RR: Sweet Sweet Connie's East Side..

This is best printed off and read before bed..

I'm heading to the Sawtooth mtns of Idaho next week for the annual AMB-
ID get together, that due to my negligence, will only have probably
between 4 to 6 participants this year. We're camping at Stanley Lake,
a truly awesome spot, situated at 6,000 feet and we plan to ride
Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

http://www.steveshamesphotos.com/idaho21.htm
http://www.ruralnetwork.net/~dpinney...tanleyLake.jpg
http://www.aslo.org/photopost/data/5...L_vertical.jpg
http://www.biology.usu.edu/labsites/...anleyout_2.jpg

Well, you get the idea.

Soo, to make a long story even longer, I wanted some butt-kicking at
elevation to help get ready for the weekend, called my homey Parker,
who knows the higher trails around here, and in the time it takes to
say Stay on the trail, doofus! and yield to uphill riders, idiot! he
put a group of 9 together yesterday.

I'm up early, bopping around the kitchen. Why is this boy happy?
Camera, check. Coffee, check. Pack, helmet, gloves, bike, check. Lay
everything out in the front yard, scarf down some breakfast in time
for Parker to screech to a halt at the happy hacienda. Quickly load
the Right Reverend Father Titus, jump in the back, meet the new guy,
and away we go.

Meet the other 6 jackals at the grocery store at the base of the ski
hill road. Parker and the other engineer types try to figure out the
vehicular challenges, the shuttle involved and so on. Veterans of pas
AMB-ID rides will understand why I stay out of it.

Our ride starts about 7 miles up, where we park and roadie it up to
the start of Eastside, one of the funnest trails I've ever ridden,
given the 5 or 6 states and 2 countries I've ridden in.

It has it all. Woodsy, fast singletrack, sidehill exposure, variety,
natural stunt features made of logs and rocks, gnarly sphincter-
testing creek crossings, it reminds of me of marital advice I gave a
young doctor once: to succeed in marriage you must conduct yourself
toward your wife with honor: you get honor and stay honor. Well, we
got on her, and stayed on her. I walked maybe 2 of the 20 or more
tricky spots. Tripodded one or two, also.

At the base of the big climb out of Eastside to Stack Rock, our group
split into 2 cadres, the a-team climbers, made up of a pro and 2 or 3
other young racers, and the b-team, that I somehow wound up leading
out of the deep canyon we were in. Thanks to my new buddies at
rosstraining.com, I found the climb out fairly easy, especially since
I hadn't done any long rides like this all summer. But I was to pay
the piper soon enough.

We rode a brand new section of trail our group had built (great work,
Al), and hooked and carried the gaggle all the way to the Stack Rock
trail, where we stopped to eat, fiddle with bikes, you know the
drill. From there it was a fast, rolling hoot to the start of...

Sweet Connie. A 10 mile downhill that takes us from halfway up the
ski hill, all the way down into town. I'd never ridden anything so
long, interesting and consistently tough. Steep, loose, rocky, and off-
camber the whole way. Occasionally fast, but our fearless Air Force
guy learned that it's nothing to take for granted. I came around a
corner and found him stacked up, in a daze, covered in dirt and
blood. We washed him up, he's good to go. Re-saddle and keep
rocking. Some parts look barren as the moon, others rocky as South
Mountain.

I've never worked so hard on so long a "downhill" either. Seems we
were climbing more than we were descending, but who knows? At one
point, as we'd lost a lot of elevation, and it was about 100 degf,
still as death, and baking our brains, Alex yells out, "this is like
riding in Hell!" As if he'd know. Or did I imagine it?

At one point, a couple of our members are hurting, falling over a lot
in this endless rock garden toward the end of the line. Thank God for
my double-squish and being angry enough to just keep pedalling. The
last half mile, though is a slap-ya-silly climb out, reminiscent of
the climb out of Amasaback. About 6 of the 9 make it, but I hit some
sand near the top, can't recover and have to walk my faithful steed
out to the cheers and jeers of the fans.

There are a handful of repetitive shots here for those with an mtbr
account. Why we ganged up our cameras on this one log crossing, I'm
not sure. There was a ton of stuff to photograph....

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=321120

We laugh, we cry, we fall down and wait for the shuttle rigs to arrive
and pick us up. Well, to tell the truth, at this point I didn't
really care if they picked us up or not.. all I wanted was my cooler
full of pop, beer, water and ice... 2 Deschutes Twilights later, I was
starting to revive. What a day.

CDB
May your trails be narrow, crooked, lonesome and dangerous, leading to
the most outrageous adventures. Paladin

Paladin wrote:

Thanks to my new buddies at rosstraining.com

Discount shoppers?!?

Bill "rest was...NICE!" S.