we made it to the Green trail. The Green trail was very steep but most of the leaves had been worn off by the Thanksgiving crowd so it wasn't very slippery. The leaves can sometimes make it dangerous. I enjoy the part that goes through the pines though. That is always pretty and seems like it would be the perfect place to camp.

We cut over to the Yellow trail and the calves began to burn as the hills came on us. The Yellow trail is a pretty rough trail the entire length. Luckily we were only hitting piece of it and then we were back at our vehicles. It was a nice trail run and we had fun talking. It was nice after the last ones were so awful.

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Loop 3

It was awful. I was sick and tired when I got there. My legs started giving out about half way through. I think Richard was tired also because it took us 95 minutes to complete the 5.6 miles. We walked a lot and talked a lot. Talking tends to slow us down also.

I made it back and almost died. Every joint in my body ached. I ached all over and felt like I had the flu. Maybe I did.

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Loop 2

We ran loop 2 today. When we got there both gates were locked on the way to Peavine Falls. Richard unlocked them with a magic touch. This put us 10 minutes late starting though. Walked uphill all the way to the Peavine Falls parking lot. It was interesting to actually be able to look out over the valley on the side of the road. Most of the time I am busy watching the road. When we started down the CCC road the wind was cutting us in two. It was unbelievably cold. I didn't have anything for my ears and they were hurting.

I started down the BUMP trail and tripped before Blood Rock. After Blood Rock I heard something behind me and looked over my shoulder as I was jogging. I must have stepped odd because a pain shot through the back of my left knee and I hopped on my right leg for the next couple of steps. It eased off and I was able to keep jogging and stay up with Richard. I almost fell flat on my face as I tripped over a root down toward the bottom of the trail. Behind my left knee was hurting like the dickens. Fortunately we made it back in 1 hour and 8 minutes. I was glad that was over with.

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Loop 1

It turned out hotter than expected. Long sleeve shirt and long pants was too much. We had a good warm-up run through Mr. Toad's trail. We then had a good walk up the mountain. I heard something in the woods but wasn't able to figure out what it was. Thought it might be some turkeys scratching or an armadillo. We started down the other side of the mountain and I found the base of an antler. Richard almost ate a spider and did the spider dance right there in the woods. If I had a video camera I would be richer now.

Behind my left knee started hurting real bad on the way down. It isn't well yet, apparently. We made the loop and came back through Toad's Wild Ride with my left knee killing me. Luckily I made it back to the Jeep before calling it quits and crawling in.

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CRWMA Bike Riding

I was feeling kinda puny and didn't do so well the last time I went riding with Richard and we are supposed to ride this Tuesday so I decided to take a little trip myself and see how I would fair. I took off from the house and headed toward the Cahaba River Wildlife Management Area (CRWMA). I had marked it off with the Jeep so I knew it was two miles to the creek at the bottom of the big hill right before the CRWMA started.

Once on the dirt road of the CRWMA I took the dirt road to the right. Slid my bike under the gate and took off. That is a well graded road that brings you behind the gate at the shooting range. I hung a right and went wheeling on down the road. Of course I very quickly came to a slick hill that 4-wheel drive vehicles spin up. Needless to say I had to walk my bike up it. Once up it I kept turning to the left and stayed on the road that will bring you out on the first road past the shooting range road.

Of course this road is washed out, has overhanging limbs, two streams cross it and it was wrapped up in spider webs. It made for a very eventful ride. Only once did I have to stop to remove a spider that looked like it could take down a rhino. I had to stop twice to cross the streams and once when I encountered a rock covered hill. I finally made it out to the first road past the shooting range road mentioned above. This road is much better.

So I hung a left there and headed back to the main CRWMA road. This was a nice ride. However I happened to go by a grown up side road that I had seen scrapes on last year. I thought, hey, I can ride down this road and very quickly see if there are scrapes this year. Now that was an exciting ride. I was dodging small trees, bouncing over small dead trees in the road, riding through small limbs blown off by the last hurricane and riding through a thick mat of leaves.

Unfortunately I only found one small rub at the beginning of the road and nothing else. So the ride out wasn't as exciting as the ride in since I had nothing to look forward to except surviving and getting out.

So I made it out and headed on to the main road. Of course it was at about this point that I ran out of water. I rode on by the shooting range with people blasting away below but I didn't hear any bullets whining overhead so that was good. For some reason I was able to make some really good time by the shooting rangle. :-)

I hit the main road and hung a left to go back home. I hadn't realized how rough the road was coming in but going out I was bouncing all over the place. It was nice to get back to the highway. However now I had the hill from down under to contend with. The last time I had attempted it I had to stop and walk part of the way. But slow and steady wins the race and this time I paced myself and made it all the way to the to top without stopping.

The hard part was over and I was ready to get home and get some water so I brought it on in. I was pleased with how well I did and how nice the ride was. I look forward to the next time I can challenge a portion of the CRWMA.

Oak Mountain Sunday Afternoon

Click here to see some pictures of me and kids having a good time Sunday afternoon while Momma was at a meeting at church. We went to ride the trails but Anna is still just too little for the roots and the narrow trails.

We did however ride around the parking lot and down the side of the lake a couple of times. The road around by the picnic tables and by the restrooms was fun. We went around it more than once. We also road down the road for a short piece to the beach entrance.

And as you can see from the pictures we had a boo boo incident and we played on the playground a lot also. I had packed some snacks and we took a couple of picnic snacks. One at the playground and another at a picnic table on the picnic table road.

Just about the time the kids were starting to get too hot and tired Momma called. So we loaded the bikes on the Jeep and went back home.

Second Oak Mountain Bike Ride

Well the second one was most definitely better than the first one. I had found out from my chiropractor that I needed to raise my seat because above my knees was sore instead of my thighs as they should have been. I have since learned that your seat must be high enough that your legs fully extend when you are pedaling. This of course means that you will not be able to touch the ground when you are sitting on your seat.

This time we started at the stables and went right up to the guard house and then headed back into the park as we did the last time. However this time we took a right on Terrace Drive and went up by the beach and the pavillions. We went out the back of the pavillion parking lot and took the loopy, winding road around the picnic tables and out by the bath house. We cut back through the parking lot and went back down Terrace Drive where we hung a right on the main road.

We only went to the service road on the left before you get to the top of the hill where the cabin road takes a right. We hung a big U and headed back down the hill at a rather rapid clip. It was fun. We then made the loop back up through Terrace Drive, came back down to the main road and headed toward the stables and our vehicles.

I had been feeling a little froggy on that second trip up Terrace Drive and had really pushed it to stay up with Richard. Well now he said that on the last mile he was going to no longer wait on me but go on to his vehicle. He said I was welcome to stay with him. Well I stood up and pumped about three times and my legs just dropped out from under me. I was left with sitting on the seat and using my rubber legs to barely make it back to the stables. I came in two minutes after Richard.

I was stronger for the second ride, my seat was in a more correct position and we made faster time so I am going to raise my seat just a little more and look forward to our outing next Monday to see how I compare then.