Paladin
April 15th 06, 07:33 PM
Lead them!
The only room for the rice rocket is outside the park, between a couple
granolamobiles. This place is rockin!
Big groups of riders are milling about, heading out, jimminy Christmas,
everyone's got the same idea! So I strip off my day suit, stand around
naked for a bit, but nobody's watching or caring as I slip into bike
stuff.
Soon, we're attracting pals like bees to honey. Yeti Nick stops by,
but he's pulling sweep on a 21-girl college girl group ride. Tough
duty. Flip and Rock-n-Roll Barbie stop by on their Yeti boingers, and
we visit. Crash-Burn on his 29'er SS joins up, Daryl on his new
Turner, I'm on the Rev Titus, and Parkermatic on the King Kahona.
So away we go, letting the Granny Smith Green 29er lead us.
He sets a "good pace" as we enter the woods behind the park, and
there's some debate about where to go. A couple of us family men don't
have more than a couple hours. The singles have all night. He takes
us on a new little trail, (amazing, isn't it?) and then up Red Sands,
which is a neat sandy area with a couple of cliffs the freeriders like
to drop off of.
This is a stout little climb I've done several times, rarely for fun,
and so I'm settling in for a grind. But after the first pitch, he
shows us down a steep gully, deeply rutted, and smelling like trouble.
I hit it at decent speed, trusting the ole Blade to pull my a$$ out of
the frying pan,which it does a couple times.
We come back out at the base of Uncle Stan's On-Ramp, about a mile of
ascending steppes, that's always a good fitness check. Going up that
we pass (and get passed by) folks we know, as it's a busy night out.
At the top see the Yeti couple again, they're not sure what they wanna
do, but they're grinning ear to ear.
So we drop down the connector into Military Reserve, the Green Apple
leads us on this very fast flowy singletrack for about a mile that we
are rippping on! I'm surprised to be keeping up, as these guys are
fast! But just letting the horse loose to run is good.
At the end of this section, we meet up with more people we know, decide
to push up higher when our buds are going over to the new tech-fest,
Rock Island Trail, (see Spudhucksters.com), to test their mettle on
this new, high-end expert trail.
We enter this box canyon and its all hitting. Creek onour right, hawks
& other birds of prey high up the canyon on our left. Nice easy pace
line to talk, enjoy the scenery (of all kinds).. and then up this big
series of switchbacks that take us to the top of central ridge. The
Turner buddy is climbing slower than me, but I try to slow and almost
biff it. Still getting used to the spin required on the Blade, rather
than my trademarked mash-n-stand developed for the Gray Lady SS.
Get out on top, our leader is patiently waiting. Jeez Louieez this
guy's strong! And there's another group to visit with. Just then Yeti
Nick's harem of 20 ladies come riding up, and it's all smiles and
encouragement for this group of mostly new riders out for a part of
their mountainbiking class at BSU. Sign me up for credits! Love that
boy to girl ratio, too!
We roll over to Bucks Trail, another very fast flowy trail of about 3
miles. Get to the big long descent back into Military Reserve, Turner
is in front of me, and going pretty slow. He's an expert class racer,
so I say, "hey grandma, what gives?" He says, "I'm hangin with you
bro, no hurries." Well, that's nice to respect your elders, but how
about hanging a little faster, huh? I'm missing the air on all these
water bars, because Mr. 5-Spot here is trying to be kind to the old
man. O well, I know he meant well, but I'm not *that* slow going down,
especially when I'm rockin the tricked out Reverend Titus.
So he picks up speed but I'm still not pushing it. Come on! Let
grandpa ride his bike, willya? ;) He's a nice guy not wanting to drop
me or show off, but I wanna rock!! (and I'm not even a grandpa yet,
danggit!)
We get down to the bottom or Reserve and have one miserable little
climb left, back *up* the connector that joins two major hill/trail
sections. One of our group's walking the hard parts. It's sandy,
steep,with lots of 8" to 1 foot ledges to climb. Too much fun. I'm
riding Turner's wheel again, and it's happening ok, I'm feeling strong.
It's been a very physically active winter for me, so it feels like
August in my legs.
Crest out on top, and the views are still beautiful, where we can see 2
mtn ranges and about 50 miles south, east and west. Book it down Uncle
Stans, hit a few cool jumps, then back to the Park, where its all
a'happening. I get a mean look from a dad who thought I didnt' slow
down enough to avoid his kid, but hey, trust this wild-eyed country
boy, willya??
I offer to buy beer, but Kahona promised his golden handcuff that he'd
be home 2hrs ago, he's driving, so we book it outta there.
