My ride at Battle Point Park in Bainbridge Island, WA
I knew that this weekend, being the first weekend with my Nimbus 29er, I wanted to go to some trail to do a nice distance ride. I decided on the 2 miles loop at Battle Point Park in the beautiful northwest!
The day was nice, with some heavy showers on the way over, but at the park it wasn’t even wet on the ground! It was brisk outside, but I had padded biking shorts on under some biking pants under some regular shorts, so I was both warm and comfortable.
The start of the trail was paved, although it did have quite a few bumps from roots in the ground. I mounted right away and rode off at a nice, brisk pace. The first person out of many I passed was a lady with a dog—on a cell phone! I don’t know about you, but I just couldn’t stand walking along a beautiful wetlands trail while gabbing with my girlfriend (even though I don’t have one).
As I rode along, I passed a great little pond with geese, ducks, and seagulls that were very well fed from the old ladies who feed them too much bread. I guess that explains the goose poop everywhere (including on my Big Apple). I kept a nice brisk pace, although I had to slow down when bouncing over the roots in the pavement. In fact, I did so well at getting over the roots flawlessly I thought to myself, “if I do a writeup of this ride, I’ll be able to brag about no UPDs!” Just about 2 seconds after that…WHOA!!! Yep, I UPDed on a root.
After the paved “pond circle” section, I journeyed on to the hard packed rock trail that was actually smoother than the bumpy pavement! The Big Apple did great on the dirt, although it was pretty hard packed to the point where it was almost like pavement. I passed many bikers and walkers and waved or said hi to most of them. I got nothing but positive comments which was great! I did get one dreaded “where’s your other wheel?” comment, to which I just said, “I got this bike half off in the bargain bin!” It’s funny how people think they are the most smartestest people on the planet to think of such a side-splitting comment…
I traveled on, despite UPDing right after the “wheres your other wheel” (WYOW) guy spouted off his little spirt of hilarity. The rest of the trail was even better than the first, nice and smooth gravel! I passed two bunnies, thirteen ducks, countless crows, and I chatted with the microscopic organisms in my eyelashes (the ones in my eyebrows were not too chatty today).
I did this loop about 4 times, and I can’t wait to come back! Oh, and the highlight of the post-ride rest: a nest of about 5 baby bunnies all huddled together with their mommy! Speaking of moms, give your mom a hug next time you see her and you can have some positive reputation if you post here about it.
Tyler
