Jardine Juniper with Joe (JJwJ) - One of my favorite trails of all time. The only problem was all the rain that has fallen lately really muddied up the trail. The first loop, Joe took it easy on me and I managed to barely keep up on the uphills. The first section up to the first summit took 30 mins counting the crossing of the raging creek. The next section was not so glorious as it was pure mud. The sticky kind. My bike totally bogged down and I actually stopped and took off my gear and was going to hike it. I changed my mind and re-geared up and pushed the bike through the sagebrush up by the trail. The trail finally became rideable again, but the bike was just covered in it. I managed to make it around the loop at the top but the north side was still full of snow banks to hike over. The ride down was fun, but I had to ride in the bushes again for the mud section (half mile or so). I stopped at the creek and washed off a lot of the mud making my bike work again. Lap 1 in 1:21 (9.5 miles).  Picture of the trail partway down
Lap 2 began with a short up and back to meet Joe coming down. This lap, Joe was going to go faster and I was going to stay on the lower section of trail and do it nearly 2 times. This time, it took 38:30 to get to the summit. My legs were shot and my bike was still riding slower than normal. Enough excuses. At least it only took 13 mins to get down. Lap 3 began with the sun coming out and the rain and mist gone and now I was HOT and overdressed. That slowed me down too. I couldn't wait to see Joe again so I could turn around and head down. It took forever since he went to the tree twice that lap. Even with him stalling, I didn't make it to the summit. 30 mins up and then 10 quick mins down.
That was exhausting, but a lot of fun. I would wager that I could do the loop on try trails and no snow in 70 mins. I will test that out someday soon. Thanks to Joe for not killing me the first lap and for giving me someone to chase coming down. Good times! T- 2:53 (20 miles) 7mph 4200' Vert ** Weekly summary: 59 miles converted - 97 actual bike miles - 11,250' Vert - 586 mins Leg still gets sore off and on. Some moments I feel healed, others it feels it hasn't healed at all. Not sure what to think about it yet. I will give it short test run next week and see.
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