Getting Back Into Mountain Biking: January 2014

Ride 1

January 18,2014

Joshua Tree Trail, Palmdale California

We are having incredible weather here in Palmdale so I decided to see if I could get back to Mountain Biking. 2013 was a horrible year for me as I seemed to have one injury after another (Due to being to fat) and I was not able to do any real mountain biking in 2013. I am back injury free and feeling good at the beginning of 2014. So here I go..

I got my gear together and lubed up the bike and headed out. It seems whenever I give getting back into mountain biking a try I head over to the old favorite and close to my house, Joshua Tree Trail in Palmdale. Now I don't know if this place is still actually called Joshua Tree Trail because it was closed for a time when they tried to build houses up in here (Which failed miserably). Well after the failure to build houses up here it seems that it is open again for Hikers , Runners and Mountain Bikers.

So this was a perfect day weather wise and I headed over to the trail. Parked the car and got my bike together and headed up the paved closed to vehicles portion of the road that leads into the trail in the foot hills of the west side of Palmdale.

Fist thing I found out was after not riding of doing much of anything during 2013 I was really out of shape for mountain bike riding. Okay no worries I have been through this before in 2012. The result was that just riding to the area where the dirt trails start had me breathing hard and this seem like a good place to stop to take a picture.

So this is the picture I took at the beginning of the ride where the dirt trails start off to the right here. Plan is to head off to the right and follow a trail that will head up to and over the hill in front of me.

I headed off to the right and was on a little up hill and moving along. I was thinking wow I don't feel to bad, moving along through a soft dessert type sand and heading on a little up hill but not breathing to hard and not feeling like I was going to pass out. This actually kind of shocked me but hey I figure go with it and see how it goes.

My first stop was about 3/4 of a mile in

okay not that far I know but still a victory for me cause I did not think I would make it 100 yards. I stopped here where the California Aqueduct is underground and what I think this is , is a pressure release valve where if there is to much pressure they can blow some water out .. Well that's what it looks like but I could be wrong. Anyways it was a nice place to stop. Now the trail ahead of me headed up a little steeper hill. Some guys on mountain bikes went by and just powered right up the hill. I was thinking how nice it would be to be able to do that.. But no matter I am heading up the hill slow and steady..

Okay I made it up the hill and well that was a lot tougher than the beginning of the ride. The distance to this point is 2 miles and I am now feeling just how out of shape I am. No matter I will continue in for a 2.5 mile distance and that will give me 5 miles back at the car. I am going to take this as a win and be happy that I can still ride a little bit and know I can get way better. I hope this great weather holds out and I can ride next weekend and so on... All and all a good first ride of the year.