Merrell Ride

 

I had an interview in Grand Rapids at noon. After the interview I headed further north to Merrell Trail in Rockford. Love the trail in the summer, and I can't remember if I have ever ridden it in the winter. With Albert in the car, and being about 20 minutes away, it was a no brainer.

I got there and the parking lot only had a few cars. One guy was just heading out. I got geared up and headed out. Its been long enough that I wasn't sure which direction to go. I had to swing by the first sign and get my bearings. Then it was off to the races! 

I say races, but lets be honest here...it was a slow ride. The trail was in great shape. The groomers have done an amazing job to get a base down. but, you get to the edge and it is game over. The singletrack snow ribbon was fairly wide, but the edge was deep. There were lots of snow angels along the entire route where people had gotten just off track a bit. Ha. 

The ride was going good until I got to the intersection above. This is Wynalda loop. While I know the trail, I actually wen the wrong way here because I couldn't remember which way on this day. So I headed to the left. In hindsight, I should have known better. But I plodded along until I got part of the way around and saw a sign telling me I was headed the wrong way. Thankfully there were no other rides coming or I would have caused a bigger issue. I was able to right the ship and then the memory of the trail started to come back. 

Looking back at my Strava it makes sense....been nearly 4 years since I have ridden out here. Which doesn't make sense because its such a fun trail. At any rate, the pic above is the way I should have gone. I did on my second trip through. It make much more sense. 

I just plugged away and was enjoying the ride. 

I got done and headed home. Overall just under 9 miles. Not fast. But I had lots of smiles and was enjoying the challenge of snow riding. I realized I am not the best at it simply because I haven't done it as much as I should have. I have had this bike for many years and it barely has any snow miles on it. But as long as the weather holds I will try to get out and get some miles in. 

Outdoors is so much greater than indoors.