Don't believe the gripe

Since the weekend was predicted to be a washout, I kept my ride aspirations low.  Saturday, I had some mid-day Tour duh Charlotte related assploring to do. I wanted more miles than that would offer, so I headed out early and went over to the short track to see how last week's deluge had affected the course.  The early morning rains I had anticipated were nothing but a drizzle when I left the house. 

I got over to the short track, started a lap... wondered how bad the A-line climb outta the woods would be.  As I got closer to it, I saw a shovel just off the trail leaning against a tree.

Dog spoke to me.

I grabbed the shovel and went directly to the A-line.  It was truly a hot mess.  Wet, mooshy clay.  Not very rideable and certainly slower than the B-line.  I spent 30-40 minutes "borrowing" unused crusher run from other parts of the trail, filling in the soft spots... one shovel load at a time. 

When I was done, I was able to clean the two optional routes up A-line rather confidently. It was still a punch in the dick, but at least mebbe someone would be able to use it on Sunday to get an advantage (what it was intended to do before it got dumped on for days and days and days).

I left out of the park, did some neighborhood connectivity assploring, met up with Paw and Jack to check out a possible Tour stage, and then headed home. I needed to get my bike ready for the short track race.

Yeth, I decided to do at least one race this year, and this one was gonna serve multiple purposes:

* Get me outta the house on a miserable day and on the bike (when I went to bed Saturday, they were predicting thundershowers).

* I'd be able to see time-wise how I'd stack up against the 50+ field (research for the '19 "season").

* I'd get to test out the Rekon 2.6/Forekaster 2.2 tire combo in slick conditions, something I can't normally do on local trails, since they're closed if they're actually muddy.

So, I fendered my bike up, put my custom number plate holder on the bars, cut back on my evening's lubrication, and went to bed only slightly late for an elderly single speeder.