Weakened Report

Spent a great weekend w/t Sven & Friends out in the wilds of western Maryland. I rode the Margrave Plantation Trailby Deep Creek for the first time. Nothin' to it, right? 7 miles, mildly hilly, intermediate skill level. I think if you thought "Lodi Farm" but added in "with no flat spots and typically on a 7-15% up or down grade with loamy pine needle forest floor" you'd be spot on. Nice, nice, nice trails, fairly technical (by XC rider reckoning) with some very technical options, really well marked, as if done by some people who knew what the hell they were doing. I managed to bite the wax tadpole on a downhill log that was diagonal to the trail - crashing on such logs is becoming one of my riding specialities. But the real highlight was watching the kids play, nursing a mild sunburn, breathing clean air, and counting the different ways that a large murder of crows spoke to each other. (A dozen distinct, repeated calls one morning). Evidently, people make a career of studying how crows speak to each other... who would have thunk it?

Mainly though, the weekend was sheer fun and it reinforced my belief that I am really lucky to have the friends I do.

Artist's Depiction:
Me, Waiting for Dinner on Saturday Night