Couldn't sleep...again. So up at 5:30 am, finally looked at the rock shox website to get the directions to dial in my rear shock. I typically try to figure it out on my own each year, but I'd highly recommend just getting the directions from the start. The rest of my (long) morning was spent building gardens and hauling dirt. I have HUDGE pile of dirt in our driveway that I had delivered today. I have to get it moved otherwise our VW van is trapped in the garage. Good forsight on my part. I purchased some organic vegetable plants grown by a local gardener. Duluth is really cool that way. There are so many good places to get locally grown and organic food.
Off to Hartley trail this afternoon for a trail ride. Fun, tight, rocky, rooty singletrack. The hail and rain from two nights ago hadn't fully sunk in. I have been really frustrated the past few rides with singletrack so my goal was just to look ahead and ride smooth. I love riding that trail. It has a little bit of everything. Steep short and long climbs, technical decents, tight singletrack and lots of vegetation to make the trail difficult to see. My favorite part of the trail is "the pines". Not officially marked as such, like the rest of the trail. When I first rode in Hartley 4 years ago or so I would get lost. I would take my father-in-law with me (he grew up riding his motorcycle in hartley and his brother made a lot of the trails when he was young that are still ridden now), and we'd both get lost. The trails are not marked and there is no trail map. There is the blue pot loop, named as such, cuz of a blue pot that hangs from a stump along the trail. The guard rail loop loops around by a road that has a guard rail on it so drivers don't go off the road. I think only mountain bikers know the loops have names.
Scott is feeling a little left out of my blog. So I am attaching a photo of us in Moab. I was holding out for the photo of him that we are planning on putting on the Powdermonkey race poster. Hopefully, I'll attach that one later.
