First Bear, First Night Ride, First Tears of Joy

Got my first bear sighting of 2010 yesterday, nothing special, just enough to remind me that there are creatures living in the woods that I go and play in. I had just entered the corridor trail (or whatever the fuck other people call it), then saw this black four legged animal shoot from the creek across the trail and into the trees. At first I thought it was just a large black dog, then the bear climbed a tree. Now I'm no veternarian or other form of animal expert, but dogs don't climb trees (unless the zombies have taken over, in which case all bets are off). Rather than exploring to see if more bears were lurking near the trail, I turned my sorry ass around, and used that oddly smooth piece of trail called "a road" to get up to the Lincoln Hills area. After that the senses were a little hightened, keeping an eye out for any other critters which might try and see what my leg tastes like. All that for nothing, because after that all I saw were school kids and other mountain bikers.

With Ride #1 in the books and 5 hours of counting people over and done with, I got home to get ready for a night ride with MBW's strongman Gallego. He was trying to get ready for a 24 Hour Race in Spokane in a few weeks, I need to get some night riding in before Rapelje, so we got ourselves a match made in heaven. Quick trip up Sidewinder, where I played the "I'm going to try and finish this climb before I need to turn my lights on" game, and won with about 12 seconds to spare. Down Woods Gulch, which was already my most hated descent in Missoula, made worse, by losing the shim for my handlebar mounted light. Oh well, one light is better than none. Quick trip up Curry Gulch, where I now realize it is really dark, and I remember the ultimate double edge sword for a night riding on a singlespeed. In the daylight you can see ahead on the trail, and figure out when you need to get your momentum up for a steeper pitch, or when you can relax a little. At night, that is lost because you get to see a 10 foot tunnel view of what is in front of you, giving you no opportunity to think of how to ride a climb. It sucks, but for me the end result is, "fuck it, I'll just stay seated, and ride everything really hard". Personally this makes the climb go by faster, so I guess that helps. Finish it all up with a drop down Sawmill and call it a night.

When I got home I knew I would not be feeling tired for a while, so I grabbed a Tecate, and checked to see how the Celtics - Cavs game ended. Let me first preface this next paragraph by saying that I for the most part enjoy seeing people who act like they are the greatest get worked over like a load of laundry. Well that happened to LeBron last night, and it brought a smile to my face, and sure enough some tears of joy. It's always nice to see someone who talks about how all they want to do is win a championships, and things like All Star Games and scoring titles don't count, just roll over. Even better, the city of Cleveland is now thinking that the end of the LeBron era is near, and it scares them more then when Lake Erie caught on first for a 70th time. So there ya have it, all and all a good day, two good rides, and only one bear.