St. Patrick's Day

Ah, the time of year that Southie is over run by thousands, intoxicated and in green.  This is also a time that if you move your car, be prepared to park very very far from your house... so I was pretty much stuck in Southie all weekend.

Saturday I took the risk and left Southie bright and early for the first trail work session at the Fells.  It was a great turnout, had about 30 people there.  We made short work of the task at hand - rerouting an uphill section of trail and then regrading and narrowing the trail coming down the backside.  I had never ridden this trail before (orange), as it had previously been illegal for mountain bikers to access, but it was great to start getting our "new" trails ready to ride in April.  It was also nice to hear "thank you" from the many dog walkers, hikers, and joggers that came through while we were working.  So no matter how loud one group may be in damning us mountain bikers, the majority are truly cool with shared access and appreciate the work we are doing.

We've got much more work to do in the weeks ahead to get the orange trail fully open and ready to go for bikes... and then some planning and work on building new trails - which will be rad!  Working on the trail was rather fun.  At the end (sorry, didn't take any pictures) the trail looked as if we hadn't done anything to it... which is perfect!! One guy commented - "it's like a woman and her make up - takes 2 hours and you can't tell the difference!!"  Too funny!!

When I got home I was luckily able to park right down the street (after multiple laps looking for a spot).  I was itching to hit the trails, but already the streets were getting packed (and double parked) as the masses were rolling in for their night of partying, so Annie and I just went out for a nice lunch down at the Seaport instead.

Sunday was parade day.  Again, that meant no trail riding for me... so I took out Georgia and hit the streets.  As I was leaving Southie (a couple hours before the parade start) I encountered cab after cab coming into the neighborhood and masses of people in green walking their way in.  Of course I represented with the Ireland jersey but was headed out of the chaos.  Nice little ride.  The weather was perfect and I combined the last two ride routes into a 35.2 jaunt.  Still have one section to iron out but this will be a nice little loop I think.

Today I do have the HiFi on the pterodactyl and I'm ready to ride after work!!  Not sure exactly where I'll be yet... maybe Foxboro or Upton... but I'm sure it will include fat tires and dirt!!