Too much fun. Might restore my faith in group rides....
CDB
The only room for the rice rocket is outside the park, between a couple
granolamobiles. This place is rockin!
Big groups of riders are milling about, heading out, jimminy Christmas,
everyone's got the same idea! So I strip off my day suit, stand around
naked for a bit, but nobody's watching or caring as I slip into bike
stuff.
Soon, we're attracting pals like bees to honey. Yeti Nick stops by,
but he's pulling sweep on a 21-girl college girl group ride. Tough
duty. Flip and Rock-n-Roll Barbie stop by on their Yeti boingers, and
we visit. Crash-Burn on his 29'er SS joins up, Daryl on his new
Turner, I'm on the Rev Titus, and Parkermatic on the King Kahona.
So away we go, letting the Granny Smith Green 29er lead us.
He sets a "good pace" as we enter the woods behind the park, and
there's some debate about where to go. A couple of us family men don't
have more than a couple hours. The singles have all night. He takes
us on a new little trail, (amazing, isn't it?) and then up Red Sands,
which is a neat sandy area with a couple of cliffs the freeriders like
to drop off of.
This is a stout little climb I've done several times, rarely for fun,
and so I'm settling in for a grind. But after the first pitch, he
shows us down a steep gully, deeply rutted, and smelling like trouble.
I hit it at decent speed, trusting the ole Blade to pull my a$$ out of
the frying pan,which it does a couple times.
We come back out at the base of Uncle Stan's On-Ramp, about a mile of
ascending steppes, that's always a good fitness check. Going up that
we pass (and get passed by) folks we know, as it's a busy night out.
At the top see the Yeti couple again, they're not sure what they wanna
do, but they're grinning ear to ear.
So we drop down the connector into Military Reserve, the Green Apple
leads us on this very fast flowy singletrack for about a mile that we
are rippping on! I'm surprised to be keeping up, as these guys are
fast! But just letting the horse loose to run is good.
At the end of this section, we meet up with more people we know, decide
to push up higher when our buds are going over to the new tech-fest,
Rock Island Trail, (see Spudhucksters.com), to test their mettle on
this new, high-end expert trail.
We enter this box canyon and its all hitting. Creek onour right, hawks
& other birds of prey high up the canyon on our left. Nice easy pace
line to talk, enjoy the scenery (of all kinds).. and then up this big
series of switchbacks that take us to the top of central ridge. The
Turner buddy is climbing slower than me, but I try to slow and almost
biff it. Still getting used to the spin required on the Blade, rather
than my trademarked mash-n-stand developed for the Gray Lady SS.
Get out on top, our leader is patiently waiting. Jeez Louieez this
guy's strong! And there's another group to visit with. Just then Yeti
Nick's harem of 20 ladies come riding up, and it's all smiles and
encouragement for this group of mostly new riders out for a part of
their mountainbiking class at BSU. Sign me up for credits! Love that
boy to girl ratio, too!
We roll over to Bucks Trail, another very fast flowy trail of about 3
miles. Get to the big long descent back into Military Reserve, Turner
is in front of me, and going pretty slow. He's an expert class racer,
so I say, "hey grandma, what gives?" He says, "I'm hangin with you
bro, no hurries." Well, that's nice to respect your elders, but how
about hanging a little faster, huh? I'm missing the air on all these
water bars, because Mr. 5-Spot here is trying to be kind to the old
man. O well, I know he meant well, but I'm not *that* slow going down,
especially when I'm rockin the tricked out Reverend Titus.
So he picks up speed but I'm still not pushing it. Come on! Let
grandpa ride his bike, willya? ;) He's a nice guy not wanting to drop
me or show off, but I wanna rock!! (and I'm not even a grandpa yet,
danggit!)
We get down to the bottom or Reserve and have one miserable little
climb left, back *up* the connector that joins two major hill/trail
sections. One of our group's walking the hard parts. It's sandy,
steep,with lots of 8" to 1 foot ledges to climb. Too much fun. I'm
riding Turner's wheel again, and it's happening ok, I'm feeling strong.
It's been a very physically active winter for me, so it feels like
August in my legs.
Crest out on top, and the views are still beautiful, where we can see 2
mtn ranges and about 50 miles south, east and west. Book it down Uncle
Stans, hit a few cool jumps, then back to the Park, where its all
a'happening. I get a mean look from a dad who thought I didnt' slow
down enough to avoid his kid, but hey, trust this wild-eyed country
boy, willya??
I offer to buy beer, but Kahona promised his golden handcuff that he'd
be home 2hrs ago, he's driving, so we book it outta there.
Too much fun. Might restore my faith in group rides....
CDB