After some tinkering this week with the disk brakes on my mountain bike I figured I would go for a ride to see if I had managed to correct the problem, namely some noticeable rear brake rubbing under load. It was minor, but on my last ride (the first of the season) I found the rubbing rather annoying as I was killing myself to get up the switchbacks in the dump (Hartland Landfill near Victoria, BC). So, today, I headed out towards the dump and was pleased that the brake rub seemed to be gone. Unfortunately, some heavy feeling legs combined with a general lack of motivation meant that the first part of the ride was kind of meh.
After hauling my butt up the usual hills to get to the dump, the trail riding started. It was nice to be in the forest and out of the wind. I didn’t do such a good job of dodging slugs today and am pretty sure I ran over at least three while rolling around on my usual route. I have to say, at the risk of sounding like I’m whining, the dump is hard and/or I’m not very strong at the moment. The climbing today, like my last ride, was a struggle at times. I was also a bit spazzy descending today and managed to inadvertently punch a tree. Not much to be done about this woeful state I’m in, but ride more I figure.
GPS Data: 51.4km – 2h35m – 19.9km/h – GPS route
A 51km cross-country mountain bike ride near Victoria, BC (about 7km of trail). Click on the map to see detailed GPS information on the Garmin website.
Heading towards the Lochside Trail on the Blenkinsop Road bike route connector.
On the Lochside Trail heading north. No, this is not mountain bike trail by my standards.
A little break from the uphill suffering. This pic was take near the north end of the dump trail system, not far from Durrance Lake.
More dump trail action with lots of greenery. One might figure that a riding area referred to as the dump might not be that appealing to ride in. Actually, you almost never see or smell the dump, and the rest of the environment is quite nice.
After the trails I headed back to town on pavement including this stretch on Munn Road. A tail wind of sorts made the return trip a bit better than the start of the ride.
