TALES: Lost & rashed

Despite the soggy forecast, the rain let up enough for a quick ride yesterday after working all night. I hit the Chibana area, for what was supposed to be a quick ride on the Spiders & Pipes trail we cleared last week. After a good warm up on Chibana's farm-skirting singletrack, came the short, technical chute down into S&P, followed by some narrow, uphill singletrack. Then there was nothing.

Apparently, we'd missed a 100-meter link while clearing S&P that was now indistinct amidst the tall grass and debris from last year's typhoons. As I discovered, though, there were still plenty of farmers trails to lead me to dead ends in every direction. And, of course, plenty of Okinawa's infamous stray puppies barking and scampering through the vegetation.

After wrestling my bike through dense foliage, dead branches, saplings and "love me" vines for 45 minutes, I finally cut out, rode the road (admittedly a sin) around to the exit point at Kurashiki Dam and took the trail in reverse to find the link. As you might have guessed, it came out about two feet from the place where'd I'd finally given up the search. I should've followed the white puppy who fled in that direction down the rabbit hole earlier!

The good news: A 30-minute ride turned into 90 minutes, and there's a killer, triple-tiered downhill run if you detour slightly from the trail. The bad news: This really weird, dime-sized rash on my knee that is a perfect circle. It doesn't itch or anything, but it doesn't garner the attention from my wife either that, perhaps, a bloody laceration would.