Sunday, April 5, 2009

The Canyon of Thorns at River Legacy Park

Yes. I am a creature of habit. I go from one habit, bad or good, to another. Of late going to River Legacy Park, to ride my bike, seems to be one of my bad or good habits.

That and swimming in the morning, which I did this morning in a cold wind, but warm, well, sort of warm water. Unlike yesterday, when it got in the 80s, today I don't think we got out of the 50s. Brrrr.

It took a couple miles of pedaling before I warmed up, a bit, at River Legacy today, around noon. Just like yesterday there were a lot of people biking, hiking and jogging the mountain bike trails. I hope the River Legacy powers that be are fully aware of what a good thing DORBA (Dallas Off Road Bicycle Association) has done for River Legacy Park by building these excellent, well maintained trails.

The entire DORBA team should get some sort of award or something, I don't know, maybe tickets to the George Strait/Reba McEntire opening of Jerry's Jones' new Dallas Cowboy Stadium in a couple months. Or season tickets to watch the Dallas Cowboys have another hapless season in their new stadium.

I saw no wildlife, again, today, except for some butterflies and birds. I didn't even see a single squirrel. Where have all the squirrels gone? I did get accosted be a damsel in distress who was in distress because she thought she'd had a worrisome encounter with a wild beast. As in she was pedaling along and stopped when she heard a loud rutting and oinking noise.

She asked me if there are wild boars in the park. I told her, yes, there are, and thought to myself how weird, I've been biking here for years, only within the last month did a guy tell me there were wild boars here, and then 2 days later I saw the herd, followed by another 2 days when Blonde Bobbi told me about her encounter with a large, single, male boar. And this damsel, today, telling me of an encounter. She was afraid they were dangerous. I told her I thought not. But what do I know? I thought bobcats were also harmless, and then that one in Arizona went on a rampage.

The Canyon of Thorns in the Prairie Loop on the River Legacy Mountain Bike Trail, as you can see in the picture above, is growing ever more thorny and treacherous. It's a risky, stickery chance every time I choose to take that loop. The Canyon of Thorns Prairie Loop is also the location where I was almost killed by an out of control pit bullish type dog last week, you may remember me mentioning. It is a treacherous section of trail. Many avoid it.

A funny thing happened today when I neared the Fun Town section of the trail. That's a special section of extreme, expert only drops and corners. There was a family of bikers, stopped for a rest. As I took the turn that went by the Fun Town entry I heard a little guy, maybe 5, say, "Look, that guy is going to Fun Town."

No, I'm not, I thought, Fun Town scares me. As I came around the loop, about 5 minutes later, I came upon that group back pedaling. They stopped to let me by and the little guy asked, all in awe, "Did you really ride Fun Town?"

"Yup." I said. Little guys need heroes. Even if they are bogus.

2 comments:

Gar said...

I'm shocked. Honesty is the best policy. The little kid was probably jealous cuz his parental units wouldn't let him go. You say, "hero", he says, "lucky".

You should have said, "Nope Small Fry, I didn't go. Fun Town scares me. But, if you keep working at it, soon, you too can fabricate stories to other youngsters who stand in ignorant awe of your biking prowess."

Durango said...

Well, you may be right, but it wasn't like I had a lot of time to think about what to say to the little kid as I passed by him. So, saying "Yup" seemed efficient at the time.