We've been spending a few days in Southeastern Missouri visiting some of Chris' family, and today we went for a ride at Lake Wappapello State Park. The trail was supposed to be 15 miles and multi-use for hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers. We were expecting warmer weather in Missouri, but it was only about 32 degrees, foggy and misting when we started and I was dressed pretty warmly, but was still afraid I was going to be too cold. However, as soon as we got rolling I was immediately wishing I had less clothing.
It was a really fun trail, although there was some hike-a-bike involved. There were a few significant hills, and wet leaves, wet roots and wet rocks don't make for very good traction. I ended up walking up a few of the hills. The strangest thing for me was the rocks—I'm just not used to big rocks on the trails in Michigan. I did ride a lot slower than I would have at home because of some of the obstacles, but I think it was really good for me to work on my bike-handling skills. My lone crash came on the way back and hardly hurt at all.
We ended up riding for about an hour and 20 minutes, and probably rode about 5 miles total. We rode out and back. It was a great time and I actually did a couple shallow stream crossings. The best part was a decent downhill at the very end. I even let myself go a little bit fast. We had a great time. Today we're going to go out to the nature preserve for a hike.
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