Painful Bliss

Not a great nights sleep at all but that was probably due to how excited I was due to get out and shred trail. I slowly got ready and had a dull head ache but I was locked and loaded and out the door a little after 9:00. Had a great ride over to Payson and then up the canyon, windows wide open taking in all the sights sounds and smells of my past. I arrived to the trailhead and got cranking, the super stud I was expecting to be on this bike was extremely undersold. I was sucking wind in no time and felt every bit of the 8,000 ft elevation making my brain throb and ears pounding. This was not a good start as I made my way uphill I decided to give my body some rest to catch up so I took lots of pictures. I must say my legs were not putting out much horsepower and I think it was due to how beat I have felt the last two days for some reason. Whatever was affecting me was frustrating but was not going to win so I pressed on. Meadow after meadow and wide open views of the alpine scenery was absolutely spectacular. The trail was narrow and at times very choppy with a lot of horse use and cows littered all over the place. Rolling hill and descend after the other I was feeling pretty good as I was putting more trail behind me. When I strolled through the campground I lost the trail a few minutes and then picked it up and ended up on a hillside with tight trail that eventually began to climb brutally. I was taken to my feet so many times already and this was extremely frustrating, I can't figure the exact reason why I was so weak today but just kept trucking on. After an eternity climbing the hillside I reached a flattish aspen meadow and then had a mile of pavement to the next dirt road. Here I picked up rock springs and shot down the mountain hating this 29r hard tail so much. I dislike the bike all around, nothing about it makes me ever want to own a 29r hard tail or even a 29r now. After what I was hoping for a long long decent to the car ended shortly and had me climbing and climbing and more climbing. I had plenty of cows to talk to along side the trail as I cursed the horses for shitting all over the trail. Came across a few bulls dishing it out and was a bit nervous as I filmed them but luckily I was unscathed. I did eventually hit a good down hill to the car believe it or not and then cranked pavement for some minutes back up the car. What a brutal ride for me, it is a very remote trail and I took a punishment on it but I still had a great ride. Tomorrow I am going to go ride some more popular smooth stuff where I can really crank out some miles.

Black Hawk Beat Down

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