| Rode Galbraith with Mark Belles and Tom DeBari. Big fun for the boys, who all had new bikes (Mark and I Jekylls, Tom a Trek 6000 hardtail).
I was a little sloppy on the Lower Ridge Trail, putting my foot down twice in situations where I almost always make it, but I led up the Ridge Trail Extension, and then followed close on Mark's tail all the way down Bob's Trail, which I rode all the way for the first time. This is a real accomplishment for me! The Big Drop is actually easier than it looks. It's true that the bike and rider are nearly vertical for about six feet, but you "just let the wheels roll" and catch it on the runout below.
We climbed the road back up to the Family Fun Center and Appendix, before heading south on the road to continue up Darrell's Death Climb, followed by Kung Fu Theater. Then we climbed the Tower Rd, where I got cramps in both calves and had to stop and stretch (no breakfast, dammit).
Next up -- Dan Water's New Trail, which I had ridden with Steve a couple days before.
Got a good shot of Mark on the elevated catwalk. He later told me he rode the entire trail
without putting his foot down once. Wow -- What a gnarly sucker.
I endoed dramatically at one of the first log crossings after the catwalk. It was big
enough that could stop myself from hesitating at the top, which meant that I carried
little speed and momentum over to find a hole at the bottom on the other side. Whereupon I
buried the front end and rolled down the trail like a hedgehog.
Had an even more dramatic, high speed endo just a little further on on the trail that
comes out on the road that separates the first and second of the Three Little Pigs. When I
rode a particular loose chute with Steve I'd lost control and gone into a skid cross ways
to the trail. The memory of that was part of why I switched to the Specialized Dirt Master
1.9 tires (narrower than the 1.95 IRC Notos, but with bigger knobs).
Today, I was able to control this part of the descent much better, so I let it out a
notch. Big mistake. The trail below steepens and the corkscrews tighten. I came around the
second corner below going too fast, and was sucked into the trough where there were
several large alder logs lying "sort of" parallel to the trail. I plowed through
them until I buried the front wheel and flipped.
The hill was steep enough that I was able to step off to the right and land on my feet
in time to watch the bike cartwheel down the slope below. At this point Tom appeared at
the top of the face behind me and asked, "where's the line?"
Mark later told me he had too much speed coming into the chute too, but what he did was
to ride up the far side (the right side) into the brush. He was pretty much out of
control, but was able to bring it down on the trail below. This option had never even
occurred to me.
Approximately 2000 verts.
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