Ride 3 - Crap Day - Great Ride - 11-2-2005

Today was one of those days that just sucked. I didn't have breakfast. I got in trouble at work for not answering a page in the middle of the night. I got in trouble at work for doing crappy work. I was stuck in meetings all day. I realized that I had $700 less than I had thought in checking. There was terrible traffic because of a Bush bashing protest by my apartment. I could go on but I am sure you get the idea.

This crap day does have a silver lining though. I got to go out for a ride tonight. I had planned to go with a friend but at the last minute he bailed. Everyone was saying don't go. Why bother with the traffic, etc. I knew I had to go. The anger I felt all day had to be released somewhere. I decided to take the turner and do a huge loop on some of the local trails. I parked my car on Capri and I road the 6 mile fire road to the top of Sullivan Canyon. The fire road is kinda boring and there are some really steep sections, but it does have its pluses. For one, mid way up the hill there is a good piece of single track off to one side. It goes through some dense woods. I am mentioning the woods because they are rare in LA. After the single track and a bunch more miles of climbing, I ended up at the top of Sullivan Canyon. I sang the praises of the canyon on Sunday. Let me just say that as good as it is during the day it is ten times better at night. The combination of the dark and my full suspension bike made for a great decent. I only had one minor screw up on my way down. I went left at one point when I should have gone right and ended up eating it. Nothing major, just some scrapes. It did freak me out though because if it was any worse, the kids from Stand By Me would have had to go look for my body. Once I got out of the canyon I met up with about 25 riders getting ready to start their ride. It turns out that Supergo runs a weekly Wednesday night ride from their shop. I may have to check it out next week for variety. After a brief chat with the group, I road down Westridge, out to Sunset and back up to Capri. Midway to my car, a deer got right in front of me on the street. I tried to get my camera out to grab a shot of him but by the time my fat hand turned the camera on, it was gone.

All in all I have to say that the ride really turned my day around. While I was riding I didn't think about the garbage that happened just a few hours earlier. All I thought about was the ride. Now I am home, calmed down and really just looking forward to getting out there again tomorrow.

Oh yeah in case anyone is interested the whole ride took me about an hour and forty-five minutes. One hour to get up the fire road. Twenty-five minutes to decend the canyon and another twenty on the road back to the car.