Humility is a hard pill to swallow. Jill’s saga of late pains me to read, I’ve been there, and it eats your soul alive. Do know Jill that if you’re patient, years patient, you’ll come back much stronger than before.

I begin thus because I feel great. Whatever tweaked my knee (mysterious joint it is) last weekend has been remedied for the moment: two hours of “fun ride” today flowed beautifully.

The Thumb Butte area is my new favorite place to ride in town, mostly because it is new, and I like exploring. 305 and Spruce are a bit overly familiar after the winter, and Granite has me burnt out on the damn horses. Thumb has many shortish bits of singletrack, but I’m learning how to put them all together in logical ways, and the dirt roads that link them are fantastic riding. Too bad they, like all Prescott area trails, are identified by three digit numbers that do not stick in my head at all.

I started at the Butte this afternoon with no goals in mind, wandered up, reversing the end of the Whiskey route, playing with the rocky stream crossing, grunting to climb switchbacks. Then I rode 322, which was new, and climbed ever upward, generally up (west) on dirt roads from there. Intuition and lots of fun, never too steep climbing led to Sierra Preita overlook, and I descended the Whiskey route until 391 looked too cool to pass by. And it was very cool, twisting through a recovering burn. Alas, it ends with a short hike up to Copper Basin road, right at the end of the pavement. So I got to play Salvodelli and tuck into the pavement, trying to milk the coast. Pave rollers through Hassayampaland led back to familiar ground and the truck right at dusk. My new light next week is gonna make rushing to beat night a thing of the past, a danger as that limit is useful for curbing my enthusiasm.

The 50 mph afternoon winds we had yesterday had taken a couple trees down; the Epic Rides crew will need to get out the chainsaw later this month. I’m not sad to be missing the race, though I am sad I can’t offer our services as a crashpad for the Phoenix crew. Too many people, but on a great course. I like rough and variety, and it has that. I’ll do a time trial for public record later this month, to see if I can justify my seed for Eric.

I may postpone the scouting trip, the weather keeps looking a little worse each time. That, and I’m holding off on coercing M to come along. I can’t ride all day, and I like your company! (By the time she gets off work, I’ll be asleep.) Plus I feel bad about giving the teachers BBQ on Saturday a miss.

Which brings us back to the original point, that after I’ve feasted on ribeye covered in black pepper and other excellent foods, its time to crack a 1554 and fall asleep watching The West Wing. The bison agrees.