Tuesday, June 9, 2009

And Then It Happened Again, Part 2

When we last left our unlucky heroine, she had made an unfortunate trail choice at Poto.

Things just didn't look right, but for some reason, I was reluctant to admit defeat and turn around. I think it was because I didn't want to believe I had wasted as much time as I did. Finally, I came to a place where the trail crossed the road. When it started up again on the other side, I noticed there was a sign indicating that bikes were prohibited. I turned around and noticed the same sign on the section of trail I just left. I was clearly on the wrong trail. I turned around and hoped I could find the way back.

By the time I got back to the correct trail, I had wasted more than an hour. I was torn. There were two trails left to choose. I started up the middle trail only to have it peter out at the top of the hill. Feeling frustrated and deflated, I headed back to the intersection. As soon as I got back, I wanted to kick myself. When I looked at the trail that went to the right, it was obvious that was the right way to go. The trail had a natural flow to the right and there were all kinds of tire tracks to follow. What was I thinking?

I had trouble enjoying the rest of the ride because I was so worried about how late I was going to be and how my teammates would have to wait for me. I ended up taking a shortcut at the end and cutting a few miles off the trail because I had been gone so long, although I'm not sure I ended up with any less mileage, considering the extra trail I rode.

When I finally reached the parking lot, my teammates were nowhere in sight, but their vehicles were still sitting there. I sat down to wait for them. As it turns out, Pat and Jake were able to ride Poto twice in about the amount of time it took me to do it once. They arrived about five minutes after I did. Nichole had actually been waiting for me at the end of the trail, but I missed her since I took the shortcut.

Luckily my teammates were very understanding about the whole thing, but I still felt pretty dumb. But, hey, at least I didn't crash and my next trip to Poto is bound to be better.

Next up: Random weekend photos

1 comment:

CorporateHippy said...

Yes - the part they forgot to tell you is that you turn left at every intersection EXCEPT for the one around 7 miles where you turn right instead. This is the instruction I received from my teammate a few weeks ago ;)

Poto is a super fun trail - maybe we could ride together there sometime!