I was on the mtb so I took a detour in the canyon to explore. This was actually a really bad idea, since it was 9 pm and dark out. I wanted to see if I could go through a canyon to bypass a huge 15% grade climb I ride daily and didn't want to take out the mtb tomorrow since I plan on a long road ride.

Well, I ended up riding down some of the most treacherous single track with washed out sections over ~50 ft drops, in the dark. The only thing that kept me going was the unfounded belief that I wouldn't have to pass that awful terrain again. There was hidden silt all over the place, and my semislick tires balked at the mere sight of it. I endoed once on an abutting rock and smashed my family jewels pretty badly while straining my neck. I rode about 20 minutes down this only to end up at a large, jagged rock embankment. It looked like some sort of hardcore erosion control, like you find on dwindling coastal points. I foolishly figured the trail wouldn't terminate after all of that, and wasted 20 minutes trekking by foot over these ankle-busting rocks carrying 40 lbs in bike and gear only to meet a gang of noisy toads. Those 20 minutes were some of the gnarliest of my cycling life -- worse than when I got lost at Vail and ended up skidding down a rain-slicked single track for a few thousand feet of vertical -- I actually considered just giving up and falling asleep on the trail for the night.

I'm just glad my 15w headlight held up. I wouldn't have made it back if it had died on me. Oh well, chalk it up to a lesson learned: there is no way through there