Barrier Lake

Cindy and I rode Prairie View trail this weekend once she bounced back from not a good Saturday.  It’s a controlled, known climb, of moderate distance only, so suited an effort that may have been short if there were feelings of “empty” the day after.  A wide climb I could push on if needed.

Turns out, those weren’t of major concern.  A big sleep, a dinner of fairly plain stuff, and a late start Sunday made it all work out. 

I forgot how short the climb is for a fit person – my first memories of that ride are as a teenager.  Sure seemed bigger then.  It’s a nice ride.  After the first viewpoint, there’s the 10m descent followed by the steep ramp up to where the hike a bike starts.  I surprised myself by making the entire sketchy climb.  Happy.

We snacked while viewing the lake with the pesky chipmunk population, then rode down after walking the first bit of sketchy descent.  I should have remembered to walk back nearer to the trail so we could be on the riding part of the descent right away, instead of walking down the rocky cliff to the trail.  Oh well.  The roots descent was good – at one point we had contemplated Razor’s Edge, but elected not to.  I just kept hearing that “this is fun” so we kept rolling to the intersection, then down the improved, less water retaining, section of trail back down to the lake.  Again… teriffic.

Cindy - please pose prim and proper at the top.

Erik, please squint strangely while facing the sun and trying to operate a camera.

Dunked in the lake after, then mom’s for dinner.  On way home highway was congested so we went over to 1A.  Guys jumping off bridge into reservoir at Ghost Lake... well... became a ghost.  We saw emergency vehicles heading out just minutes later, then a buddy sent around the news that one guy just didn't surface and later died after some recreational divers pulled him out then wasn't saveable.