It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times!

Now where have I heard or read that before?  Hummmmm!

Okay, so it really was a good ride and it was a bad ride.  How does that occur anyway?

Well, the good and best of times, was that the weather was perfect with temps in the 70s and a slight breeze.  Smithville Lake was as placid as I've ever witnessed with slight movement on the main body of the the lake and the coves being absolutely glass smooth!  It was perfect for skipping stones!

The bad part, or worst of times, was not realizing that the storm Sunday left a ton of debris on the trail in the form of small limbs, twigs and some branches.  Since I was on the north (Bone Bender) trail first, the sun was in my eyes and the first time I came around a curve I just couldn't see the trail very clear and started bouncing all over the place.  For just a few seconds, I thought I was going to lose control of the bike.  It was jumping back and forth just an inch or two, but since I couldn't see what was going on, I was in a slight panic.

From then on, I just had to be extremly cognizant of the situation and just ride slow, especially on the curves!  Of course, this issue was only prevelant in the wooded areas where there was tree cover on both sides of the trail.  I certainly looked forward to the open areas.

The south trail, for some reason, wasn't nearly as bad, so I pretty much enjoyed the back half of my ride.

Totalled exactly 40 miles with a 12.1 mph average, topping out at 16.6 mph.