Ride - Marsh Creek State Park

Joy of joys, back in the saddle again. I know it’s a first world problem, but I struggle to get out when riding involves a 30-60 min car journey just to get on-site. Nevertheless, I gotta make more of an effort, especially mid-week. The trails were pretty quiet when I was out…a couple of horseback riders and another biker was all I saw. SaMuk continues to perform like a champ. The new drive-train I installed late in the season last year should easily last through 2019. I’ll pay attention to the chain given the problems I ran into last year. The rear inner tube has been a bit of a problem recently and is now patched in three spots but appears to have survived the ride today, thankfully.

The trails are mostly just fine and a bit slippery on top of the frozen ground in a few spots. The second picture below shows a particularly nasty section at the foot of a slope and close to the lake where water can sit during wet spells. Luckily it was mostly frozen today and not too deep.

These next two pictures give more of a sense of the overall conditions. For most of the ride, the sky was overcast and everything looked brown and grey in the low light. Broken cloud cover started to move in from the west towards the end of the ride, providing a much-needed glimpse of bright blue skies.