On the second go 'round, I climbed the Ridge Trail (including the new middle Ridge Trail that eliminates the ride on the road between the the upper and lower Ridge Trail), dropped into the Family Fun Center, then climbed to the road on the new trail.

I nearly -- but not quite -- made the sharp switchback near the top. I did make the steep face immediately after, which spits you out on the road. On the way down three hours later, I heard a young rider (probably in his late teens or twenties) on that same face call out through the forest to his companion, "damn, I thought I was going to make it."

Climbed diagonally through the lower Intestine to pick up the lowest of the Candy trails, which really are very sweet. In fact, you can climb almost all the way to the upper Loop Road below Arsenio on the Candy Trails, without having to fight your way up the motorcycle trench.

Climbed one of the two parallel trails up to Arsenio, which was made somewhat easier by the fact that the ground was still frozen, rendering the soft cedar wood and duffy soil much more tractable. Hitting the main spur above Arsenio, I cut over to the Little Big Trail, and then looped around to pick up a trail I'd passed that had a purple heart helium balloon tied to a tree.

Fittingly enough, the Purple Heart turned out to be the trail I started up a few weeks ago when I slammed my knee -- Purple Heart indeed. Actually, this trail, which descends to the south through a witchy wood until spits you out on the second logging road spur on the right as you come down the Tower Rd. from Arsenio. There are some fairly gnarly stunts in here, including the highest cedar log crossing I have found so far on Galbraith. This hummer, which buried deep in the woods and is proceeded by a series of technical root maneuvers, is as tall as the front wheel of my bike.

I aced it all until I came to the last combo just before you come out into the sun in the clearcut. There was a hard cut to the left, and I couldn't hold that tight a line at my speed. I overturned, stalled the bike, and was flung over the bars into the muddy trail. At exactly that instant, the cell phone rang in my fanny pack.

When I dug the phone out, I found it was my daughter, Shanna, calling from school (where she stayed to watch a basketball game), asking me to pick her up at 5:30 on my way home. I told her, "I'm on my way, sweetheart."

Approximately 1900 verts.

Vert Quest chronicles "The Man Known As Mongo's" pursuit of the World Record for climbing on a mountain bike, 404,000 vertical feet, or the vertical equivalent of 13 sea-level-to-summit ascents of Mt. Everest during a 12 month period. Mongo's mountain bike climbing tricks are distilled in Mongo's Over-the-top Guide to Climbing.