Berryman

It was clearing as I headed out I-44, leaving St. Louis for the Berryman trail. The trail is one of the best mountain bike rides around. I had tried to get a group together, but in the end it was just me.

Being the last the day of the year, the sun came up slowly and then headed into the sky at a shallow angle. It was slowly clearing so the blowing clouds and long shadows made for a beautiful sunrise.

I cruised past Six Flags, past Pacific. I was chugging Gatorade every few minutes. One rest stop and it was one to Bourbon. I cruised through town and headed out Highway N, then W and on to the Brazil Creek campground. I pulled in to nothing. There were no people, no cars, no trailers, just me.

After a quick change I was ready to ride. It was a little scary going solo. My friends Rich Pierce and Jim Tobias both crashed hard on the trail, Rich getting the worst of it. And now that there was nobody around to help me out I had to think twice. I thought, how bad can it be and rode on.

I cruised through the first creek crossing and headed up to the road to ride it clockwise. That way I could avoid riding it with wet feet from crossing Brazil Creek first thing. The turn off on to the trail was really steep and I stalled out on it. I got going again and started climbing and picking lines. The trail was covered with wet leaves, but was rocky and rooty and switchbacky like I remembered. On the descents I took it easy. On the switchbacks I clipped out a lot and made sure I got around okay. After a while I just started taking them high and I didn't need to clip out. It was all up and down for a long time. On one flat section I jumped a branch and a section went through my spokes.

I looked down and the back tire was just sliding on the wet leaves. I stopped and pulled it out and kept going until I heard a clicking noise. I got off and checked it out and it was a broken spoke. I thought about Sam Moore saying how strong mountain bike wheels are, and rigged the spoke out of the way and it seemed to be fine.

Up and down, lost once, up and down. I kept expecting to see the Berryman camp around the next bend. Finally, I got there and it was empty as can be. I finished off a water bottle and headed down for the last 14.5 miles.

There was lots of rough stuff down into the creek bed and I was starting to get a little tired. Short steep climb, wild switchback downhills, everthing you would want on the mountain bike ride. The next way point was the spring. When I finally got there I ate my last Powerbar and chugged some more water. I looked at a scruffy hill that I though was the trail and headed up. It was a long climb and I was very proud to ride it without stopping. When I reached the top of the hill I realised something was wrong. I went back down and found the trail a few feet over from where I went up. Great!

It was on to the mud flats. I got there and they were indeed muddy just as Paul Mueller had said. I slopped through some parts and rode up around where I could. After the mud it was a long, long slog back to the minivan. I stopped for a minute where the Ozark Trail branched off and luckily picked the right trail to follow. By now I was losing steam and the climbs were really slow. My back was tightening up and I had trouble riding very long without standing and stretching. Downhill was killing my arms. No bonking, just cooked well done.

This is what the Berryman is all about.

I finally saw the camp and tip toed across a rocky dam without soaking my feet. I looked down at my cell phone and it was 2:00. I started around 9:00, so I rode really slow. I guess my riding time not counting getting lost and taking break was probably 4+ hours. Oh well, I in the worst shape of the whole year and I rode Berryman! I can't wait to try Council Bluffs.