Well, last night we had plans (I've learned what a scary word that can be) to walk the northern section of the Ray Roberts Greenbelt Corridor round trip cutting it a bit short. On the mapmyrun.com map, it showed up as 4.1 miles from the 428 or 468 or whatever parking lot off of Sherman Road in Aubrey to the north end right near the Ray Roberts Dam. It was exactly 4.1 to the bridge over the creek, and 4.5 to the road. My training plan (I'll share more about that later) included 8 miles for today (originally just 7, but I was going to do 8 because I am doing the Hills & Heels Dollar a K, 10K...my first 10K ever next weekend which is only 6.2 miles and have planned on 7 miles for next weekend, so figured do some extra this weekend and the 6.2 will work out even). Since it was 4.1 to the creek and 4.1 back would make 8.2, I thought this is perfect.
We have had a rough week at our house, and as a family, we really make memories and bond a lot when we hike or get outdoors together. I asked Mark if he wanted to ride his bike, and Issy was going to ride her bike. We have had much cooler temperatures the past few days, and the forecast called for temps under 85 degrees in Aubrey up through 11a. So, I figured if we started around oh, say, 7a on the trail, that would give us easily 1.5 hours there (which is slower than my usual pace) and 1.5 hours back and it would definitely be nice and cool and refreshing for all of us.
Well, first mistake, slept until about 7a, and didn't leave until probably 9a. We got to the park and ventured out about 9a or 10a. It was muggy, and not quite the cool 91 degrees I had remembered from the night before on the patio (which was probably a much lower humidity). Then the bike Mark was using (thanks Mom for lending us yours) was having brake issues. And the what looked like a paved trail from mapmywalk was all small gravel. And before you know it we were about 2 miles into the walk with the sun peaking over the tree line, and I already started to realize that we probably weren't going to make it back. Shortly after spotting and shoo-ing away the copperhead on the trail past the 2 mile mark, I suggest to Mark we should turn around and call it a day. He convinced us to continue, and so we did.
We did get to see the McKinney Road Bridge which was a broken bridge Bonnie and Clyde reportedly escaped Pilot Point on, and Mark did see a ton of places he road many times as a young child. It was a great time and the last mile was shaded. Oh, and Jack especially enjoyed the shade. Did I mention Jack was with us...our cattle herding dog? He did great for a while. Then he kept retreating to the shade. Smart dog. We finished the 4.1 miles with one break where I stopped my watch to explore the bridge area at a time of 1 hour 22 minutes (and seconds didn't seem to matter at this point). Horrible pace, but I am sure that walking on gravel slows my pace down by a good 1-2 minutes per mile, and it definitely worked muscles that don't get worked on concrete.
Long story shortER...we did finish the 4.1 miles to the rest area, at which point I looked at Mark and said I really didn't think we could make it back especially since the trail would no longer have any shade covering. He heroically offered to ride his bike back at a faster rate than he could go with us in tow, and I jumped on the chance. I was a little worried he could overheat or get hurt, but he is a pretty experienced mountain bikers for an amateur. So, at 12:22, he set off for the south parking lot to retrieve the truck and come pick us up. We estimated a good hour before him getting back.
Issy and I then ventured over to the West parking lot which appeared to be only about .25 mile away, but ended up being quite farther. At one point on that walk, Jack just laid down on the hot concrete as though he was opting for sudden death rather than walk another step. He did finally make it back up but walked like a Kindergartner with his arms swagging back and forth in complaint. Lesson learned...Jack is a hindrance and probably prefers for the most part not to be taken on long hikes especially in the summer again. This extra little hike ended up being about .79 more to end our hike at 4.89 miles with an additional 22 minutes added to finish us up at 1 hour 44 minutes. I think that is like a 21:00 minute mile, but at this point I was just surprised we even finished.
So...after sitting under the oh, so appreciated shaded table, our HERO arrived around an hour later. We have both never been so happy to see him!!! And we'll never do that trail again!!!
Lessons for the day...ready to call it quits when we are ready, gravel sucks, bring an air pump for the bikes on trails, Jack is a hindrance on long walks, 6a is much better than 9a in the summer, humidity matters, glad we brought lots of water and snacks.
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