Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Gateway Park's Muddy Mountain Bike Trails Had Me Pedaling On Pavement Before Getting A Town Talk Chill

The outer world was dark and foreboding when I exited my abode a short while before noon, to drive to Gateway Park to get myself some endorphin inducing aerobic stimulation via sitting atop two fast spinning wheels rolling over a mountain bike trail.

That plan was quickly aborted, about 10 feet on to the Fort Worth Mountain Bike Association Trail, when I found my bike tires sloshing through thick mud.

Rolling over paved trails was the back up plan. I soon rolled past the memorial to Gateway Park's most recent drowning victim, and the boarded up boardwalk eyesores, soon exiting Gateway Park on to the Trinity Trails.

In the picture above you are on top of the bridge one crosses to exit Gateway Park to the Trinity Trails. As you can see, the photo documents that dark and foreboding thing I mentioned a few paragraphs ago.

In the center of the picture, that slash of white is Trinity Falls. I am almost 100% this is not a natural water fall, but the result of the most easterly Fort Worth impoundment of the Trinity River as it flows past the levee controlled zone to the non-levee-ed section of the river that passes through Gateway Park.

I am finding the humidity to be a bit more oppressive than I remember humidity being in past humid times. The ultra humidity does not much impact my early morning swim, but does impact midday aerobic activity.

As long as I am pedaling fast the wind chill keeps me adequately cooled.

But, when I stop, as when I stop to do some hydrating, or the two minutes it takes to get the bike secured and turn on the engine and the A/C, I quickly over heat.

Today I had not planned on going to Town Talk, but since Town Talk was so close and I was so HOT, the Town Talk walk-in cooler sounded like a real good idea.

And so it was.

That and I got myself a case of Orange Juice, BBQ Pork, Cornish Game Hens and a big bag of Bleu Cheese among one or two other things.

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