BAM Ride

Every week, a handful of South Central Racing riders meet for the BAM ride--B-Team, A.M.--a nice mellow ride for ideal for newcomers to road riding or folks looking for a good social recovery ride. Last week, it was socked in, snowing and rather uninviting. I waited at the rally point but no one else showed. The weather just made me feel nostalgic for my early days of riding Pennsylvania roads, not to mention I was relishing the though of the first ride of the year without a 30mph head/crosswind, so I mounted up on the 28 Special and rolled forth.
I choose one of my favorite hour long routes that connects all the existing SPOT (Salida Parks, Open Space, and Trails) trails around Salida. Starting out on the Monarch Spur Trail, I rolled out under a light sprinkling of snow. By the time I reached the pipeline construction zone on CR 140, the sun was trying to peek out. I like to do a lap around the dirt roads at Fairview Cemetery; I imagine I'm riding some tree-lined avenue on continental Europe in the 1920's, which Fairview resembles, except with more headstones.

Onward to Franz Lake, as the overcast burned away from Tenderfoot and Mt Shavano, to test out the 28's dirt handling with a new absurdly expensive Conti Top Contact rear tire to complement the Specialized Houffalize CX front (You know, if someone would just call their tire a 'Mk II' or something, I'd buy it just because it was easier to say.)
After a couple laps of Franz I paid my respects to the mallards, and headed for Sand Lake and work, taking a little diversion onto singletrack along the way. A nice little ride to work.