Sunday, February 28, 2016

Sunny Sunday

Ride Time! We haven't ridden since January 17, and that day it did snow a little bit. Today was spectacular. A true gift.

We parked at the railroad crossing in Marriottsville, and right on cue a train rolled by. It was the only train we saw or heard for the remainder of the day.

Our rig was the only vehicle parked in the lot, and through most of the outbound ride we were alone. We felt we had the park to ourselves! It was a lovely day and I wondered where everyone could be!
The rivers and creeks were high and running fast, still some lingering snowy and icy spots in the shade and ravines.

I wanted to stay on the sunny side and the high side, but we still had to cross the river three times before reaching our destination. On the way up Austin's trail KC ground my knee into a tree, a good-sized tree with well-defined bark. I thought my pants would be ripped, but later I could feel my skin, or what was left of it, sticking to my riding jeans.
That tree got me good!

We saw three other riders and a couple walkers on the entire ride to Woodstock. Along the way, crossing creeks and navigating around, it was obvious there had been no riders and few bicyclists out since the big storm. There was evidence that the ATVers had been out, and as recently as this morning. With the serious snow and storms we've had the rivers and creeks have changed: what was shallow is now deep, sand bars are gone, downed trees have floated away.

The Woodstock Inn was bumping, with motorcycles lined up on the road, the lot full, but no horses at the hitching posts.
While we were there three more riders came in, and service was slow. We had trouble getting a place to sit, and moved twice. Some came in and after a look around left because there would be a wait for a table.

On the way back we ran into more riders and hikers, families out. The park was getting lively, people in t-shirts and shorts! We stopped to chat to several groups, and others we passed up. We even were filmed crossing the river at the confluence, the water being a little high, but not so fast at that point.

We got back to the parking lot, which was full of cars. One car was parked right on our front bumper, but they were loading up their car and leaving.

We hadn't been in the truck five minutes and it started making a weird noise, and when the noise happened power was diminished. Couldn't go faster than 35 miles an hour. And it would occasionally 'roll coal' and I thought of the horses, getting fumed. The truck was running horribly on the way home, took an alternate route because we couldn't go faster than 30, and it was rolling coal lots of the way, but not the whole way home. This truck, 2004 Ford F-350 Turbo Diesel, has 52,000 miles on it. Barely broken in! All indications that it is a clogged exhaust filter, but not really sure. Hope so, that is a $6 repair.

And ran out of propane while cooking dinner; I use the grill frequently and last bought fuel in October, right before the camping trip we didn't go on.

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