Raccoon, Monkey & Hammy!

Forgot to post this last week . . .

I'm a little burnt out at work so I decided to turn a 3-day Labor Day weekend into a 5-day so we packed up the dogs and bikes and headed to Nashville to hang out with Mike & Jeanie.

We thought about staying in Chattanooga Friday night but it's just not logistically easy with 2 dogs and it's just too hot to camp. The plan was to get up really early and try to get to Raccoon before it got too hot, hoping to get in a quick lap before the heat kicked in. We rolled up to Laurel Point and a guy needed a jump b/c his battery was dead so I walked the dogs for a minute on the trail. It was already warming up and there wasn't any shade in the parking lot so we drove over to the East Ridge Overlook. It was shaded but the Element gets no good air flow so we didn't want to leave the dogs locked up for 2 hours so Matt sent me on my way. I love Raccoon and it didn't disappoint . . . it was really dry but still fun. When I was about 30 minutes or so from the car, I called Matt and told him to get started on his lap but ended up calling him a few more times trying to figure out how to get back to the car. I managed to find my way back and the dogs were still cool so I cleaned up and waited for Matt to finish his ride, then we hit the road to Nashville.

Saturday morning Matt & I met up with some friends at Montgomery Bell. For some reason I had it in my head that this trail was pretty easy . . . probably b/c this was our home trail when we lived there . . . but it's not! Again, it was really dry and hot but still fun. Another 2 hour-ish easy paced bike ride with friends . . . just what we were looking for this weekend.

Sunday was more of the same except it was cooler and wet . . . fun, easy-paced ride at Hamilton Creek with Mike. In our few riding years living in Nashville I had never been to Hammy. I had heard how rocky, rooty & technical this trail was and it didn't disappoint. I'm pretty sure I would have hated this trail it Matt took me out there a few years ago but even though it was slicker than snot, I like this trail. Maybe next time it'll be a little drier!

We had a really awesome weekend catching up with friends and just relaxing. At times, especially during race season, I feel like all we do is ride, work, clean, ride and while that's really all we ever do, it's a nice change of pace when you don't HAVE to do anything . . . just going with the flow.