By the time I stopped at the flowering tree at the intersection where four separate trails met I knew for certain that I was in completely new territory.
Before yesterday I actually thought that I had at least seen most of the trails close to the base golf course.
But as I turned right and picked up yet one more rocky and dirt filled trail I began to realize that there was so much more to this area than I had realized.
I had been inside new territory for a while.
As I had been traveling the "mainest" of these abandoned old roads (and even as I unexpectedly found and explored a handful of side trails that I had never seen before) there were many other roads and trails that I did not explore.
They would be there waiting for me on other days such as this.
I was reminded again just how lucky I was to have so many different areas in and around the base that provide such easy access to outdoor recreational opportunities.
As I continued to move still further away from my truck I began to hear the music of bull frogs.
Lots of water sitting and sometimes flowing in multiple low lying areas.
I began to enjoy listening to the bull frogs as I approached them, and observing as they became instantly silent once I reached them.
Another one of many occasions when I am exploring outside, that I feel like a little kid.
Exploring the remains of old buildings. Climbing to the top of hills. Looking for bull frogs in ponds. Climbing under barbed wire fences. Wading bare footed through rocky creeks.
Do grown up women actually that kind of stupid stuff?
Yes.
Sometimes they do.....................
Climbing a long and gradual incline..................
Stopping briefly I leaned my bike up against a TWRA sign while I explored and found what looked to be simply a deer trail.
I was at one more trail intersection and again debated which way to go.
Looking straight ahead I felt certain that eventually I was going to hit the very large and wide open grassy power line trail.
If I turned left I would hit another double track and was also curious to see the unexpectedly wide open fields that had been bush-hogged.
Why were there bush-hogged fields when all I had seen today were heavy woods all around me?
Heading that way I noticed an empty shot gun shell in the middle of the trail and had my answer.
Of course.
Hunters used this place as well as bicycling women.
The only other person I had ever seen back here was a hunter a few years ago scoping the area ahead of deer season and setting up flagging tape.
The fields were for dove hunting................
Heading towards the fields...............
I had known all along that if I kept heading back and back further, that I would eventually hit the power lines, and as I continued further up this trail I did finally come across them.
I had found another trail leading directly to the power lines a few months ago and for a few moments wondered if this was actually the same place...............
Standing out in the open field and beside the huge towers (that had literally made my skin tingle with electricity during the summer a few years ago when I was riding on UTSI road and rode directly underneath the wires) I looked around me and was surprised to realize that there was a VERY long double track maintenance road that continued far into the distance.
You know.............I remember standing in the middle of a tiny island in Eastern Tennessee a few years ago.
I was doing the race as a solo team and was in a kayaking section of the race.
Nervous because I had never kayaked alone at night I hugged the shore for a long time on the flat and quiet lake, making my way slowly but surely through the section and picking up checkpoints as I went.
Eventually the map told me that I had to move away from the safety of the shoreline and head into the center of the lake in search of that CP on the island.
I wrote about my experience looking for that checkpoint quite a while ago, but the bottom line is I did find it.
And as I was standing in the middle of deep brush on that dark island rummaging around looking for the checkpoint I looked up and saw the bright orange and white flag and punch hanging from a tree.
I remember smiling in huge excitement, and thinking at the time that it was SO exciting to find that little orange flag in the middle of an island in the middle of the lake in the middle of the night in the middle of a race.
I felt that same excitement yesterday standing beside the tower looking down a completely unexpected dirt road that appeared to go on for miles.
I studied it again for a few moments and realized that I could probably ride it all the way down to UTSI Road.
At least a few miles, but a long way from my truck.
That ride wasn't happening yesterday.
My stomach was beginning to rumble................
I rode it a short way................
By the time I turned off the power line trail and onto this trail (still working my way further away from my truck) my stomach was grumbling and my energy level was beginning to drop.
Trying to lose weight I had not eaten a whole lot for a few days leading up to the ride, had skipped breakfast, and only at the last minute had thrown a banana into my pack as I headed out the door.
That sort of thing very rarely happened when I was actually "in training" and when I raced, and eating a sandwich while driving to the base or to the gym was common.
And so was carrying extra food with me in the back of my pack.
Just beyond this large clump of tall pine trees in another trail on the left.
I did not take it.
Rather, I pulled off the trail at the intersection, unceremoniously dumped my bike in the middle of the trail, pulled my helmet and gloves off, and dug into the bottom of my pack in search of the banana.............
Sitting on the ground beside my bike I thought about the very many times over the years I have sat on the side of trails beside my bike eating and drinking and resting.
And I thought about the very many times during races that I have slept on the side of trails beside my bike.
The bike had been an extension of me for so many years.
Like an old friend who always traveled silently and supportively with me.
I hungrily scarfed down the banana.
Feeling better I felt confident again that I would have enough energy to make it back to the truck.
And after eating began to slowly wander around the area on foot, taking in my surroundings and snapping quiet and random pictures.
As I looked down this trail I wondered where it went and briefly thought about finding out.
No. It really was time to begin heading back.............
I did not head back the way I had come.
Rather I veered onto a trail on the right that was up-til-now previously unexplored by me, heading back in the right general direction...............
And that trail led me back towards the power lines and onto trails that I had traveled earlier in my ride..............
Who does this?
What kind of person drives onto base property and leaves old tires?
I was sorry to see this...............
Gradually over the next hour I wandered still more roads that I had not traveled before this day, slowly but surely working my way back to the beginning of my long adventure.
Part of me was happy to be heading back towards my truck, because I had been out for a few hours and was both hungry and tired.
The other equally strong part of me was disappointed to be heading towards people and then back to civilization............
I asked myself what I believed. I had never prayed a lot. I hoped hard, wished hard, but I didn't pray. I had developed a certain distrust of organised religion growing up, but I felt I had the capacity to be a spiritual person, and to hold some fervent beliefs. Quite simply, I believed I had a responsibility to be a good person, and that meant fair, honest, hardworking and honorable. If I did that, if I was good to my family, true to my friends, if I gave back to my community or to some cause, if I wasn't a liar, a cheat, or a thief, then I believed that should be enough. At the end of the day, if there was indeed some Body or presence standing there to judge me, I hoped I would be judged on whether I had lived a true life, not on whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I'd been baptised..............Lance Armstrong
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