Magical Mountain Monday

Still trying to etch out a balance of work, love, and life I sacrificed a full weekend day for a few hours of being a better husband. H. works a lot. A lot. Mostly weekends (every other plus a night or two of the other every other) which tends to prevent her from being able to do a lot of the things she enjoys doing outside of work and home.

She had a wedding shower for a friend's daughter (the daughter is also a friend) on the Mountain Sunday and managed to swap working Sunday for Monday thanks to a friendly co-worker. Her plan was to attend the shower and sneak in a riding lesson on Monday morning. The protagonist for her was time. She worked Saturday night and has to work Monday night. This meant having to stay awake after 2 nights of 12 hour shifts and drive the big rig 2+ hours to the mountain, stay awake all day, sleep one night, get up early to ride, then drive home and get ready for work. Doable, but exactly fun.

Enter Mr. Nice Guy who has a live in "schemer". Taking a page out of Madame Schemer's playbook, I started concocting a plan Weds at work to try to alleviate the burden some for H.. The plan found me working solo Friday so as to be covered on Monday, since both of us at work have 2 weekends of time owed to us. This allowed me to drive the big rig down Sunday morning so H. could cat nap (the girl can sleep in a car, it's almost instant, I still don't know how she makes it to and from work, but I digress...) and since Monday was covered, I would be able to hang around Monday so as not to cut her 'weekend' short by having to leave Sunday night.

Talk about a sacrifice. I could have been out training, or in Canardia, or Pisgah, but I gave up my time for her. Selfless. Amazing. Yeah, not so fast. Remember the "schemer" playbook? Yup, in my guise of being a good hubband, I had booked time with the father of the bride (men were banned from the shower) and his motos. Four hours of motorized off-road fun were to be my payment for the sacrifice. Suh-a-weet.

Now this is a dual sus gearie I could get into.

We headed out moments after parking the trailer. Tens of thousands of acres of mountain forest terrain open to play. It was a blast ripping down double track I've ridden dozens of times under my own power before with a powered squishy rig. The power line atv runs were my favorite and where I felt the most comfortable hanging it out. The loose gravel roads felt really squirmy at speed with the knobbies but the leaf covered slick double track felt solid. I'm not sure I could swap my bike for a motorcyle, as I found myself wishing I was on my bike several times, but I can say mud is way more fun on the motorcycle! Hell yeah!

Taking a break at one of the overlooks at FSF.

One of the many waterfalls in the area.

Just before dusk: Time to head out, the hunters were getting thick.

Back at the house we cleaned up and hung out waiting for the women folk to return and feed us. Or not. So homemade salsa & cheese, chips, and Raman noodles were the man-made man's meal for the night. Perfect. It allowed us to continue watching Dust to Glory, a documentary about the 2005 Baja 1000, while eating without such distractions as conversation. It's a really entertaining movie, definitely worth a viewing and very similar to the Race Across the Sky documentary in that there are the million dollar pros and the common man all racing to finish and the challenges they all have to face.

Find the dog.

After a perfectly clear, crisp, and star filled night for sleeping out doors the pups and I were up early with the Sun. Then back asleep again for a short snooze. When H. woke up we unhitched the truck and headed into town for some local breakfast from the Blue Chair. I had the Sewanee Classic Breakfast and it was damn good. Bacon, two eggs over easy, massive wheat toast, and some sort of potato tot things called Baby Bakers or something. Washed it all down with o.j. and coffee and it was almost nap time driving back with the warm sun beaming in through the windshield. Everything was cooked to perfection. The pups got the tater's as I couldn't stuff 'em down.

After breakfast it was barn chores thirty and we lent a hand while our food settled. Then the pups and I headed out to Franklin State Forest for some Moots powered singletrack time, leaving the girls to horse around.

River of time: Where it all began.

This ride wasn't about fitness, fastness, or long miles/hours. It was about having fun with the pups. I picked the North Rim trail to start out on. This trail is one of the first I started riding back when I started riding and Franklin State Forest is where I first started bringing the dogs along. Dish actually helped lead a lost and losing daylight T.roy and I on our first ever visit to FSF. He popped us out about 50' from the truck, despite T.roy thinking Dish was going to just lead us further into the unknown. To T.roy's benefit though, Dish had been running amok most of the time we were out there so it wasn't totally outside the realm of possibility.


Dish and I would ride 25-40 miles out here almost every weekend when he had 4 legs. He often would outlast me. Having him around also gave a sense of security too as there have been plenty of run-ins with unfriendly types at FSF before. A very protective 85lbs Catahoula is a good trail partner. Having two now adds to the safety of the pack. As soon as I can convince H. that we need 3 I should be really well protected.

The North Rim offers plenty of creek crossing for cooling down and a quick drink.

JD is quickly falling into Dish's shoes. Just a few weeks past 4 months, he's running 8 miles without missing a beat. Stays right behind my rear wheel, and doesn't stray off the trail. A trait he shares with Dish is his affinity for pooping in tall weeds, keeping the trail clean of dog poo mines. Being on a tight time schedule, we only got in about 9 miles before having to head back to the farm, but they were quality miles.


Back at the farm we were able to catch the last few minutes of H.'s lesson before packing up the trailer for the return trip. JD had a bevvy of farm dogs to play with, Winston was his favorite but Emma the Mastiff wanted to play too. JD wasn't to sure what to think about playing with a Mastiff. No bites, but much slobber later, he still wasn't sure.

The Gov'na at work, preparing for next weekends competition.

Guard Dog Duty: Watching the bike.

Guard Dog Duty: Watching Mom ride.

Guard Dog Duty sure is tiring.

Despite the sacrifice, I had a wonderful weekend. I'm happy H. was able to finally get to enjoy life the way it ought to be enjoyed. She's now off to work and I've got a lot of chores to get done or caught up on. The Monkey is snoring on the couch next to me and Dish has take over my chair. Life is good today.

P.S. - Congratulations goes out to Papa Ted. It's been a long run old man. Time to enjoy the golden years!