After my first ride of the season ended prematurely due to a flat tire, I decided to give it another try to reach the Hosie the next day. But this time, it would a solo ride, as Mike had to work that day.

Instead of driving my car to Archibald as before, I rode from my house. I picked up the Rails to Trails behind the Eatery Restaurant, off of Hill Street in Jessup which runs a long the Lackawanna River. It’s a very nice section of the trail and is very popular with trout fisherman. It’s an easy ride of about three miles until you reach our original starting point. After about a half hour, I reached the Aylesworth Dam and began heading up towards the Hosie.

The trail leading to the Hosie starts out as a dirt road that wraps around the back of the dam. At the bottom of the section, there is a short, but very technical section of washed out road.

As I reached the half way point of the hill, my calves began screaming for me to stop. The pain was excruciating and I don’t remember this happening at the start of prior seasons. It got to the point where I had to get off the bike and walk to the top of the road.

After reaching the top, I got back on the bike and continued the ride. The next section consisted of a small stream that ran along the road, which then headed downhill where the trail consisted of silt. A section of it was flooded, so I had to find an alternate route around it.

I was pretty tired at this point. My legs had very little left, but I continued the ride until I reached another dirt road that would eventually lead to the Hosie.

The road that leads to the Hosie was also washed out last year and the bulldozer had just ran along this road making the surface very soft. It made riding very hard and I only got about a half mile along when I decided to take a break and have an energy bar.

I sat along a stream that ran along side of the road and enjoyed the weather. I could get used to this I thought to myself.

Afterward a few minutes resting, I decided to head back home. The Hosie would have to wait another day….