Well, another Jaycee trip in which people think it's a good idea to bike up a mountain. Good Lord, God made helicopters for a reason people! Anyway, we did opt out of the 'hill of death' limb from our last trip and went with a smoother, yet longer, grade this time.

17 miles long that is - one way. Up a mountain? You've got to be kidding me. Who cares that it's not steep, my butt checks can't take that kind of ride, thank you very much. But 6 people and 1 dog decided this would be fun. It took a bit over an hour to finally find the place an then we were ready. Or not. It did take us awhile to get geared up for the event.

Unfortunately the start of this had us going through a lot of streets, which was bad with a dog. Finally we got to a decent entrance into this trail. Which was like an old railtrack or something? I don't know but it was definitively marked with small, black gravel at a car width tracksize.

And so it began. About halfway up I realized two things: 1, the seat was too low; 2, this appeared to be too much work to enjoy nature. The first was actually easy to fix (even for me). The second, a bit more challenging. Of course, this sort of alternative solution finding is what I strive on, so at least I had a goal.

"Let football be your guide." Wise words ESPN. And so it was. I went with misdirection. At this point two things appeared obvious with Ranger (the dog): 1, he was only marginally successful heeling/jogging on the right (btw, can any of you idiot dog trainers out there explain why you insist teaching this on the left when we're in the US and not the UK?); 2, he was seemingly tired.

Of course I took this poor dogs suffering as my own saving grace and thus avoided actually collapsing on the trail. Oh sure, fat people of all ages were passing me with no trouble, but I wasn't going to let that goad me into action. Hell no, I'm all about the long haul baby. Specifically hauling my ass home alive.

This turned out to be a twofer. One, I get to slack off and stay behind with Ranger, thus saving my short little legs. Two, I look like quite the caring (dog) parent. Fools! As it turns out, ranger and I had quite a few fun play times in the stream. And the only way they'll ever know is if I were dumb enough to write about it.

Of course, at some point up the hill, we figured we should turn back with the dog while the others continued on. As it turns out this was a good idea. We stopped more frequently down the hill (we could coast, but he still had to run). At one point we noticed the limp and inspection revealed the blisters. Poor boy.

Now at this point we had two choices: 1, try and get this 95-monster to stay somewhat still while I carried him 5 miles back to the car; 2, have Kristine bike back to the car and meet us at the next road intersection.