Weekend rides

I got a text from SSK asking if Dawn and I were riding on Saturday, we settled on Crandalls. I put the word out on Facebook and emails, this has some variable returns, this time it worked out pretty well and we ended up with seven riders. I rarely do truly social rides, but this was one, we rode at a mellow pace, we stopped, we talked, we sessioned some stuff and generally had a good time.

I gotta say it was pretty cool riding through the woods on those twisty trails and seeing six other riders making their way. The train twisted and folded back on itself a few times - very cool to see.

I showed GI a new roller we cleaned off - I rolled up to it a few times on my Fatty, but I just couldn't roll off it, I haven't been back on my RIP to see if that makes it any easier looking. GI rolled up and over without really thinking about it. Such confidence, of course he made it look easy. 

 

I don't know if seeing him roll it like that made me feel better or worse, I'll only know for sure once I get out there on the RIP and see if I can do it. 

We played on the logs a bit, this was a challenge to get all four of us on the log at once: 

 

And then it was Sunday, the call was for Bear Den North - a place I rarely ride, but is really good riding, on mostly unridden singletrack. The weather guys were saying it was going to be cold, but I've ridden cold before - no big deal. What I didn't count on was how big an impact the wind would have on me. It was 18 degrees with 20-25MPH winds when we started, I don't think it got much above 20 for the entire ride. It was so cold. 

As is usual on rides like this we came up to an intersection and the ride leader said "long way or short way", in 25 years of riding I probably have opted for the short way three or four times, today was one of those days. I could see the relief in everyone's eyes as I made my opinion known. Sometimes that testosterone plays tricks on your mind, who's the toughest guy in the woods? I am! Not today, I am not the toughest guy in the woods, I want OUT now! We got out (obviously). That ride took a lot out of me though, I was really tired the rest of the day, which is highly unusual considering we only rode 9 miles or something. 

The cold also took out my Reverb post, or so I thought. I warmed it up and its holding air now, I guess I'll go to a rigid post for colder rides like that. I rode through last winter with it and didn't have any problems, but I probably didn't ride in weather as cold as that.