Courtney had to cancel last minute because of work and a couple of "maybe's" ended up being "no's", so it was just me. Normally I would've been in a pretty bad mood about having to ride by myself but I was surprisingly okay and looking forward to the ride. Well, the annoying flies that harassed me the whole way up the Dirt Alpine put me in a really bad mood. I don't know how much energy I wasted swatting them away. I also ended up doing some insectervals, trying to speed up and outrun them. It sort of worked. I wanted so badly to kill them and I sort of got my wish. I snorted one up my nose and I felt satisfied that I got one of those jerks but it tickled my nose and in the end the bugs still got the last laugh. Later I also breathed one down my throat causing a small choke/cough. I was also not enjoying the climb because my legs were still tight from the weekend. And because of that and the insectervals, I was little too tired to fully enjoy White Oak or be loose enough to flow which was disappointing. It took an hour and half, on the way to Badger's Byway, before my legs started to feel good. Towards the bottom of Dirt Alpine I was happy to find Courtney climbing up. She had said she might do it as an out-n-back. It was already sunset so she turned around and bombed the descent with me. Finished it off with burger and fries at Alpine Inn. It's always better to start bad and end well than vice versa, I say.