Bruised But Not Broken

On Monday, I blogged about my upcoming mountain bike ride with Carrie and Elise. I was excited and apprehensive about the adventure.

It had been a few years since I went mountain biking. We started off our trek last night in a place that was familiar to me. I had been mountain biking before at Irvine Regional Park, which is the lower portion of the ride. It all came back to me and I was able to navigate the trail. I never realized that this was really the beginning of the trail ride experience. The real experience, or epic adventure as we dubbed it, was up top in Santiago Oaks, or aka as The 3B's (Three Bitches).

Carrie and Elise are pro mountain bikers compared to me. As we went up the first B, Angry Julie got off her bike and walked up. My legs were not trained for that incline, especially my calves. I could have turned around and gone to the bottom of the hill, but I sucked it up and carried forward. The girls patiently waited for me at the top of the mountain. We chatted, drank water, took pictures, and moved forward. I trekked up the rest of the ride slightly walking/riding my bike. Mostly walking though. We made it to the very top when we noticed that ooops, it was starting to get dark. We were not prepared for this. No bike lights, no head lamps, nada.

We attempted to go down the mountain. It was very sandy and rocky on the way down. We inched our way down, one step at a time. I hit some rough spots where my bike almost slid from underneath me, not good. I caught myself, and let the bike drop. We finally made it down to the very bottom of the mountainous area when we realized, oh no!! Why? Because it was dark outside, like after 8pm dark! My eyesight is not very good at night, plus we could barely see in front of us. Think {trees, bushes, things covering the trail, creatures}. Carrie entertained us with singing. I tried to make noises (mostly screaming caw caw caw). Carrie said, "Noooo you sound like a small animal. We need to be loud to scare off the mountain lions." I then screamed, "Grrrrr". I don't think it helped much.

We finally made it out onto the roadway at Irvine Park. It was about 8:40pm. We started our adventure at 6. I think secretly we were all somewhat relieved that we made our way out. We got back to our cars and stripped off our gear. I started to nurse my wounds. I walked away with a tiny blister on my ankle, and some scratches on my elbows and knees. I hopped into Angry Husband's truck and made my way home.

Within an hour, I was surprised with some wonderful pictures from Carrie. She rocks! Carrie and Elise were so awesome and patient with me. They are pretty terrific mountain bikers too.

I can't wait for the next ride, and where I will be way more prepared!

P.S. All the photos were taken by Carrie. She was brave enough to carry her SLR with her!