More Fun Than a College Freshman

I took my 18 year old nephew out for his first mountain bike ride this weekend. He made a good showing for himself, especially considering he hadn't ridden a bike in over 3 years. He took the customary trip over the handlebars on the Lakeside Trail and made the obligatory "this is a pretty good workout" comment as we crossed the dam. I think he finished with a new respect for his geezer uncle and appreciation that you don't have to be a college freshman to have a really great time (although based on his Facebook page, it really helps).

Monday morphed into a local ride, solo or so I thought until I hooked up with a friend at the boat landing. We proceeded to TEAR UP the west side of the lake at a pretty good pace (for me, anyway). It was a really sweet ride, I was outside of my comfort zone, and my 29er felt just awesome. Really, it did.

I have a great quote to wrap up this blog entry. It's one I've been saving for a while and it sums up the feeling I had for maybe 45 minutes today. One of my goals for this summer is to get to that "place" more often, and to stay there as long as I possibly can...

Chris

"It's freeing, the sense of detached awareness found only on the best mountain bike rides. I'm no longer me. I'm a rolling ball of intent. Ride over that rock. Go wide on the curve. It's hard but there's no place I'd rather be. There's no place but here. No time but now."

- Don Cuerdon

Solo Opportunity

Today's ride was solo so offered an opportunity to document some of the iconic images on my way out to the bonus loop (ok so "iconic" may be overstating it a little but you get the point).  Sub-20 degree overnight temperatures made for wicked fast trails.  Brilliant sunshine was the icing on the cake.   Sometime soon I'll round this out with a photo tour of the west side of the lake including the under-appreciated white trail.

Trivia: see if you can identify the location of the middle top row image (clue is in the background).  

This was also a great opportunity for me to get acquainted with my new bike with the big wheels. We are getting along famously!

Gin Something Up

Two more weeks to race day.  We have a respectable contingent who intend to race but there is always room for more.  You will be glad to know that the trails weathered the weekend rain and equestrian event pretty well - yesterday the trails were well fertilized but overall still in great shape.

Everyone survived the big-wheel race down Kaiser drive yesterday.  We did have some attrition due to mid-race "mechanicals" - to be expected when you load a $35 plastic trike with 180 pounds of rider and shove it down a steep paved incline with a 90 degree turn at the bottom.  I understand video will be forthcoming.  We are already looking forward to lowering the bar, yet again, next year.  Can't wait.

Aside from Tuesday, the weather looks pretty good for this week.  Be sure to get out there while there is still some color in the trees, life is too short to miss opportunities like this.  As usual if you want to "gin up" a ride this week just say so.  I am doubtful for tonight as I still have to clean up some carnage from yesterday.  

Chris

More Intoxicating AND Less Filling

If the sheer number of grinning bikers in the woods these days is any indication, then fall riding is so definitely ON baby! The sights, smells, sounds, moderate temps, and general sensory overload make it a special time - you just gotta jump on it if you haven't already!

Todd has tweaked the Nov 9 race course and marked some of it with very pretty pink ribbons. Today and Sunday will be great opportunities to check it out as he continues to dial in the course. This is called home field advantage and at our advanced age, we need to leverage it to the hilt.

Sunday ride will assume 9am departure as usual. I would like to push it back a few hours so things can dry out after the Saturday monsoon, but our neighborhood block party may be moved to Sunday in which case we'll need to finish before noon (so Dads can prep for the big-wheel-trike-race down Kaiser - as Sebastian so aptly said we have "lowered the bar yet again"). So most likely we'll stick with 9am but if it changes I will put out an email by 5pm on Saturday.

Finally I guarantee that today's happy hour ride will more intoxicating and less filling than whatever else you may have planned. We have a few already confirmed and will likely roll sometime between 4:00 and 5:00. Let me know if you can jump on and if so, any time constraints.

Chris

"Old age and trickery beats youth and speed"

Relive our (mis)adventures at mo7s.blogspot.com