A day at the office

 

After a cold, wet, windy Spring, Summer has finally arrived.  As the countdown to 24 Hour mountain bike World Championships ticks away, I have been spending a lot of time on the bike.  This week seemed to be the week the wildflowers came out.  My workout for the day from my coach, Matthew, was a 3 hr ride with some 5 minute intensity intervals thrown in.  I was jonesing to get on the dirt instead of the road, so I picked a loop that I estimated would take a few hours and would also take me on a trail that I had not ridden called Edge of the World.  I know it might be hard to believe, but I have barely scratched the surface of the riding that is available to me around Ketchum.  I have the regular rides that I do more often that are closer to home.  But there are still miles and miles of trail that remain unexplored to me.  This particular day, I took a phone, camera and a few more supplies than usual since I was heading deeper into the backcountry and was riding alone. The only other people I encountered were a group of camp kids at the start of the ride.  I ended up facing off with a few of them who seemed unaware of the difference between left and right.  After confusing dance with each other, I ended up in the gravel as a last resort to avoid hitting the kids.  The rest of the ride was peaceful.  I was rewarded for the two hours of climbing with these great views of the Boulder Mountains and fun single track back down to the Wood River Valley.  I punched my mental time clock and checked another workout off the list.