Friday I spent 3 hours riding 13.22 miles on the Pine Torch Trail in the Bankhead National Forest. The trail was wet, sandy, muddy, horse pooped, and anything else you can name. At times I was churning my bike up sloppy slopes or bogging down in wet marshy pits made by horses. I believe the 13 miles was almost as much as I could have managed. I was incredibly tired after. That 13 couldn't be harder than 40 on the road. I had planned on taking only 2 hours to make the loop. The trip up to the trailhead took longer than I expected. It was as far as I could go. Those last 2 miles were very tough.
I always try to help Rachael with Hubbard/Rockford if asked. They had me down for 3 days but at last minute asked for the other day. Work at Rockford is slow so working isn't hard, but not following my usual routine tired me out a bit. I still had some work I could take care of up in Cullman. Some bushhog work and other little items but the high temps held me back a bit. I did ride my bike a little and got in some of my walking in addition to some chores. Max needed to be delivered to Charlotte, SC for his drum major camp. I volunteered to take him. I was glad to be able to perform this chore for him but the long trip up and back combined with extra heavy traffic in the Atlanta are, which extended to within 30 miles of Alabama, combined to really tire me out. There had been a problem with my left rear wisdom tooth for over a year, so I decided I should get it taken care of before I wound up isolated somewhere in PEI. The extraction didn't appear to be problematic until just be...