I think Jennie might hate me

Since we were feeling lazy for taking most of last week off I decided a long ride was in order for Saturday to shake the funk out. Rhonda wanted to bring a friend to share her pain and Jennie swallowed the bait. We got up to PC around 10:30am and parked in in the Community Church parking lot in Bear Hollow. Picked up Colin's trail north of the Canyons in Bear Hollow and climbed up to Mid Mountain. Slogged across Mid Mountain to the Spiro intersection which was about the point the girls were wondering what they had gotten themselves into. My plan was to do an out and back to Deer Valley and after a short motivational speech about the high fun factor of the rest of the ride I convinced them to press on. By the time we got to Deer Valley we were about 27 miles into the ride and the ladies were getting a little tired. We chilled at DV for a bit and hit up the Signature Store for some Snickers bars. They were really satisfying. After the snack and some low ball jokes about the fit of a certain bridesmaids' dress we started back along Mid Mountain towards PC. Jennie found her second wind and was pushing me from behind while Rhonda was trying her best to act grouchy even though she was loving the trail. We were weaving across the recently reopened old section of Mid Mountain between DV and PC when disaster almost struck. The trail had become a little overgrown from lack of use last year and the weeds were tall and thick on both sides of the narrow singletrack. I was flying down a hill with my eyes peeled ahead watching for traffic when I felt a thunk under my right foot. Next thing I new I was supermaning through the air at a high rate of speed. The only thing that saved me was my cat like reflexes which allowed me to dodge trees mid air and land in thick cushion of grass! Not! Actually I got very lucky and did land in a cushion of grass somehow missing the closely spaced aspens and escaped the fall unscathed. I used my adrenaline to walk back up the trail and rip the offending aspen stump, which had caught my pedal and sent me flying, out of the ground and toss it down the hill. By this time there was an audience of two hikers and four other bikers who must have thought I was Bruce Banner or something. I smiled politely, dusted myself off and di di maued down the trail. By the time we got back to Spiro it was getting late. Jennie's dog Kai had been on lock down all day so we decided to head down Spiro and take the road back to the car (this decision had nothing to do with any of being the least bit tired, we were just worried about Kai). We got back to the car around 6pm with a total distance of around 42 miles. It was a little more distance than the girls were expecting to do but I think (hope?) they still had fun. I know I did.