With Ryan out of town at his Brother’s house for Thanksgiving, I wanted to hang around at the cabin for the rest of the weekend. Matt drove over to join me Friday morning. To pass the time before his arrival, I said my goodbyes to the relatives and headed out for a few more hours of trailwork. I’d asked around about the section of the Blue trail on the other side of Green Mtn road from where I’d been working, and no one seemed to know if it were in good shape or not. I knew at least one part of it had the cedar groves clearcut off of it, so it was possible that the trail through what was now a grave yard of cedar mulch and partially ground up cedar logs would be non-existent, much like the section of orange trail that received the same treatment.

Thankfully, it was mostly intact and follow-able. Also thankfully, someone had cut most of that section of trail with a line trimmer of some sort (amazing, because it’s several miles long). I hiked and chopped a few greenbriar patches that’d been missed, but generally didn’t have much work to do, and ended up walking back to the truck on Green Mtn road instead of the trail.

I arrived back at the cabin when Matt was still unloading the car. We ate leftover turkey sandwiches and went out for a ride on the orange trail. Oof… If your first ride back from a week off the bike is singlespeeding up the climbs and rocks at Syllamo, it’s gonna hurt a little. We generally took it easy, though, and stopped to pay a visit to Mariah Haney off of Old Hwy 5…

My rock mojo was definitely off it’s game. Matt, who was riding rigid, felt the same way, though it didn’t stop him from doing his usual thing…

Since I’m not really “training” right now, we decided Saturday morning to go to downtown Mountain View for breakfast and Small Business Saturday shopping, then ride just after lunchtime. I bought a leather cowboy hat, and Matt did his usual thing (again)…

That afternoon, we rode a lap of the Blue Trail, because I wanted to enjoy all the chopping and cutting I’d done the days before. Just a couple of miles from the car, a black lab came bounding out of the woods and joined us. He was sleek but still dopey, and seemed to be having a great time just hanging out in the woods doing dog stuff. We were then faced with a dilemma- we’d parked at the Highway 5 trailhead, which sits (as the name suggests) right off of Hwy 5. People drive like maniacs down that stretch of road, and the dog, who I’d immediately started calling “Buddy,” was wandering around the parking lot looking like he’d dart across the road at any time. So, we decided to try and find his owners by loading him up and taking him up Green Mountain Road, where there was at least one residence in addition to a large deer camp. Buddy knew the command “load up” and thoroughly enjoyed the trip…

We first talked to John, the guy who lives almost at the bottom of Green Mountain road. It wasn’t his dog, but he graciously offered to take the dog and call around/place an ad in the paper once we’d confirmed that it didn’t belong to the deer hunters up the hill. As we were headed that way, a truckload of them was coming down the mountain, and, while they did confirm that Buddy was a “mighty fine looking dog,” it was not a dog that belonged to anyone up there. We turned back and dropped him off at John’s place, where he immediately started playing and wrestling around with John’s dog.

We’d later find out from the guys who were out riding earlier, that the dog had run with them for 16 miles, and that the owner had approached them at their camp early that evening (probably about the time we were dropping him off) asking if they’d seen him. The next day, she’d left a note at their camp that she’d found him, but didn’t say where. The dog’s name? Wait for it…..

BUDDY!

That night, we went to Tommy’s Famous Pizza. Definitely the best restaurant in Mountain View.

Sunday morning, we were going to avoid some of the trail leafy-ness by riding a little gravel out of Blanchard Springs. However, we got distracted by an old forest road, and started riding/hike-a-biking to see where it went (see note on the log in the bottom right corner).

It took us to Highway 14, so we rode the pavement back into the park and explored some other roads/closed roads/former homesteads in the area. It ended up being a pretty laid back day, and, after a couple of hours, we returned to the cabin to do the laundry list of Gerald’s Cabin Chores before making the drive back to Memphis.

Probably one of the more laid back weekends at Syllamo I’ve ever done. Though, it was highly enjoyable to lose the seriousness for a second and check out what else is around other than just the usual trails. I’m hoping for more of the same when Ryan and I go back weekend after this one (which is, coincidentally, the weekend we were going to go to Chattanooga for the TN State Championship CX Race). This break is taking knocking the edge off of my usual stress level, which is much more fun than vying for a state championship.