I'm really proud of my cyclocross touring bike, Annie. She's a trucker with knobbly 2" tires, steel frame, and a sturdy rear rack and pannier. I've had her since I moved out to the Seattle suburbs and I've used her on any number of rides in the region. This is a travelogue of when I picked out an early summer Saturday for a very special ride with Annie.
Being outside riding has always helped me with unpleasantness in my head. My goal here was to up the stakes, and enjoy myself, nature, and my body. Unfortunately, the very notion of sexually connecting with my fellow human beings frightens me. And my experience has led me to think of dating apps as being demonic hell-holes. But I do have a couple of things going for me. I have confidence in my brain's intelligence and creative ability to keep me excited. And now, on having turned 30, I actually feel good about my body, how she looks, the want she moves, and what she lets me experience. So Saturday was to be my solo date: keeping a distance from human contact and taking up some space for myself.
That entire week I gave myself time to carefully plan a detailed itinerary. I was to ride the ferry across the Puget Sound and haul Annie up an abandoned utility company access route. According to local trail maps, the route wasn't technically sanctioned for use as a hiking trail, and they warned that conditions could get dangerous with weather. That part was crucial: I certainly wanted to avoid the possibility of exposing myself and creating an awkward encounter for some unwitting hikers.
Our 21st century climate means that balmy summer weekends with highs over 80 degrees are not uncommon even up here in the PNW. For me, this meant that I didn't really need to worry about keeping warm. I did have to load up the bike with the essentials: repair kit, sunscreen, clif bars, tons of water, a blanket, and so on. With the direction this ride was supposed to take I threw in my purple velvet pouch with some select accessories.
One challenge leading up to Saturday was letting tension build up and not give in to the constant temptation to get myself off prematurely. I woke up a little light headed with the anticipation and vaguely horny. But I appreciate the quality of humor in navigating the mechanical and mundane parts of my itinerary in this mental state. I had to get the 5:30am ferry out of Seattle - I somehow managed to string together a sentence to buy a ticket from the not-fully-awake cashier. I was surprised to find my hands shaking as I locked my bike and gear on board, and I spent much of the ferry ride pacing across the bow in an attempt to cool myself down.
I finally get off the boat and back on the saddle - time for the challenge to commence. It was still early in the morning but the sun was up and was starting to get toasty. My riding fleece comes off. Even though I'm just off a highway with cars around, I figure it's not too risquΓ© for a girl to ride in her sports bra, right? If it is, too bad - this isn't even my first time breaking that particular barrier. There is a part of me that always feels a little silly and self conscious when I try to indulge my sexuality. But right now, she was being dominated by the other part of me who was just getting into her adrenaline rush. I stowed my fleece away into the pannier rack and started pedaling. After an hour of google maps shouting riding directions at me over back country roads, I reached - almost missed - the tiny unpaved service route entrance.
The wooden barrier up front was going to keep pesky vehicles away; and I was counting on the "PRIVATE TRAIL - UNSAFE CONDITIONS" sign to keep out all but the mildly insane hikers and riders such as yours truly. The risk of being stuck out there without cell phone coverage did occur to me. But I did have a carefully thought out plan, and either way the horny lady inside me would not let me worry about it too much. It took me about an hour of crunching my knobblies over increasingly rough trail till I approached the first of the somewhat scary looking hills.
Past a dense clump of trees, the trail decided to take a turn... upwards? At least that's what it looked like to me - I estimated it to be easily over 15%. For the next half a mile I was willing my pedals to turn in the slowest gear - breaking a heavy sweat all over my breasts and lower back. I also suddenly noticed the soreness in my obliques and shoulders from gymnastics class last week. This, right here, is my purest source of arousal. Groups of muscles screaming for attention all over my body, providing direct evidence of how hard I've been working them. I paused for a breath, sip of water, and to re-do my hair. I took a look at myself and the dense woods around me. The bra comes peeled off my shoulders and up over my head and goes into the pannier rack.