MARATHON HIKE & BIKE!

I finally talked Hopkins into trying the trails at Government Canyon on Sunday. I had tried to build up the suspense for weeks now, telling him how tough it was and how it would certainly test our endurance. He finally got tired of hearing me say, "yeah, but that ain't no Government Canyon!", every time we would try to power up a hill.

I warned him to be sure and fill up his Camelbak and to bring extra GU and granola bars. He did all of those things, as did I, and we were ready for what we thought would be a three hour ride, tops. The last time I hiked/biked the GC trails alone, it took me 3 hours to do 10 miles.

We started off on the Joe Johnson trail, following a group of three riders, two males and one female. The girl was lagging behind, which suited me fine, because I could stay at a slow pace and blame her for it. Wouldn't you know it, at the first clearing, her friends were waiting on her and told us to go ahead so they wouldn't slow us down. DAMMIT! Now we would have to man-up on the trail.

We rode an hour or so, stopping a few times along the way to check tires and the map. We stopped to rest at the Canyon overlook and took some pics. As we geared up to get back on the trail, I realized my front tire was flat. Ten minutes later, the tube was replaced and we were on the trail again. This was to be the first of two flats I had that day, on the same tire!

The heat of February is nothing compared to the South Texas heat in June. We started at 9 AM and by 11 it was in the 90s. We took several breaks to rest, drink water, and eat our granola bars. I checked the time and we were three hours into the ride, but we still had quite a ways to go. We were both starting to feel very tired and a little lightheaded at times.

We each had our misadventures on the trails, particularly on the downhills, as most of the uphills weren't rideable. Hopkins laid his bike down a couple of times and I had one tree stab my arm and I almost kissed another one.

Just when we thought all was lost because we had both run out of water, we reached one of the trail heads. I remembered this particular area had water faucets, so we beat feet to the nearest one so we could douse our heads, face, and necks with cool water. We rested and partially filled our hydration paks with water, cause we still had a half mile or so back to the truck.

After FOUR AND A HALF HOURS, we arrived at the truck! We still had enough energy to give each other high fives and proclaim our greatness. Although we both know those trails kicked our collective asses, there was tremendous satisfaction gained in knowing we finished the whole route.

None of the posers we saw in the parking lot made it the entire way. If they had, they would have passed us on the trail, and they didn't. Not bad for a couple of out of shape wannabes! We both agreed we probably won't try the GC trails again at least until the Fall, when the temp is cooler. We may be crazy, but we aren't stupid!