The Bike

Rode the bike yesterday.
Bullards Bar.
Near record high temps.
Lots of ticks. Careful if you're down there right now... their thirsty.

Felt good. Good to be riding. It'd been since Christmas since I'd been on the saddle and I'd almost forgot how I missed the feeling of rolling through the woods on a bike with my leg hairs waving in the breeze. The weather was perfect (read; warm) allowing all of my very very white appendages to see the light of day for the first time in months.

Bullards Bar: We parked at the Dark Day Boat Launch and rode the roller coaster like Bullards Bar Trail towards Willow Creek and then did the climb up towards Camptonville. From there, it's a little bit of dirt road riding back towards Marrysville Rd. Once there, you will see 8 Ball Trail running on the South side of Marrysville Rd. We took this trail to Schoolhouse Trail which drops you back to Bullards Bar Trail for a few more miles of roller coaster type stuff back to your car. There's a couple more trails there, but the mentioned route makes for a nice loop... especially if you haven't been riding for a while.

Things of note: TICKS!! When we rode, they were everywhere! And I mean it! Upon inspection of almost any bush, vine, branch or anything else that was slightly overgrowing into the trail you would see these little bastards hanging out on the very ends of said overgrowth waiting for you come by so they could latch on. We stopped many times to do a "tick check" and were fortunate to only find a few of them actually on us. I think that when your on a bike at speed on the trail they have a harder time grabbing a hold of something and get "bounced off". If guessing that if you were hiking you'd have them pretty much all over you. Keep an eye out... these little bastards can really mess you up if you let them. My advice: Ride fast and check yourself often.
Also, about a 1/4 mile past the Dark Day area heading towards Schoolhouse the trail is severely washed out. It's possible to get through, but you'll have to earn it. The washout is about 15ft across and at least this deep.
One more thing; if you forget the ice/snow to keep your beer cold, initial testing we've done seems to prove that covering said "liquid refreshment" with abundantly found ground cover (leaves, pine needles and the like) does indeed keep things at a nice chilly temp.