Traaiiinnnnn!

Rob pedals past a field of rapeseed somewhere northwest of Prague.

Rob and I met at Titty Twister, and things got even more interesting a bit later.

Titty Twister is a music club and, I'm assuming, also a gentlemen's club in the otherwise quiet village of Horoměřice. Rob lives near Evropska boulevard in Prague, and I live in the hamlet of Černý Vůl, outside of the city, and Horoměřice is just about in the middle somewhere.

And in the middle of Horoměřice is Titty Twister.

I don't get to ride with Rob too much. Our schedules don't seem to mesh all that well, even though he is out riding almost every single day of the year. He's already logged more than 1,000 kilometers this year. As I've said before, he's the one who should be writing a bike blog. Then again, he'd have no time to ride if he had to log all those clicks on a blog.

It was good to finally link up with Rob again for a ride. The last time was in December, and the weather was decidedly different.

From Horoměřice, we followed a new path that I wrote about a few weeks back, which runs parallel to Route 240, and which slices through fields of blindingly yellow rapeseed.

That path connects to a fantastic forest trail that cuts across a ridgeline above the village of Nebušice. The last time I took this path, I ended up choosing the high road when confronted with a fork in the road. This time, at Rob's urging, we took the low road.


Two roads diverged in a yellow wood ...


The left-hand path was an exhilarating downhill run through the forest (above), ending up at a beautiful cemetery hidden in the woods near Nebušice (below).



What a fantastic downhill trail through the pines and oaks. An amazing mountain bike run that spits you out at high speed at a lovely, secret cemetery deep in the woods. Secret to me, at least. I've passed through Nebušice hundreds of times and never knew this cemetery existed.

From there, it was up to Přední Kopanina, then to Tuchoměřice, and then out to Knezeves, and then we just decided to pedal around, not heading anywhere in particular, really.

We passed through, I think, Makotrasy, Lidice, and Beloky before we found ourselves -- after we got a little adventurous -- in the middle of a field somewhere near Stredokluky, trying to get to Okoř, where we wanted to have lunch.

The only problem was that the trail -- or what seemed like a trail -- ended, and we didn't feel like backtracking.

I thought I knew where I was, sort of. It turns out I didn't have a clue.

We came across some railroad tracks, which had to lead somewhere promising. Right? The only problem was that a narrow railroad bridge stood between us and where I was sure we needed to be.

"You up for a little 'Stand By Me' action?" I asked Rob. ("Any of you guys know when the next train is due?" "TRAINNNNNN!!")



He was game, if not overly enthusiastic, so we walked our bikes across the railroad bridge, hoping that a train didn't suddenly appear. Theoretically, I guess we could have stood to the side of the bridge and there would have been enough room for the train to pass without squashing us, but we didn't want to put the theory to the test.


A few minutes after we walked our bikes across this narrow railroad bridge (above), a local train zipped by us (below) and crossed the same span. Whew!



Crossing that bridge -- short though it was -- got my adrenaline pumping, I must admit.

Especially when, maybe two or three minutes after we had crossed, a local train zipped by and crossed the same bridge, traveling at a decent clip.

Alrighty then!

Once across the bridge, we entered another farmer's field, which connected us to a road we both knew well near Tuchoměřice, which led us eventually into Okoř.

I had a couple of beers, and Rob did, too, along with some grilled salmon, all at the Family Hotel Okoř, one of my all-time favorite spots. (If you haven't eaten there yet, what are you waiting for?!)

From Okoř, it was back to Statenice, and then, for me, home to Černý Vůl. Rob had a bit more distance to cover to get home

It was a beautiful day, spent with a good friend, with good food and drink, fantastic trails, and a little daredevil moment thrown in for good measure. What's not to like?

RIDE STATS
Length of ride: 43 kilometers
Average speed: 15.2 kph
Maximum speed: 49.7 kph
Pivo Index: 2
Time on the bike: 2.49.15
Distance ridden so far in 2009: 359 kilometers