My first scraped knee of the year

Even the most seasoned of cyclists can take a tumble from time to time.

It's kind of unavoidable if you go riding enough. Sometimes there's an unforeseen obstruction in the road that you don't spot until it's too late. Other times, it's a careless motorist that's oblivious to your existence.

In my case, it was the combination of a sharp turn and some unforeseen mud on the bike path near Riverfront Park.

I was trying to get in a quick 10-mile ride on my dinner break on Wednesday and decided to bike the Minnesota River Trail from Sibley Park to the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail changeover. I figured I'd been neglecting that stretch of trail this spring (not without good reason, the downtown trail entrance near my apartment is still closed) and an evening with pleasant weather was as good a time as any to revisit it.

The ride was going wonderfully at first. I was enjoying the river scenery and the stresses of work were melting away like they always tend to do when I'm out biking.

When you ride on a trail enough times, it kind of becomes second nature. You bike through turns a little faster because you know exactly how they bend. You also know where every hill is and what side of the trail to bike on so as to avoid potholes.

Despite my spring-time hiatus, I have that type of familiarity with the Minnesota River Trail. I've ridden on it a countless number of times and the right-hand bend in the trail near the amphitheater in Riverfront Park is one that I'm very well acquainted with.

However, that acquaintance does not include the mud that was caked on the trail. Having not noticed the mud ahead of time (again, I'm almost too familiar with the trail and probably wasn't paying enough attention), I took the turn at a speed I normally would have and the end result was my bike tires giving out from under me.

Pavement, meet leg.

Total damages from the fall: A silver dollar-sized raspberry on my knee (not going to post pictures of it because that would be gross), a scraped-up leg and a busted mp3 player. Not my finest moment on bike.

But as the old saying goes: Failure is not falling down, but refusing to get back up. I've taken my share of falls and had my share of bad luck on a bike over the years, but that doesn't stop me from getting back out there.

I always figure misfortunes are a way of testing your mettle. My response to the latest test? I biked to softball league yesterday and went for a 12-mile ride in the rain today.

My passion for cycling runs deeper than a mere scrape on the knee.