One heck of a case of déja vu . . .

. . .is in effect what Gillion said to me as I stopped for some McDee's fries on the way to Burlington Kentucky's England Idlewild Park and home of some of the Bluegrass state's best single track.  It's the preferred home of the Dirty Divas cycling group and I remembered this morning it was the first place I'd ever done real single track Mountain Biking.  Yes, you read that right, I remembered that it was the place I experienced real single track for the first time.  I remembered it this morning because it was to happen today.  So on my way back to a place I'd never been before I remembered there was a McDee's on the way there.

The timing worked out perfectly as that's when Jill called.  So we got to chat and I was remarking on the bizarre state of my life remembering future events.  How after decades of being a SciFi fangirl, my own life was way more unusual than some of the stuff I've seen or read about in SciFi.  Having trouble remembering parts of the past because of trauma, but having near perfect recall of events that technically hadn't happened yet.  But they felt real to me, and the details we more than oddly prophetic, but stuff I remembered doing.

So what I knew for certain was where I was going, what I was going to be doing, and that it would all work out fine.  No flats, no getting lost, no major problems, just the thrill of flying through meadows and woods, over all kinds of terrain I'd never, ever, have imagined doing over 20 years ago when I was doing so much cycling.  That I'd be doing all sorts of stuff I'd never done before and would make it back to the Jumper hot, sweaty and gross, but otherwise fine.

I didn't bother digging into all the details, but went on instinct, and let my heart, mind, body and soul remember all the things I'd never done before.  Which is where it kinda went slightly wonky.

My PLAN was to follow the signs, go to the first left before the bridge, take the beginners trail once or twice, and then try the intermediate if that went well.  You know what they say about plans right?

Instead I took the other left before the bridge, because I saw it and had a "Yes!  This is where I went..."  moment and turned right.  A Mile and a half, some seriously knarly single track, and one fall later I came out to the bridge.  From the left.  Just before the bridge.  Off the Technical trail.  Or at least parts of what was the old technical trail they had changed around.  The map linked here is the OLD map, so I was on all new, knarly terrain.  I felt like an idiot.  The guys on the other hand were impressed (NOT what I was going for) that I'd just come off the technical track.   That quickly turned to astonishment when I said it was my first time mountain biking and I'd taken the technical train by accident.

But it was stuff I'd remembered from the last, first time.  Embarrassing that.  So as Jill had said earlier, one heck of a case of déja vu!

To be honest next time, I'm going to go with something a little bit easier...