For once it is a holiday weekend with NICE weather in Maryland! Grabbed the bike and hit the trails for a ~20 mile round trip to Jimmie Cone. Somehow just knowing that an ice cream treat at the mid-point in the ride makes those legs crank harder. Don’t worry, they had frozen German Chocolate Cake Yogurt so I didn’t wipe out all the benefits of the ride, though I did splurge on chocolate jimmies to go with it.

The trail was in fantastic shape in comparison to the last time I rode it. The parks department got a Bobcat and a chainsaw in there to remove all the huge trees fallen over the trail and repair the bridges over the badly muddy/swampy spots. I’m grateful since last time there were sooo many trees that ai got impatient and tried to hop over one just a wee bit too tall and did a nice slow motion over the bars endo. This time there was less drama, though I did learn another newbie lesson… tree meet shoulder, tree win… every time! No major damage, but it is sore.

I took it fairly easy on the ride since I basically had all day and it was so nice out I wanted to enjoy it. The trail mostly runs along Seneca Creek the entire way, going up and down the hills +\- ~500′ elevation many times during the course of the ride, though the to Jimmie’s is predominantly uphill, which is nice since the ride back is a little easier.