This morning I rode a short ride —much shorter than intended. I had mapped out a 9.9-mile out and back ride along a trail that Christy had suggested. And during the opening minutes, I was exulting in the gorgeous Colorado summer weather—warm but not hot, with lots of sunshine and just a few puffy shite cumulous clouds in the sky, and I was headed west, so the Rockies were clearly visible on the horizon. I consider myself to be a pretty good map-reader and navigator, but this was one instance of "pride goeth before a fall." (At least I didn't
literally fall!) At one of the several forks on the trail, I chose the wrong one (Yogi Berra: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"), and it ended up taking me west out to Overland Trail, where I knew I shouldn't be. After careful consultation of the Bike Library's map they had provided, I figured out where I was, and how to get back to Christy's. But this involved some riding on streets.
I hated to do this, as it flew in the face of Michelle's request that I stay
off them. But on the whole, given Ft. Collins's reputation as a bike-friendly city, with its ubiquitous bike lanes, and considering the risk of getting lost should I try to find my way back to the trail, I judged it an acceptable risk, and made it with no problems whatsoever, to complete a ride of 5 miles even in a slow 49 minutes (still holding back on speed due to the handling issues). So, tomorrow I'll study the map more carefully, and make myself stop to check it at forks, and hope to do the ride I had intended for today.
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