Chubby Checkers

Well, we got lucky and I hope you can say the same....the winds decided to do a bit of twisting about the north metro yesterday - Sunday - mid afternoon. The wall cloud passed right over our house and then the twister touched down in Coon Rapids the Blaine and ripped into Hugo where a 2 year old died from the tornado demolishing their house. Sad. We had some interesting hail at home, pea sized and then it cleared up and it was 80 and sunny again. Weird. The rain was immense so I figured to hop on the mt bike and cruise through the park and surrounding neighborhoods. No damage to report except that the mt bike/horse trails looked like someone fired off a shot gun in the leaves from the hail....weird.

It was muddy and I actually got lost - which resulted in about 1 hour of extra riding without direction in the woods. I was on a trail that someone else bike before but I had no idea where it was going. Jet Dave has this secret single track deal out there - endless trails and the location is safe Dave....but wow, I should have consulted with you prior to going in. I also shouldn’t have singled it in the gear I had. Between the mud and steep climbs, I was on foot more than I thought I would be. Interesting course....courses. I have never really ridden the single track stuff before - the log jumps and crazy turns and the trees that pop out in front of you. fun but not fun when you are not comfortable with the whole thing. Gear down, practice more.

It was muddy, wet, slimy, gritty and the overall consensus was happy time turbo. with 2.5 hours off road - I was a bit sore but the smiles were big. it felt good to burn the legs and pound the hills with heat - I love the heat....I hate the cold. I came out, after being lost, at the south end of the park - I have NO IDEA how that happened. It was like a time warp, teleport thing. I rounded the ride off on the road back up Jefferson hwy and back on Dayton river road. I have not checked miles - I don’t have a fancy gps thing so I will guess at 25 miles based on my rough configuration on Google maps.

Monday - Memorial Day services with boy scouts play time in the park with the kids and grilled out with the family at home. The internet was down from the storm and that made work impossible - thank God.