Disasterrific...

Sometimes the solution to a problem is not found in ease or comfort. In these cases, more suffering is necessary. Today was a great example of this.

Attempt #1:

Woke up feeling like one of the trains that runs behind our apartment had derailed and ran over me repeatedly throughout the night... 2 days of wrenching on my bike... 2 days of insufficient sleep for various reasons. And... there was no coffee.

Attempt #2:

The day started again 1 mile from my bed, drinking coffee and eating donuts at the grocery store with Julian. We got a few things, and came home.

Attempt #3:

Changed clothes when it became clear that it was going to warm up today. Changed clothes again when it became clear just how much. After all the gray skies and 40 degree days with wind, sunny and 65 caught me a little off guard. Bike shorts and a t-shirt. Good to go.

Packed a picnic lunch and loaded up, headed for Rattlesnake. Nice easy road spin through Greenough Park and up Rattlesnake Drive toward the mountains. Very little traffic. Lots of bikes out. Lots of smiling people all around. Missoula is really a buoyantly happy, friendly place when the sun is shining.

We rode up the main corridor to the Wallman TH and stopped there for lunch. Julian chased butterflies. I ate my sandwich and soaked up the sun like a lizard.

It's peanut butter and jelly time!
Of course, these pine needles are interesting too.

Rattlesnake Creek

We walked around and looked at all the neat forest things. 

This yellow flower was maybe the diameter of a nickel.
I used a stick as an impromptu tripod. Still not as sharp as I would like.

Lichens are so strange.
Bright neon green is not exactly a color commonly found in nature.

After lunch, I decided we should go exploring... up... oh, I don't know... Wallman trail. This trail isn't exactly ridable. My GPS stopped tracking the percent grade when it reached 25%. One section was hike-a-bike so brutal I actually bumped my helmet into my handlebars. I pushed the bike and the trailer and Julian up as far as I could... over fallen trees and snowbanks... post-holing up to my knees and lifting first the bike, then the trailer... until we just couldn't go any further. 

Turn around, and DOWN the trail... dancing along that fine razor edge between too fast for my skinny tires and too much brake to where the trailer tried to come around. Yee haw.

Rode some very pleasant singletrack, hooked up with the main road, and zipped back home in record time. 

GPS says 23.75 miles and 2000 feet of climbing. Add in stalking lichens and chasing butterflies, and you have a perfect adventure on a perfect day.

It leads me to reflect on the amount of discomfort produced by this day. I have been struggling with the cold, the dark, and the wet. So much so, that I haven't even wanted to do anything. So why is it that I can be mildly dehydrated, post-holing knee deep in snowdrifts while lifting 90 pounds of gear and child over fallen trees on the side of a cliff... and LAUGHING about it... but get me slightly cold and damp, and I'm MISERABLE... I think I need to work this out. 

More suffering is sometimes necessary.