Mud,Apples, Sun

Woke up to the sound of rain, and was not stoked to get out of bed. Legs were feeling yesterday's racing(all right, suffering). Picked up Nick who wasn't that much more motivated and off we went. On and off rain on the drive up but it seemed to be clearing. Got to the Applecrest Orchard with plenty of time to preride. No matter what, whenever I preride a course the lap feels long. Orchard might not have been as long as Canton, but with no pavement it took just as long.
The course snaked through the apple trees and up and down some dirt roads. One set of barriers, I run up with a barrier, and one nasty rutted detour through a pumpkin patch.
Got a shitty start and slide back over the first lap. I was hating it, but there were sections where you could motor and then the other parts were super fun and twisty. Cross is always fun-even when you suck. Dry and sunny, but lots of mud. There were 2 sections of really soul-sucking boggy grass and mud that were killer.
All race you would be running over apples.
Finished in 31st. Nick got 5th. The results had me listed as lapped, but I didn't see any of the top 5 come around me. Whatever. Who Cares. Well, I did. After throwing some apples, and almost having a temper tantrum looking for cider donuts, I decided to talk to the officials. Protesting a result like that, probably makes as much sense as hoping your vote gets counted in Afghanistan, but I did it anyway.
With that off my chest it was time for some photos of the course. Masters were racing when I was taking these photos.
The combination of grass, mud, and a sun made for some dirty bikes. Nick should have fun cleaning this....

The apple floating in the mud on this corner really got my rapha artiste out... Black and White.


This was also soul sucking mud section one.

Rutted pumpkin patch of hell. For something short, this sucked so hard.

Somehow the Jack O'Lantern seemed to be laughing at you....

Children of the corn zone.

My interweb is super slow. I have a few more photos, including soul-sucking mud section 2 for tomorrow.
A sunny fall day does a lot to put people in good spirits. Cross and a fistful of cider donuts doesn't hurt either.