Single Speedin....

Thursday night we met up at Explore Park..The weather service was predicting freezing rain so there was a winter weather advisory out. I think this scared some folks from even venturing out after dark. I got to the parking lot & Skippy & Chris were already out riding.. My hubby showed up and we prepared to ride. Weather was chilly but not unbearable. Skippy & Chris rolled up to meet us...Chris got a call from work so he had to leave but the 3 of us who remained rode. I wasn't really feeling great on this ride but I figured I'd plod on. As we ventured towards the inner loop, my bike kept making this weird cha-chunk noise whenever I stood up on a hill. I was scared my chain was going to break. When we inspected my bike, we noticed the chain was really loose. None of us had any tools w/ us to try to fix it so we decided to head back. On the way back, Skippy kicked up this enormous stick into his frame. Luckily it didn't break anything. It was bigger than my forearm. As we descended my chain kept making the same noise. I was really worried b/c my hubby mentioned that I needed to be careful on a climb b/c the chain could come off, then I'd bang my knee into the top tube & stop dead in my tracks.

Shortly after he issued this warning, I had crossed the big wooden bridge and was starting the climb up the int trail....sure enough I took a pedal stroke, the chain came off, and I banged my knee on the top tube!...I shouted something about what a fine bike I had, then let out an "ouch!"...my hubby asked what was wrong....I told him I had broken my bike....He said "well wheel it up here so I can fix it"...I said "I can't, it won't move".... The rear skewer must have been lose and on the pedal stroke I pulled the wheel from the drop outs.....

We were able to get it fixed and we returned to the parking lot. By this time Skippy was cold and had already gotten in about an hour & 1/2 of riding so he was done. Hubby & I continued to explore some stuff on the closed portion of the park. We only rode about an hour & it wasn't much fun this night.

Saturday I took some pics of my hubby at the Falling Creek Bike Race hosted by Bedford County. It was a neat format, with less skilled riders getting a head start on the more experienced folks. THe course looked fun....I knew I wasn't going to race based on how I felt on Thursday..just wasn't into it...Hubby came in 5th overall..not too bad.

Sunday we ventured our for a ride at Mill Mountain..the plan was to do 3 hours..but we only ended up doing 2. We did some exploring on this ride as well..so we probably spent 20 minutes hiking, plowing through hub-deep leaves, and bushwacking. I was able to finally conquer a climb on the Woodthrush trail. I was so pleased...it's the first time I've done that complete climb on any bike..let alone my Single Speed. I guess I'm getting stronger which is good. The ride got cut short b/c we had to high tail it back to the house b/c we had a realtor coming to show it. I guess it wasn't too bad of a ride.

bummer

Been keeping a close eye on the news coverage of the fires in Roanoke County. When we hiked at Mill Mountain on Sunday we could see the plumes of smoke from the raging blaze. Monday night we took Gretta for a walk and could see one of the firelines from my house. I felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. As of this writing, the fire is only 30% contained and the wind has returned. We had some rain earlier today but I'm not sure it did much to help things.

The news release at 4:45 p.m. today mentioned that 50 National Guard members hand dug a fireline along......Gauntlet... which probably means everything on the Timerview side of the Cove has burned or will burn...which potentially could mean Trough, upper Hi Dee Hoe, Buck, Horsepen, and Gauntlet may no longer exist....ok..that's all speculation but it really puts a sick feeling in my gut...and to think at one point we were joking about the bears tearing up the signs. I hope they came out of hibernation to get the heck outta there!

Yes, I realize they are only trails and this is nature's way of taking care of things.. Fortunately no homes have been lost, nor have any individuals been injured. We have to thank the brave folks who have been out there battling this blaze which has burned over 2400 acres thus far..yes 2400 acres...that's a lot of land, trees, dirt, grass, leaves...

Don't know when the Cove will re-open so we can assess what's happening with the trails. At this point we can only wait and continue to keep the firefighters in our prayers as they battle.

I'm sort of rambling about nothing in this blog. I guess I just needed to write down how I'm feeling about it. Pretty bummed out....