Chantry Flat and Fishing!!

These events happened more than a month ago, but they were both quite monumental (especially the fishing) to me and so I want to note them down for future trips down memory lane.

On May 19th we rode up Chantry Flat. I was very excited to do this because I could time myself and set an initial bar. The ride up to the gates of Chantry Flat towards the end was exhausting in itself, I had to catch my breath and blow my nose to prep for the timed ride up. My predicted time was 30min. I started off slowly thinking that I should reserve my energy otherwise I'd blow up on this 'long' ride. So I was taking my sweet time going up and was enjoying the view, I saw a rabbit and the breathtaking scenery and wanted to fish out my camera and take some photos. But thought I'd better not since every second counts. When I arrived at the 2miles point, 15min has already passed - I thought damn! I have to hurry. At this point I wasn't tired and regretted going up slowly so I finally decided to pick up speed. At the last stretch it was quite flat and I changed the gear to harder and pedaled faster - but I lost my pedals and had to slow down to get them back on. In total I did 28min and 32sec. I would have done much better if I had went full out from the start (paced myself better) and if I had clipless shoes. Hence I was looking extra forward to the ride up Chantry Flat on May 26th, but that was the day after I fell off the horse and this record breaker has to be pushed back :(.....maybe not long from now :)

That same week we went fishing in San Gabriel Mountains. We drove through the mountains and then cycled to a fishing spot along the river. There were many different baits to choose from, I wanted to use the largest bait (to catch the largest fish) but it was perhaps too big for the fish in the river so I settled on a red feather. Now I know how to fish, you are meant to cast out the fishing line and slowly reel it in to pretend that the bait is swimming so that fish can be lured. My casting has yet to be perfected and currently it's quite random and dangerous to myself and those around me...but can you believe it?! I got my first fish! It's the smallest trout I've ever seen but I was super proud of myself :D I am so happy to have learnt how to fish - it was my first real fishing experience!! I hope next time we can fish something that's big enough to keep :)