"L" is for....

Loser?

Yes. Wait, no, "L" is for Lost. That is what happened to me on the ride today. Anyone that knows me is shaking their head, I know. I was supposed to be riding the Fool's Gold 50 route and I freakin got lost. That is practically like getting lost in your own backyard...that's how stupid it is!!

I started out with Eddie, Mark, and John up to Cooper Gap but had to run back to the car...plus, I had to do an hour of structured intervals so I was just going to do those and then meet up with the guys on the singletrack. Well, after my intervals I don't know what my problem was...but nothing looked familiar. I am so used to following others around in the woods and unfortunately we had to take all the route markings down from the race. So, I started backtracking, would take a trail connector, turn around, repeat....and all of a sudden I'm just riding around in circles wondering how on earth I could miss them. It turns out all three of them had split up to look for me around the same time that I was in the vicinity....it was just a fluke and I happened to miss all of them. I just kept riding and started to ride the course backwards hoping that I would eventually see them. Nope. I got confused because the 2007 and 2008 courses were slightly different so I didn't know where I was and where the guys would be. At the 4 hour mark I just went back to the car because I didn't want to make them come looking for me. As I was heading back on the trail I heard all the helicopters (rangers were playing around) and I was certain they were looking for me :) It turns out they weren't and the guys showed up about an hour after I got back...still, it was a great day to ride and the Juice rode well today! No, I didn't take any pictures..and I was so stressed most of the time that I hardly ate or drank anything during my four hour ride. Taco Bell tasted pretty darn good afterwards!