I don’t have pictures. I am sorry.

I called for a group ride at Brighton, last Saturday. The first trick was getting there. Between the map and the instructions that I had, things were not jiving and there seemed to be some holes – missing information – for example, the part where I turn on a certain road, or take a certain expressway, or whatever.

After a wasted half-hour of trying to find my way sprinkled with some road rage, I arrived at the Brighton Recreation Area mountain bike trailhead 30 minutes late. I thought my fellow riders would be gone, but I also knew that they were likely to do a short ride and return to the trailhead in search of me.

After prepping and still not seeing my guys, I started down the trail and made it as far as where Murray Lake and Torn Shirt split. I heard some riders on the return section of trail and saw what looked like my friend, Brad, in that group. I called out his name to see if he would respond, but I didn’t say it loud enough. I didn’t want to be that freaky girl yelling random names at unknown groups of guys in the woods.

I rode around that little loop to chase the guys down to see if they were my group. As I started heading back to the parking lot, they popped out of the connector trail and, lo and behold, they were my “group.”

Led by fearless Steve F., we headed down Murray Lake, first. This trail was fast and flowy, but also offered up plenty of challenging climbing. I granny-ringed a lot of it. In short, it was painful. When we finished Murray Lake, we headed back to the parking lot for a quick bite to eat, then we tackled Torn Shirt.

Torn Shirt is the “technical” loop at Brighton Rec. I personally would not call it a technical loop, but it certainly has some technical elements. The loop as a whole is not that bad as far as skill level goes, but it is aerobic murder.

The technical aspect of the loop consists of rooty sections, root drop-offs that form step-like structures down hills, and really steep, unsustainable uphills. There were two sections that I found particularly interesting on Torn Shirt. The first section was part of the first half of the trail. I suddenly found myself heading down a long, gradual descent that curved to the left. This particular section of trail had lots of exposure. It was high up and it seemed like the trail was really narrow, as it would seem to someone with a bit of acrophobia. I actually rode through this section and liked it, which I deem a breakthrough. I’m not sure I will ride it every time I encounter it, but there is hope.

The last part of the trail is the other section I really enjoyed. It was a section of gradual elevation changes and curvaceous flow. It was not only beautiful, but fun to ride. It just felt good even though I had already bonked earlier in the ride.

Ah, yes – the bonk. At one point, while climbing the steep uphills on foot rather than on bike, I met the guys at the top of a hill and told them that I had run out of gas. Steve shared a GU with me. The GU did the trick. I still had to walk some of the subsequent uphills, but I found myself climbing more easily and generally feeling better. Let this be an important lesson to you kids: energy gels do work.

After 165 minutes along 16.25 miles of trail, I was toast. I had completed Brighton with all that I had. There is something to be said for that.

Like Highland, I will have to return to Brighton in a month or so to track my improvement. Not only is this trail a great measure of one’s mountain biking fitness, but it is a great trail on which to build fitness.