I forgot...

...how nice it is to have a Camelbak. Today was going to be a long bike ride day, but Kim was home from work - so I made it an hour and a half ride.  Starting out from the alternate trail entrance was great.  Theres about two miles of doubletrack to get nice and warmed up on, then you can immediately go right for some fast curving singletrack, or hit the back area for a loop of short ups and downs.  Not a whole lot of sugar sand was encountered on this day.

The Camelbak was almost un-noticable except for the sloshing sound after I had drained about a quarter of it.  For the whole day I drank about a third of it. It was not heavy on my back, it didnt make my shoulders hurt or anything.  There was a little tightness in my lower back after about an hour. As was mentioned earlier - some core exercises are definitely in order.  In total, I drank about a third of the 100oz bladder in an hour and a half - and even my very last drink was ice cold.  In fact: the pack was left in the car for 6 hours after the ride and even after all of that time the water was STILL refreshingly cold. It had to be 85+ degrees at least in the car for a couple of those hours.  As for the water taste: For the first few drinks it tasted alot like drinking from a garden hose, but then became unnoticable.

Colour me satisfied.