Middlefork of the OT; Wicked Pissa

Dave, Zach, Keeven, Christopher, Carl and I rode part of the middlefork yesterday. The weather was perfect, along with the trail conditions. I have ridden some of that trail before, but we went much further yesterday. The trail tread is mostly small rock, with some sustained sections of loose over hard. The terrain is rolling with a barrage of moderate, switchbacked climbs that go right into moderate flowing switchbacked downhills. For around here in the Midwest, this is where its at. The isolation makes it prett epic to ride this alone, but a trip to this area is well worth it. There were two downhill sections in particular that were memorable, truly sustained and fast! The climbing was long, but not anything to totally burn your legs off. We logged about 34 miles round trip, with our turn around placed at the top of a ridge on cr 3222? It looked like the was a ways to go to the terminus of the section. On CP's blog there is a map of a loop that will let one ride the entire trail, and return on mainly gravel roads. This seems like a good task to attack in the next few weeks. I will be making a bid for this loop soon enough. Probably will not change much about how I prepared. I have not gotten alot of long rides in my legs this year, so there was some pain toward the end of the ride yesterday. The last 5 miles were a crawl back up to the parking lot. I was somwhat fatigued, and felt the beginnings of some cramping. The double secret mix I prepared did the trick on the cramping, but the fatigue had set in pretty good. Keeven rode with me as I limped back the last section. A few more of these types of rides should put me in a good spot for the latter part of the seaoson. This was a great trip on some of the best single track I have ridden this year. We are truly lucky to have this network of trail in our yard.

Afterward, we stopped at El Tapatio, on the border of Park Hills and Deslodge. I got a burrito about the size of a piece of firewood. That thing lasted about 3 minuites infront of me before it was gone. We didnt think it was going to be possible to make it on account of the element. When Dave was dogging the honda in the parking lot, a piece of gravel got lodged inbetween the frame and the driveshaft. We knocked it loose, and continued on our way.
IT WAS A KICKASS WEEKEND.