Kitsuma

Nolan and I met up with Chris to take him on his first trip down Kitsuma.  Fortunately for us it was a rest day for Chris, so he was taking it easy.  I got there really early so I got ready and headed up the switchbacks on my own.  The skies were overcast, gray and looming.  The weather radar showed a huge green blob headed our way, and when I got on the trail a few scattered raindrops his the ground. 

I took a medium pace going up, visualizing the pace that I need to adopt as my race pace.  With my goal of finishing all of my races this year,  at the finish line, not in the back of an ambulance,  I am definitely taking on a new race pace.  So far it has treated me well. 

I got to the top, turned around and headed back down.  When I got to the parking lot, no one was there.  I got that sinking feeling in my stomach that I had been stood up.  I, for some reason have been stood up a lot, I'm not sure why, but it happens frequently.  But, I also knew that these guys would not stand me up for no good reason, so I held the hope.  Sure enough,  within minutes they both showed up, got ready and we were underway. 

It was a great ride with great laughs.   The weather was warm again, opposite tonight's forecast of  32 degrees!!

We wound our way up and down the mountain.  The leaves are still covering the trail in most areas since the trail did not see much traffic since fall.

We had some good times out there. Some good laughs, almost lost Chris a couple of times because we failed to wait for him at a couple of intersections....sorry Chris.  The scene where we tried to describe the ORAMM route to Chris was hilarious. 

Instead of going up the Greenway, we opted to ride up Mill Creek Rd.  It is scenic in a different way. 

Great ride with some great friends and great conversation.  I got in the truck and headed home to some homemade blueberry pancakes, and bacon,  yum!!!

Have a great day.