There may be hope for roadies yet

Figuring that the Reservoir could stand people taking it easy on the trails yesterday but knowing that they wouldn't, I went out for a road ride.  This was actually the first time I've gone for a road ride here, I've basically been mountain biking most of the time.  I figured I could make a nice loop by taking a route around the Reservoir.  After wrapping fresh bar tape (oh baby, nothing like fresh tape), I headed out.  I took roads I was generally familiar with going clockwise around the loop to start, but about half the ride would be pure exploration, and should have been around 12 quick miles.  About ¼ of the way around, I came to an intersection at the top of a brutal little hill where I really didn't know which way I should go, so I stopped for a moment to get my bearings.  While I was orienting myself, another cyclist came up the hill and slowed to say hi, which is the first unusual bit.  We started chatting and I asked which way I should got for a loop around the reservoir and he said that he was actually rising the same loop but he took different roads cause the loop I was intending to do ends up being not a good set of roads for riding.  Then he offered to show me around!  Never once in riding a road bike, have I actually met another cyclist who stopped to chat, then offered to ride together without having any sense of my pace.  I hate to say it, but roadies tend to come off as elitist jerks.  It's typically the mountain biking world where people are known for being more social and open to interacting with strangers while riding.

So as we set off together, I tried to make it clear that I didn't want to slow him down, since I had ridden hard on Friday afternoon, and was generally out of form, and he seemed to take that.  It ended up being a gorgeous ride.  I saw a bunch of places I haven't been yet like a little airfield for RC planes, a river that may be paddlable, and the parking areas for Penwood state forest, which I haven't been mountain biking in yet but want too.  I hung on as best I could, he was definitely a quicker rider than me but I was mostly able to hang with him till the base of a spanker of a hill that goes up and over the same ridge running through the Rez.  He actually took a break to let me catch up near the top, which was really nice, since I still had no clue where I was.  Eventually, we diverged to head home in different directions, all in all it was a sweet ride.  A few more miles than I was looking for and I'm a little tight today (Happy Easter!), but it was good to push it a little and it was really nice to have someone show me around.