Inspired to Divide Part 4: Reverse Death LOOP
The Death loop is a route I created several years ago. The intention of calling it the death loop was to scare folks away. BUT alas, as far as my short rides go, the Death Loop seems to be one of the more popular ones. The concept of Death being possible really draws the riders in. Funny.
Again, I left in the middle of the afternoon to chase the heat of the day. YES, that's right folks I was chasing the hot again. Instead of doing the route the like I have always done it, I wanted to do it backwards. As we entered Blufton road I could see the skies getting dark.
We kept the pace steady. Once in Alexander Wilderness I actually started feeling raindrops and asked Nick to pick up the pace. We did and rode out from under the storm.
We hit the pavement with only dark clouds chasing us and we made it to Alexander springs and we were still dry.
The lady at the gate said that the store was closed. This was my critical mistake, I had left the house with zero food counting on this store to be open. I asked her if maybe someone could just open up for a second so we could grab some snacks. BUT, she said the lady was gone. I figured that was fine, Nick said he had some extra supplies.
We roll down towards the store, because whether we liked it or not, the storm was about to hit. And when we got there, the lady who runs the store was in the middle of restocking and she totally let us get snacks and drinks. Not even five minutes after we sit, the sky opens up and we sit there and wait it out for forty minutes.
Eventually, the rain wasnt letting up, so I suggested we just roll and seconds after we pedal off, the water stops. We keep going. The forest was cool, lush and beautiful. Totally the oppossite of my desire to chase the heat.
We eventually made our way to the wagon trail. It was rolling fast, we hit a couple of deep water spots, no avoiding getting our feet wet. Onward and forward, eventually encountering a creek where there used to not be one. We got across. We linked up with the St Francis Yellow trail and took it back. Once we hit it, the skies opened up, and although we did a good job of missing the rain all day, we were now stuck on what felt like the planet Endor in a tropical rainforest in a downpour.
We picked our way thru the forest, across the bridges, and eventually made it out without incident. The skies letting up as soon as we did. Although the rain was not something we wanted, it did add to the magic of our trip thru St. Francis.
The rest of the ride back to DeLeon was smooth sailing. Although we got a late start and the skies and storms tried to stop us, we still beat the sun back to my house and finished another successful training ride.
Feels good when things work out doesnt it!
Thanks
Karlos