For day #3 of my retreat, I decided to go east along the Wobegon trail towards St. Joseph. This is a section I’ve ridden before, both last Sunday as well as a few times previously. My recollection even from a few days ago was that it was a pleasant stretch of trail punctuated by some cities and other stuff to look at. In fact, I recalled it as quite interesting, and a stark contrast to the more dull ride on Monday.
As it turns out, my memory is completely flawed. Today’s ride was just as boring as Monday’s. It was (again) very straight and flat. I only encountered one town (as I gave up after 13 miles), and there were almost no riders.
What is funny about this to me is that this isn’t how I remembered that part of the ride at all. I thought there were many more towns, and that there was a lot more to see.
I can only conclude that a trail is more interesting when there are other people riding on it. Today it was quite empty – I encountered less than 10 other riders. I did stop for a few minutes to chat with a rider who was sitting on the trail. Apparently he had bonked. His son had gone up the trail to meet his wife at a crossing who was going to bring in a vehicle to extract him and his bike. So we spoke for a while until they arrived. But that was the most interesting part of the day.
In fact, the ride was so dull I didn’t even take pictures. Lame.
Actually I shouldn’t complain. I like trail riding and this week has been fun. But it has definitely given me an appreciation for the road riding I do at home. I’ll bet riding these trails as the leaves turn will be beautiful to look at, although given the proximity of the trees it will probably mean more leaves and branches on the trails themselves, making it a more tricky ride.
The weather looks good for tomorrow so I may get one more ride in before I head home.