Bad News Bears

It's time to get away from working on my camper and stretch the legs out in nature. My hip's been broken down pretty bad for a few weeks so I've been focused mostly on non-jock-like activities. That's no beuno for la cabeza. Every ride leads to crippling hip pain the second I get off the bike. But I just gotta get back in the game cuz I'm seriously going nuts and getting skinny fat. I'm dealing with ILIOPSOAS TENDONITIS from my new, larger than normal ceramic hip socket which is supposed to distribute the weight better and last longer. Google all that if it even matters. Basically, any lifting of the leg shoots pain and makes it impossible to effectively activate the muscles require to lift said leg. The only ting that helps is lots of couch time. Fuck that. I just need to bust through the pain barrier or collapse into a festering heap of shit trying. Time to spandex up and suffer up some grinding hills. So today I cruized a half hour away to Lake Tahoe to ride the legendary Flume Trail which hugs the mountains along the East Shore and ends near Diamond Peak Ski area. It's a fairly easy ride, except for the hills that lead up to Marlette Lake. About a mile past that lake is the trailhead to the Flume Trail which is basically flat until the last 3 mile downhill. I wasn't going to ride the whole trail, rather just a couple hill repeats to get the legs burning, ride along most of the Flume, then turn around before the downhill and head back to the car. About 28-30 miles roundtrip, mostly mellow big chainring stuff. Plans changed when I rounded a corner a couple miles short of the turnaround. After living in moose and elk country for so long, I have a habit of loudly coughing or clearing my throat in areas where there's deep brush, blind corners, or areas where it seem like big snarling hooved animals would hang out and get easily startled by some dude wearing bright synthetic skin tight clothing. 20 yeas ago in Idaho I rode around a blind corner while mountain biking and nearly stuffed it into the ass end of a gigantic elk. Well today I rounded a corner and I fucking scared the crap out of a very large bear about 25 feet away. He jammed into high gear and tore off downhill through bushes and breaking small trees. When it comes to sharks an bears, I am not one to hang out and see if everything is all right unless I'm surrounded by steel and have a gas pedal under my foot. Right then and there I decided I'd ridden far enough, let somebody else be bear food, turned the bike around, and made a mellow hasty retreat. All said and done, it was a gorgeous 24 miles.


Marlette Lake glass off

Start of Flume

Sand Harbor