I suppose it always comes down to your frame of mind at the moment, but it’s a lot like people and their hair. If you have curly hair, you want to straighten it out. If you have straight hair, you want to curl it. Ah, don’t get me started on the hair color and whether or not hair-dyed blondes actually have more fun like naturals …
But I digress.
Loop vs. out-and-back seems to be the same thing in my mind on my bike.
When I see a loop that’s just a pinch longer than I want it to be, I think, why didn’t they just make it an out-and-back, since that’s what it’ll be for me anyways? Loop shmoop!
Conversely, when I see a picturesque out and back, I think, I wish this would be a great loop instead of having to turnaround right now and see the same damn shit again!
I’ll guess I’m like many of you and most of the time I’m itching for loop. There’s something about that endless quest to see what’s next for the whole ride instead of reliving half of it like a Leave it to Beaver or Seinfeld rerun.
Then again, it’s like the bazillionth time watching Beaver get stuck on the billboard or Kramer losing his bet that you catch a glimpse of something that you missed before, and you think, ah, you know, there’s a lot to be said for an out-and-back!
Or something like that.
Riding along the Crater Rim trail at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument outside Bend, Oregon, I skirted the ridge on the backside with views stretching out to the high desert to the East rather than the stunning views of Paulina and East lakes as well as Paulina Peak (which I was sneaking upon from its rear) to the West.
When I turned around to make it an out-and-back, it struck me how different the views were in this direction. Just then a magnificent cinder hill, its chestnut reddish-brown bald top textured by shapes of shade from the scattered clouds, exploded into view.
Ah, gotta love a good out-and-back.
This week’s question: What’s your preference?
Riding from my house it is always out-loop-and back. Off road from a trailhead I always try to fashion a loop. I ride out and back when I’m commuting to work or just want to get a beer and a bag of chips at my local watering hole.
O&B is fine. But loop is always superior, imho.
I prefer the loop. I’ve got a few different ones — all pavement, mostly pavement with some dirt, mostly dirt with some pavement, and so on.
Gotta make sure you don’t get to where you ride them on autopilot, though. It’s a sure way to enjoy some unpleasant class of premature unclipulation. I found myself riding a short section of trail that existed only in my memory once, and I can’t recommend it.
Also, if you ride your loop clockwise you want to tackle it counterclockwise now and again, just to freshen it up a bit. Amazing how much easier those tough climbs seem after you’ve ridden them as descents.
My instinct is always loop. Preferably one that does not at any point cross itself. Because OCD-adjacency or something.
Which is why I’m always surprised by how not like the outbound leg the return leg of an out-and-back is. (Oof, that sentence.) Especially on dirt (and I’m usually on dirt), the return seems like an entirely different experience. (But if I can, I try to ride the side of the trail such that I don’t cross my earlier path, even if only by a few feet.)