Sunday, March 23, 2008

flocculated soil, excess trail moisture, and the burrito assault

I took Big Al to Landahl this weekend since she has never had the opportunity to ride there since we have moved here almost 10 months ago. I had a revelation somewhere on wills wanderer that finally the concept of dispersion of soil caused by physical forces and chemical forces made sense. This really does me little good as I had a my midterm on this subject 10 days ago. Dispersion is a term used to describe soils that have no structure(compacted,crusted, salt affected). Think of it like this.
Have you ever ridden a newly built trail that has not been packed out by lots of traffic, then ridden a heavily used trail that has been in service for some time. You will no doubt realize that the new trail is much softer and tougher going than a older trail. this is because a older trail has had lots of physical traffic and agitation to disperse the soil particles. the newer trail has not had sufficient agitation to destroy the flocculated soil particles(the process of dispersion).
By this point you are no doubt wondering why I wasted a paragraph of your life on dirt particles?
Well dispersed soils hold water much longer than flocculated soils.....SO...old trails stay wet longer.This would be apparent to anyone that ride that new trail at landahl, Greissedieck
the newer trail was much drier that a older trail on the other side of the creek. I will entertain on comments on soil structure for further conversation. soils can also be dispersed with sodium.
I told you that story to tell you this one. Dispersed soil really sticks to your wheels and makes you feel really slow. but I digress.
Al really liked landahl though. I even got her to ride Mickeys tantrum and rim job, and she did it like a champ.
We ended up riding for about 3 1/2 hours, and had a great time. Its a shame that landahl is so far away. On the way home we stopped at Chipotle for burritos.
I was famished and got a pig burrito.....yes pig.....well I proceeded to destroy this little lump of hispanic goodness in the span of about 90 seconds. Al commented that people in the immediate vicinity of my burrito vanquishing may have lost their appetites, and then commented that if I made any unwarranted advances towards her burrito I would be in a perilous situation and might get stabbed with a shank fashioned from plasticware. I consoled and restrained myself with chips and corona.
All in all it was a grand time and we are waiting for our next foray to western MO with bated breath. perhaps spoke ponying?

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