Solstice

TJ organized a Summer Solstice kickoff ride.  His e.mail to me was enticing:
"Hope to get 3hrs ride time in."

I met Mookie and Tyson at TJ's, and the 4 of us headed North.
Everything was going pretty much how I expected; the trails out there are pretty sweet and we were enjoying the challenges






With a water fountain (but no imaginary grocery store) in the cross of the figure 8 of a loop we were riding, 3 hours should work out just fine.

But I guess TJ didn't let the other guys know about the whole 3 hour thing.
Our route discussion probably didn't really clue them in on things either; throwing around ambiguous trail names we might as well have been speaking Greek.

When we got to the Wintonbury overlook, about an hour in, Alex asked if we were at the turn around.  Having just consumed another hour's worth of calories, I explained we still had a lot of good stuff to go, and shoved off.
When we had got to Wintonbury, Mookie told us Tyson bailed; after hurting his back crashing he wasn't feeling "it" anymore.

Heading into Penwood, we had a lot of the really good climbing ahead of us.  I had my Putney gear on  so I might have been a little "rambunctious".

With Mookie was under the impression it was going to be a typical mid-week, after work affair of an hour and a half or two he fueled as such.  Consequently, when  the glycogen stores became depleted, he blew up in a spectacular fashion. 
Fortunately we were close to the road and were able to cruise back most of the way home on tarmac.
The smooth spin on pavement seemed to have a somewhat regenerative effect, as Mookie finished strong on the last bit of singletrack.

A bottle of Heed away from a great start to the Summer.