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There is always a certain amount of reward & punishment to my summer mountain bike rides at San Felasco! The heat & physical exertion are rewarded by the good feeling and outdoor experience. Today there were more dimensions to this juxtaposition. The heat was not too bad as the humidity is down & I did not get going until 5pm. I did still manage to get 21 miles in & focused on toughest trails out there (defibrillator loop & tung nut hills). My first reward was the tasty ripe blackberries about 10 miles into the ride. I discovered the punishment when rinsing off was a infestation of about 30 seed ticks on my left ankle! The second reward was this pair of polarized Arnette sunglasses that somebody lost on the trail. I often find lost treasure along the trail and try to get them back to the owner, often with success. I did find myself wanting to keep this pair, hoping not to find the owner doubling back looking for them. I even questioned if I would give them back if I did run into him/her. I do like polarized sunglasses & these looked nice, though I did not know the brand (but figured might be a little pricey as they are made in Italy!) So I put them in my bag and headed on, but I was experiencing the sin of coveting my neighbor’s sunglasses!
At this point I’m feeling great! So I let it loose going down a long (for Florida), windy, single track. Next thing you know my back wheel slides out left, bike lunges right and boom! I punch a tree (about 4″ dbh) with my fist on the handle bar (braking) and hit it with my shoulder & I’m on the ground. Interesting how much happens in that split second of a wreck. I was probably going around 15 mph, but luckily I was able to brake a little, so my fist took the major blow & the shoulder impact was nothing. Not sure how I ended out on my ass, but no harm on the fall & bike was fine too! Even the scrapes on my knuckles probably could have been avoided if I had new gloves that were not already falling apart at the knuckles. But then again, I might have ripped the new gloves? Anyway, this did seem to be warning against my sins & I resolved to ask anyone I saw if they lost their glasses. As it turned out, I did not find the owner, so I add this to my collection of road/trail finds (I do lose things too)! I can certainly use a decent pair of sunglasses as I am too cheap to buy a nice pair of glasses that I know I will lose (the $10 Walgreens polarized glasses work, but are nothing to write about!) I also know that tomorrow about 30 little bumps will pop up on my ankle to itch for the next week, but those blackberries were worth it too!
