AZT Picket posting

Well the birthday came, turns out I am 39 now, I usually make plans to do something wild for a ride that day but that will have to be postponed for now so something different will fir the bill. I was dead tired from the last two weeks but had to push two more rides in to close out the week. I had the idea of riding picketpost, it has been so long and I wanted to not be too far from home but far enough for an adventure. I got cracking a bi later than usual and was enjoying the shade I was able to find. The views were spectacular, the trail was better than I remember, besides the catclaw that is, every bush shredded my legs. With fresh blood and hot heat it was trying to ruin my trip but I was not going to give. I reached the turnaround point 10 miles in and enjoyed the views. I checked out trailforks to maybe try a fork onto a forest road and hit arnett, it looked like it was worth a shot with what intel I could gather. I then manevuered around a catclaw and ran my toe into a rock, it seemed like it was very soft but it was enough to send a surge of pain for a few minutes. Riding down was nice, it was almost all DH, while it did not take all that much work to get there it was nice to dry the sweat. Then onto forest road, not forested obviously but the scenery was pretty and was at time rocky but all in all it was nice to enjoy some time without catclaw. I managed to kick up a huge rock and where did it hit, my already in pain toe, I screamed out in agony and then moved along, that time something didn't feel right, I was not expecting a toe nail when I was going to get to see it. I reached arnett and was getting excited for the canyon ahead. It did not disapoint in lush greenery and it was beautiful as I expected, I have never been that far in before. The rest was easy peasy, a really scenic and easy ride back to the car, that was a great loop.