My First Patrol

Wednesday June 25.

I headed out for my first patrol of Mill Mountain. Met Jen at the house to show her the new/old house, Gretta greeted her in the usual, spastic, I don't get any attention, way. We headed out through the neighborhood, up some alleys, through Wasena Park, on to Ferncliff Park. We had to walk the little section of Chestnut Ridge, then onto Fishburn Pkwy and from there to Woodthrush trail. We zoomed along Woodthrush...this trail is so much fun to ride. Fairly wide open, not many technical sections. We paused for a photo opp to show we were patrolling.

Nice Socks!

We headed down the remainder of Woodthrush onto Lower Star. This lower section really needs to be multi use as it is very wide & you can see far enough ahead in case you need to dismount. We hiked up the remainder of lower star to the parking area off of Fishburn Parkway. From here we debated on what to do. Neither of us was feeling great so we knew climbing Monument would not be an option this evening. We decided to head down to Sylvan Road, then climb back up to Car Trail...I mean Big Sunny Trail. I was climbing at a turtle's pace..I think Jen almost plowed into me I was so slow. We hopped on to Ridgeline or Riser..(I get the names confused)& got to the switchbacks. I coudn't do the first left hander so I moved to the side. Jen came riding up & cleared it like a pro! Wow...Where did that come from? Someone has been practicing her skills. Off she pedaled to leave me in her dust. It was ok..I needed a little break.

We continued up and came to the next right hand switchback. Once again, Jen the pro mountain bike chicky cleared it!....I've never seen her clear both in the same ride. It was awesome. I know I have switchback work to do!

...As we pedaled on we commented on how there was no one to Educate, Assist or Inform....as the placards on on bikes instruct us. As we pedaled out of Zoo Poo (Ridgeline) we happened upon a wayward turtle. I almost slammed into the back of Jen b/c she stopped so quickly to assist mr/mrs turtle. Here was our opportunity to educate, assist, and inform. Jen let the turtle know he/she was on a busy thoroughfare for mountain bikes & it would be best to stay to the edge of the trail so he/she didn't become the main ingredient for turtle soup. We asssited the turtle in getting safely to the edge of the brush. We informed him/her we'd be back to check on it. It was pretty funny. The turtle just looked at us like we were crazy.

We climbed up the path to the Star. It was pretty busy for the middle of the week. Probably 25 people or so in the 5 minutes we were up there. We met a firefighter from Turbeville (home of VA canteloupes)...Took some pics & headed back down the mountain. We had to avoid wayward turtle b/c he/she did not listen to us. We took a slight detour to go up the path to the zoo. Jen asked me if I knew there was a time capsule buried there. I said I never knew that...but then again have lived here for 10 years & have never set foot in the zoo either. We pedaled over to the time capsule. I took a couple of pictures.

Then we headed back down zoo poo to the four way. We then took monument trail the rest of the way. We encountered 2 other bikers on their way up. I knew who they were so they would not need any help from us. We zoomed down the rest of monument, back out on pavement, then headed past the hospital to the greenway.

While going through the hospital Jen said hello to a coworker who's shift was ending. We decided to check out the progress on the bridge which Carilion was building.

While were were hanging out we ran into a couple of guys who work for the railroad. We discovered one of them knows Jen's dad who recently retired from the railroad. Small world. We bid them adieu and pedaled back the greenway/neighborhoods to return home. It was a great ride. We did close to 17 miles when it was all said & done.