Muddy Poston

10/28/2018 2:30 p.m. George Poston Park in Lowell. Backblast for our Sunday afternoon Mountain Bike ride.
A Twitter notice was sent out to F3 Gastonia to any mountain bike riders who wanted to ride be at Whitewater Center (if trails were open) or at Poston. Well, Whitewater trails were closed so Poston it is. To be honest, I do not like riding mountain bikes at Poston even in the best of conditions. In a moment of delusion and/or weakness, I decided to attend this debacle since the weather was so nice. Big Mistake! First thing in the parking lot, a policeman pulls up to us asks one of us to come closer to his car window. The officer hands Boudin a tube replacement kit he had found with no ID on it and is on his way. Gumby investigates some suspicious behavior in the parking lot and then we are ready to ride. The ride begins and everything seems fine. It is a little muddy but not too bad so far. At the Lake Loop intersection, the gang is all waiting for me to show up. We take off on Laurel Hill Loop (I think) and after a couple of close calls and even being very cautious, I eventually fall off the bike on a big, muddy, leafy, rooty downhill slope even though I was going pretty slow. I tried to do the stuntman roll like you see on TV but I was holding on to a bike so it wasn’t very graceful. I wasn’t hurt too bad (scrape on the arm and a bruise on the top of my foot) but that sealed the deal for me for today’s riding. I’m out! I followed the trail down to the creek bridge and Boudin and I escaped back to the gravel road and eventually the parking lot. The other guys got in around 8 miles and we got in around 3. Poston is difficult enough in the best of conditions but being wet made it no fun for me. I will leave it for the (Semi) professionals. Those dudes are TOUGH!