Humpride The 13th

B-Man was going to hang with Papa-O' today after school for a few hours, so a whole new ride opportunity was opened to me- THE MOUNTAINS! Hell yeah!

Sweet to get up there on a weekday. The plan today was to ride from Rt. 31 over to Seven Springs, climb up to the Tahoe Lodge and do the 24 race course and then head back toward Hidden Valley hitting some single track along the way. It was damn fun. After 5 miles or so of crushed stone and road, I was on top the mountain and anxious for some single track.

I hadn't been up to Seven Springs since last year's race, and it was great to hit those trails again. What's even better is the new stuff that has been built this year. Great googly moogly, it is just classic East coast riding in my opinion. Loose rock, rocks, roots, dirt, mud, etc., If you're thinking about a 24 this year, I have to say the Seven Springs course is PRIMO. I would say I like it even better than Big Bear AND Seven Springs is cheaper with free camping. The only bummer is that it's always the same weekend as the SM100. Not good.

The downside of riding the course was not knowing what is up with the last quarter of the loop. The course climbs to the top of the mountain and then used to go to what has always been just sort of referred to as "the rock garden". Well the entrance to said "rock garden" has been bull dozed shut with debris, making room for new condos (I though we were in a housing crisis?). I'm sort of unsure if the rest of the loop will be part of the course or not? And if so how they'll have us.. err, I mean others ;) getting to it. I'm sure it will sort out in the coming days/weeks.

Since I didn't feel like wasting time, I just took a SSSSTEEP service road down to the main lodge and then hit County Line Road for a few miles to Jones Mill Road. Then it was down Ridge Trail where I promptly crashed on some ruts near the bottom.

There looked like there was some "controlled" burning going on recently and there were some tire ruts that were half mush/half dry. The front tire slip from mush to hard and down I went. All that rocky single track without a dab, I crash on a wide double track trail. Nice. Real nice.

Then it was up to the long grassy double track of Red Oak. Once down to Jones Mill Rd. again I did some exploring on the Lookout Trail loop. Some of Lookout is SWEET and will be put into future loops for sure. Other parts are a bit soggy and not worth the effort of putting them in right now. At this point I was closing in on 3 hours of ride time, so I finished out LT and head to the car. Ending with a little over 3 hours of riding and a tad under 30 miles.

Had I had the time to add in the rest of my loop I think I would have hit over 5.5 to 6 hours and over 50+ miles of riding. I like them numbers!! I mean "LIKE" like. So many options. Too bad the Roaring Run trails are closed to bikes now, or we'd be looking at an epic with a capital HOLY F*CK!

I will say I think the Big Mama will be called into action for the next loop. It might be slower on the climbs, but will make up for it with cushion for my ass with more single track. So many times today I wished for the Big Mama. Hindsight vs 20/20.

Is this bad luck or good luck?...

I went to hop a log and the next thing I knew I'm locked up, not able to move. A big stick/small log made a surprise attack on my rear derailleur. It sucked that I nearly crashed (again) but LLLLUCKY that my derailleur didn't get snapped off or bent. So I guess I'm going with GOOD luck. Why is it that stick know EXACTLY where to go?? Damn!

Not sure if I'll get out to ride tomorrow. Weather looks shit, and I have a TON of work to get done. There's gonna be some pretty cool features in the next XXC. Looks like Issue #2 will come out later than I hoped (the end of May, rather than the beginning), but I'm still pretty happy with the content. That's one good thing (I guess) about having ZERO advertising- I can adjust the deadlines as I need to. When I make my first cent, THEN maybe I'll need to get more serious, LOL!

Food Lust: Made up some SWEET Turkey Burgers tonight. I'm LOVING mixing ground turkey, A1 Bold & Spicy, black pepper and some Goya Adobo spice together and them slapping them on the grill. Not to mention corn on the cob and baked potato. Damn it was good food tonight. All this food lusting, you'd think I was Allison ;)

Speaking of food, beverages and lust... I've not had a beer since Sunday (GASP!!) Looking forward to Friday. Me thinks I need to pick up a 90 Minute or two to welcome Wifey home and usher in the weekend. It's sort of funny how I still look forward to the weekends, even though I really don't have to be anywhere during the week. Oh well, I'm enjoying it now, I'm sure it will change soon enough. Come next winter, look for me behind the counter of a Wendy's near you.

Later.