Bike Ride

Ok. I was bored and kind of edgy, so I went off for a bike ride. I was gone for nearly 2 hours. Guess how far I went. 20 miles? 30 miles?

More like 6, actually.

So I'm sure you will all want to know how that worked out, right? Of course.

So, I leave home just like normal, heading North this time... Gonna go look at the people trail up there to see if they've extended it over the river yet. Nope. Wondering when they're going to build the bridge over the river. Lost in thought. I saw a path going on from where the people trail stopped, and I followed that for a while. It led to the riverbank, and went along the side, then just gradually disappeared. Weird. I turned around, and went back down the people trail. Then I decided to go check out the other end of the people trail, on the other side of the river, that I thought I saw on a ride to the airport. So, I went over the river on the Rocky Ford bridge, then went down the road (nearly killed myself there, was going 20 miles an hour on the sidewalk, and the car behind me was going to turn right onto the road I was about to cross... slowed down, then sped up, trying to get across before it, then this dude in a black car drives up the road I was going to cross, and blocks the sidewalk on the other side. Course, I'm still going 20 miles an hour... so I swerved and rode on the side of the road for a quarter-mile before I could get back on the sidewalk. This was a busy road, too. Stupid cars.

Well, I went up Middle road and found my trail... Took it east in to some random neighborhood. It narrowed into a normal sidewalk, and then trees and stuff were hanging over it... I was trying to dodge everything, then I remembered that it was a tiny neighborhood street with no traffic. That's where I got off and got on the road.

The trail turned right onto another road, and then left off of that road into a field, back at normal trail width. Went down there, down down down... I was expecting it to stop at the river like the other one does. What do I find? It crosses the river on its own little bridge. Then it stops. But hey-I made a discovery. There appeared to be two ways to go--Right, along the riverbank, or left, to the busy road where there doesn't appear to be any sort of bike-friendly path. I went right. The bank quickly got sandy, so I got off the bike and walked it for a way... then the bank ended. Yeah, it just ended and transitioned into a vertical cliff-face type bank. Well, so much for that. I looked to the left (toward land), and after scanning the bank a bit, I found a trail-type-looking thing going into the woods. Naturally, I had to investigate. The path beyond was covered with some sort of... ground cover plant, but there was nothing sticking up out of it, so I took my bike down it. Soon, the cover disappeared and it was just a narrow, foot-wide, but plainly visible, path going through the woods along the creek. Apparently, it was some sort of stunt trail, because there were a bunch of bmx-esque humps in the middle of it. So, it was just following the creek, and I was following it, feeling happy with myself at finding a way to cross the river without using rocky ford. The the trail curves left. Strange, no? Then it curves left again. Ok, so it did a 180 degree turn for no apparent reason. Odd. I followed the trail the rest of the way, out of curiosity, now knowing I was going the wrong direction... and it just stopped. I tried to find the rest of it through the undergrowth, but it was a no-show. It just wasn't there. So, I went back to where it turned around, and looked for a trail heading off from there. Nope, nothing there either. I considered just plowing through the growth, but it was pretty thick... So I didn't do that. I went back to the river bank, went down it, looking for another trail... then went back up the trail... hunted around... did that a couple times... Then I just left my bike there, and walked down the river bank. At the end, I saw a spot where it looked like I could jump onto the side of the near-cliff-face, and haul myself up... I thought about it, and decided to give it a shot... Threw myself onto the dirt, hung there a split-second, then very nearly slid down and into the river. Nearly fell in a number of times, actually. Finally managed to claw my way up, and once up, was standing in the middle of... Guess what! Nothing. Just more green... No trails. Clambered through a shallow part of the undergrowth, and ended up on another section of walkable riverbank. Still nothing leading to the other people trail (Which was my aim at this point).
Turned around, and got back up on the mini-cliff. Got to the point where I had jumped up, and realized that I wasn't going to be successful in jumping back down. So, I got the bright idea to tread through the green back to my bike. I could see it, after all...

Started my trek. It worked out pretty well, at first... Then, I felt a very sharp pain on my leg. Yes, on my leg... wasn't internal. Definately environmental. Of course, the instinctive reaction was to jerk my leg away and jump away from where I was standing. More sharp pain. Jumped forward a couple more steps, then stopped. I looked down, and what did I see?

Nettles.

I was standing in the middle of a huge patch of nettles. Of course. Well, that was a pickle, eh?
Stood there, looking around, looking for a way out of those cursed things. Man, I could see my bike. It was maybe 40 feet away. And yet so far. Of course, I was out there in freaking shorts. Because I'm smart like that. Man, Pants would've been a good idea.

I eventually got the idea that I should probably start moving. So, I shuffled forward, careful to get any nettles I saw under my shoes before I came into contact with them. While swearing pretty much non-stop. I managed not to get myself stung again, and eventually jumped back out onto that trail. You know, the one that curved around 180 degrees that I was so pissed off at. Go figure, eh?

I finally decided that I was going to take the *left* way off the bridge, the one towards the busy road. That way worked a lot better.