A Pleasant Ride
I had a cool ride this morning.Before I show you this, let me acknowledge that this is, bar none, the worst use of Google Maps and Paint in the history of man. It's abominable, and it took me quite a while to reach this low bar, which is even more embarrassing. With that in mind, take a look:
The misshapen red "X" marks the starting point, which is in the parking lot of Katherine Fleischer Park in Wells Branch. The thin yellow line (clicking on the picture will enlarge the image and make it easier to see) is the course, which is on a greenbelt trail that winds around all over the place. Riding on trail is much harder than riding on a road, but it's also much more interesting.
You'll see two notations on the map: "tunnel" and "bees." The tunnel goes under Wells Branch Parkway, which is a busy thoroughfare. The freaky thing about this small tunnel is that the top is just barely higher than my helmet. I was within a couple of inches of Mr. Beaning myself and getting knocked off, and if that had happened, I can only hope someone would have been filming it for YouTube.
The other notation, a little further along, is "Bees." I was riding along and saw some yellow caution tape stretched across the trail and around some nearby trees. I couldn't tell what it was, so I stepped off and walked closer. Written on the tape, in black marker, was the word "Bee's."
An unnecessary apostrophe.
My first reaction? I'll just ride through and see what happens.
Seriously, how old am I--ten?
In movies, characters sometimes have an angel appear on one shoulder, with a devil on the other, and they counsel the character on doing either the "good" or "bad" thing. I just have a dumbass on both shoulders.
Purely for the purposes of entertainment, I wish this now transitioned into a segment about a swarm of bees chasing me through the greenbelt until I had to jump into a nearby creek, breathing from a reed I poked a few inches above the water.
Sadly, this did not happen, because after about ten seconds of consideration, I suddenly thought "WTF are you THINKING?" and walked around the taped area instead.
Sorry, bees.
The whole loop is about 2.8 miles, and there are plenty of more technical sections (more technical for me, anyway) for challenges. Plus, even though you can see suburbia wrapped all around the trail, it's still very pleasant to ride, and if I want to add on a few miles, the trail also goes north of the park and winds around a small lake (well, a big pond, really).
The southern end of the trail is only a little more than a mile from our house (much to my surprise), so I might someday be able to ride to this trail, ride a loop, and ride home.
Getting many strange looks along the way, I'm sure.
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