Today was another spectacular day of riding out at the dump. Myself, Darryll, Sean, Shane, Art, Yoshi, and Abby hit the trails for an awesome tour of the dump.

Yoshi was revved to get out there, so that was great. We hit up Inventive, then up to C-Section, up the Switchbacks, played on the log for a bit, then continued on up to Twister. After twisting around a bit, a few of us hit the Dirt Falls, then we zipped over to Lumpy Pants.

Shaners was going to do the drop on the trail, so I pulled out the camera to get an action shot. While I was waiting for Shane to get setup again, I noticed Yoshi was acting very strange again. If you remember from last time Yoshi took off on me, and got lost.

There is something about that section of trail that he doesn’t like. Maybe it smells funny to him, maybe there it is haunted, I don’t know. I told the guys to take as long as they wanted, and I took Yoshi to the end of the trail, and waited for them. Yoshi was fine there, so I am still not sure what he doesn’t like there.

We then headed down to Who’s Yer Daddy, then zipped down to Skull and back to the cars.

Wicked ride. The trails were very tacky, and there wasn’t any dust yet. I am sure that in a few weeks it will be a horrible dust bowl, so I will enjoy now while I can!

Also, there weren’t any recreations of last weeks crash, and that made me happy. 😉

We stopped off for coffee afterwards, which for me was very enjoyable. I have one more post to do, then I am off to play Downhill Domination.

Sean looks like I felt in this picture. I awoke rather late, and had to rush a little to get ready for the ride. I was late picking up Sean, and that kind of set the tone for my ride. I was beat, had little energy, and was a little hungover. Not a good combo when going mountain biking. Oh well, I made the most of it.

The group consisted of myself and Yoshi, Sean, and Darryll. We got warmed up and headed into the trails. We took a leisurely ride up the hills, and stopped lots to rest. We never really had a destination in mind, so we chose to head up to Snake and Ladders. It is always a fun trail to head to.

Nearing C-Section we ran into Mike, so we stopped and talked for a little bit, then continued on our way. At the bottom of the switchbacks we took a nice lenghty rest, and Yoshi played with sticks, and jumped through the ferns.

We played on the log ride at the top of the Switchbacks. I like the log ride a lot. It is fun, gives a great feeling when you ride the entire length, but is safe since it is only a few inches off the ground. That is also the problem with it. With it so close tothe ground, it is too easy to just give up on an attempt, and jump off the side. I rode the entire length a couple times, so I started trying to ride it from the skinny end to the fatter end. I managed to do that, so I stopped while I was ahead!

On the way up to Snakes and Ladders my chain shiffted off the top cog, and into the spokes, so we had to take a few minutes to fix that (thanks Darryll). Once headed down though, the trail rocked! Instead of taking Shars choice we decided to go a different route. I was in the lead, and taking this once downhill right hander with some speed.

All too quickly, my front tire washed out, and my bars spun to the right. The tire was perpendicular to the direction I was travelling. That is never a good thing. I am not sure what happened next (I think the tire caught solid ground again), but I was pitched up and over my bike, and fell a few feet to the rocks below. I landed sort of on my back, and on my side. Armour is a great thing, ESPECIALLY when you are falling, and realize your bike is going to land on your head! I got my arm up in time to protect my face, but my bike slammed into my helmet putting a couple dents in the styrofoam, and cracking the visor. No worse for wear I took a couple minutes to gather myself, realign my bars, shifter, and brake lever, then we continued on our ride. It happened quite quickly, but I can remember it all.

Anywho, we got back to the vehicles, got ungeared, loaded the bikes, and came home. I still feel the hangover a little, but I am certainly glad I got out for a ride, and Yoshi really appreciated being out in the woods! He has slept all afternoon.

Yesterday Sean, Darryll, and myself had a nice spin at the dump. We started off with Mark and Stephen, but they had to peel off pretty early due to time commitments.

The three remaining riders took it easy on the way to the top of Green Ribbon. From there we blasted down Green Ribbon to Rolly Ridge, back up, then down Y2J, and Skull back to the lot.

Personally I had a great ride. I was feeling pretty confident, I had loads of energy, and heaps of motivation to use that energy when going uphill. The confidence was a big hit with me when the trails was heading downhill. For me this ride was the reason I love mountain biking. I was in a zen space where I felt I could do almost anything I wanted to (on my bike). I was killing the DH, and slaying the UH. It was all good. It is that kind of magic that I am always trying to attain.

This ride left me wondering what was so special about it? Did I eat differently in the morning? Did I warm up differently? Am I in better overall shape than previous rides? Why was this ride so special, and how can I recreate it?

I don’t think I will ever know the answer, but I sure enjoyed the feeling.

To top off the ride, as I was pedalling into the parking lot, I could smell a BBQ going. I assumed someone down the road was having a good lunch. Boy was I wrong! There were two guysin the parking lot cooking up hot dogs for anyone who wanted one! They also had ice cold drinks to go with the dogs. Holy smokes. Who were these guys?

They work for Mac’s Cycle Centre here in Victoria. Their boss closed the shop for the day, and sent these two lads to the parking lot to cook dogs for hungry cyclists. These guys were getting paid to sit in the lot, BBQ, listen to music, and talk with like minded folks. Props to Mac’s! I will check them out the next time I am looking for parts. I haven’t been there in a while, but the next time I go in, I will definitely mention the BBQ. Excellent idea for advertising.