Wheezing hack, swerving cause I’m bout to implode
Steam rolling out my collar
An ice cold water sitting in the king cage
I'm not going to lie, it's been really nice having well above normal temperatures but for every positive there is often a negative; the Yin to the Yang. The Yang in this case has been that all of the single track has been unridable because of the early morning heavy frost, so about mid week we decided that the Saturday Morning No Drop Fat Bike Ride was going to consist of pavement and gravel.
Somehow managed to beat Damon down to Cycle Works so I had a couple of minutes to sit and chill for a bit and just unwind from the stresses of the work week. Cycling has a way of letting you forget all the worlds problems for a few hours.
Wasn't long though before everyone started showing up for the ride, Emmett brought his sweet Surly Karate Monkey Ops... that spray tan paint is sick.
Eight of us set sail that day for 3 hour ride, a 3 hour ride... oh wait, sorry, wrong story... eight of us set out for a 37 mile route that would take us through Malcolm, past Pawnee Lake, through Emerald and then back into Lincoln via West A street.
The weather and the gravel were both perfect for the ride.
Even the cows were out enjoying the moo-rning.
First rest stop and regroup... what's everyone looking at?
Must be this view...
Or maybe this one, either one isn't too shabby.
Once everyone was done checking out Salt Creek it was off to the Malcolm General Store, always a must stop when I'm in the area. Lippy's BBQ was just starting their smoker as we rolled up, still haven't tried their food but man does it smell fantastic once it gets warmed up.
What it might lack in size and the cookie cutter feel of the more modern convenience stores, it makes up for in selection. They have everything a cyclist on the go could want and even a few items you don't need while biking but might need for after.
Brent doing his best sullen face bicycling Terminator impersonation. I'll be back!
Even in small town Malcolm the fine folks from the Czech Republic are unwelcome... Wilbur might be their last bastion in Nebraska... although ironically you still can't use one to by a Kolache during Czech Days.
Leaving Malcolm, it was time to begin the push back to Lincoln, Mark and I spent a good portion of the ride in the rear with the gear. There are a few good things about being part of the back of the pack gang, your legs and lungs don't hate you quite as much and because of that you also have more breath to chit chat but probably the most important part is you get to look around and see things the rest of the group is blasting past. Having mostly urban single track in the Lincoln/Omaha area you never see old abandoned cars, old safes, random abandoned airplane parts, major appliances or any of that type of stuff on the trails like you often see from pictures of more isolated single track... but gravel is a whole other ball game. Old barns, houses, tractors and wonderfully awesome trucks are all around if you're looking for them. Not really sure how old the barn/house/shed building was or the two tractors next to it but by best guess they were all really old, they just don't make tractors or buildings like that anymore and haven't for quite some time.
When I first started kicking around the idea of trying to put these Fat Bike rides together I wondered if we would get many takers, amazingly the number of people showing up has been pretty steady and more folks than I honestly thought we would get; not a bad problem to have. I really do want to thank everyone who comes out and participates in the rides, riding with a group of people is a wonderful thing. That being said, we always welcome anyone who has thought about making it out but hasn't yet... as the sign says, there is always space available for a few more.
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