The first sign that this ride wouldn't go well came when I turned off of 300 N onto the bike trail as it meanders along the side of the stream/river. There were barricades across the trail, closing access. The weather has been so unseasonably cool and wet that all the tributaries are all swollen and quite dangerous. I would like to say that I went around and found a different route, but that would be a fib. I rode through the barricade (there was room to go through without even getting off the bike, so I have to wonder just how insistent they really were about it) and continued on the path, expecting to possibly have to turn around if the trail was submerged at any point.
It wasn't. I think they just didn't want the liability of people possibly falling into the river and drowning, because it was running quite high and fast.
Some sections of the trail were closed, some weren't. I only went around on one segment where the barricade tape looked undisturbed and I knew the trail dipped down in that section.
I managed to get up the only steep hill on the trail without having to step off my bike. The hill is just past Art Dye park and winds the trail up behind the Tri City golf course. Up there the view is really beautiful, so I took a picture while I was catching by breath after the climb.
Not long after this, the trail degenerates into a rocky dirt path, which eventually reconnects to a road that leads to the northern section of the paved trail that leads to the canyon which is to the right in this photo. During the rocky dirt section, I accidentally struck a piece of wood with my front tire. That shot it up... straight into the heel of my left shoe as I pedaled a downward stroke with it! The wood lanced right through the bottom of my shoe and struck my heel! It was so sudden and surprising, the wood snapped off before I even reacted! I could feel something poking my heel, and I had no idea if I was injured or not. I decided to get past the rocky section, then stop to inspect the damage to my shoe and possibly my foot.
After working my way over a construction site (where the city had decided to pipe a major canal that the trail crosses), I took off my shoe to discover a piece of wood sticking up inside my shoe! Fortunately, my foot was completely fine. After trying various bits of random debris to help me shove the splinter out of my shoe (a sharp rock, a broken piece of fence pipe lying on the ground, etc.), the best I could manage was to just shove it far enough back into the shoe so that I wasn't being poked as I continued on my bike ride.
I hopped back on my bike and only did two strokes before the next bit of bad luck struck. One of the laces on my right shoe got caught in the bike chain! Grrr! Now my nice new shoes had dirty black grease all over them. Phooey.
By that time I was getting peeved. I retied the shoe lace, making sure it was well clear of the chain, then continued on my way. I decided that if just one more thing went wrong on this ride I was going to call it quits and head back home. It felt like the fates were conspiring against me, you know?
I got past Lone Peak High School before that third and final frustration came. There was construction that had torn up enough of the trail, that I was no longer sure of where it went. That did it. I decided it was time to head back home again. Home was entirely downhill, however, so that was very pleasant! I got a bit of a sun rash, and I decided that of the three disciplines in the triathlon, the biking part is by far the dirtiest, and quite possibly the most frustrating, for me!
Hmmm. Grease on me. That doesn't happen when I am swimming or running. And, of course, when I got home, I had to perform surgery on my shoe to remove the shaft of wood from the heel, so I could run in the shoes without ramming a spear of wood into myself! I seriously doubt I got all of it, since it came out in pieces, but hopefully I got enough that I won't injure myself when I go running tomorrow!
0 comments:
Post a Comment