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.

Thursday night Sean and I took a nice spin out that the Dump. We mainly stuck to the lower trails, and did some exploring on some that we had never seen before. In all it was a fun ride, and we all enjoyed it. Sean even conquered his nemesis drop! Way to go Sean!

Pics are here.

Woohoo! Results are in. I placed 8th out of 27 with a time of 4:13.88 in the intermediate class. The winning time was 3:49.95 I am very happy with these results. Trés cool.

:guzzle:

I think I could have gone a little faster, but I might have run the risk of crashing, or perhaps running out of steam and ending up being slower than I was.

Darryll did great too. He placed 20th out of 39 riders. Very good for his first race ever. Congrats Darryll.

What an incredible weekend. Way too much fun packed into a tiny amount of time. This was Hammerfest weekend, so it was time to race.

Shane, Mike, and I left Victoria around 8am Saturday morning, and got to the race course around 10:30. We got geared up, paid for shuttle, then started the long ride to the shuttle pick up point.

Our first run was an easy roll down from the top to the bottom to check out the course. Last year the rumour was the course was to be logged. I took this to mean the entire course. Turned out to only be a small portion. The top section hadn’t changed at all, and that was good. The top part is a fun mix of tight, twisty, and rooty trail the all to quickly spits you out under a power line. The middle section was the part that had been logged, and had changed a lot. I had to concentrate on that part but it wasn’t too difficult to learn, it was just bumpy. Lower down the bottom section was the same as last year.

After our first easy run down, we learned that the XC race was going to close the top section of the DH course since the two paths crossed. I was a little disappointed, but I was comfortable with the top section. I needed to learn the middle section. The rest of our run were from the power lines down to the bottom.

The shuttles were quick. Basically as soon as we finished our run, we jumped into the van, got to the top, unloaded, and zipped to the bottom again. The only downside was that Saturday was hot. Very hot. In less than three hours I had drained my Camelbak. Inside the back of the van was hot and stuffy. In the time it too to get to the top, I had sweat dripping off my face.

Around 4 Shane and I decided to call it quits so we could go register. I felt I had a pretty good handle on the middle section, but I definitely wasn’t riding at race speed just yet.

The course was a lot faster this year because of the new middle section. The old section had more twists and turns to it, and was flatter. Also, the old section used to have a horribly long uphill section in it that just sapped your momentum, and your energy. The uphill in the new trail wasn’t nearly as bad. You could sit and pedal most of the way, and only stand for the last bit.

What was the middle section like? Well, once you get off the uphill bridge, the course was really loose sand with large-ish rocks (3-5 inches in diameter). It was rolling flat for a bit, then it drops. Quickly. On the first steep section, there was a nice step down leading into the first tabletop. Marking the end of the step down was a stump that had been cut to almost dirt level. The first table top wasn’t too bad, but they got bigger. The section kept dropping towards the finish line, and there are 2 more tabletops. The tabletops are fun. Scary but fun. After that, we crossed the road, and were into the lower section (the repeat from last year).

The lower section had a large steep slope into a little gully. Right at the bottom of the gully is a log jump that has caught me out before. Then it is an uphill to a crest, which then drops back down to the road. Crossing the road is a loose uphill climb to the final dscent to the finish line. After a couple big berms there is a small jump, then another step down to the finish line.

Like I said, it was a fun course, but it was way faster than previous years.

While registering, we were supposed to choose our category. We asked the volunteer what category most people were going in, but she didn’t have much info. We ended up choosing beginner since every other year I have done that race I was in beginner. In the end I think I should have put myself into intermediate. Most of the beginner class was significantly younger than Shane and I. However, I wasn’t racing to be competitive, I was racing to have fun.

My race run on Sunday was pretty good. I was very happy with it. I cleaned the course, but had a couple bobbles on the way down. For the first time I cleared the step down before the first table top, but I think it was the landing of that table top that my front tire washed out a little, and I got a bit squirrely. The second bobble was on the lower section, in the bottom of the gully, just after the log crossing. I prejumped the log, cleared it, but slid a little wide on the trail getting too close for comfort to a stump on the right hand side.

In all, my race run was my fastest run of the weekend. It was also my most fun run of the weekend. results are here (pdf), and you can see I placed 6th out of 47 in beginner. If I had been in Intermediate, I would have placed 18 out of 32.

Any way you look at it, I had a great time. I always do at Hammerfest! Plus, this year I didn’t crash and hurt myself! Bonus.

Yesterday myself, Sean, James, and Yoshi went for a jaunt at the dump. The trails were in prime condition, and the weather could not have been more agreeable! In short it was a spectacular spring ride.

Starting off from the parking lot, Yoshi limped a little as he trotted. Since he had hurt himslef a few weekends earlier, I wondered if he was going to be ok. As soon as I let him off leash, the limping went away. I decided I would keep an eye on him and make sure he was going to be fine.

Our plan was to climb the fireroad, find our way to North Ridge, then head down that to Lumpy Pants, and new trail that has a nice rock drop. The climb up was more difficult this week. This time I was riding my Bullit, and last week I was on my Chameleon. I shouldn’t be too surprised, there is probably close to a 10 pound difference between the bikes.

During the climb Yoshi seemed fine, but he was sticking pretty cose to me the whole way. Usually he is off running around more. I thought it was odd, but left it at that. Later on North Ridge, I noticed again that Yoshi was not acting like his normal self, and was sticking really close to me.

We came to the rock drop on Lumpy Pants, and I eyed it up a few times. There is a ride around, and I spied Yoshi running up and down that a few times. He was beginning to worry me, but there wasn’t much I could do. I did the rock drop once, then got the camera out to take a couple pics. While Sean was lining up for his second run, I realized I hadn’t seen Yoshi in a couple minutes.

Then it struck me. I couldn’t hear him either. I called him and whistled a couple times but nothing. A knot started to form in my stomach. I yelled for him, and whistled a few more times, and still nothing.

I hiked back up the trail a bit, and I thought I heard something, but it was just a bird. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of white on North Ridge trail. It was Yoshi, and he was trotting the wrong direction on a different trail. I yelled, and he stopped. When he saw me he looked confused as to how he was supposed to get back to me. Usually he would just run through the bush but this time he refused to. I had to walk through the brush to coax him back the right way.

Something was definitely wrong with him. When the group was all assembled again, I told the guys that I had to get moving. Yoshi was not himself, and I just wanted to keep moving.

After Lumpy Pants, we rode down “Who’s Your Daddy”. I hadn’t been on the trail since the structures were cut down (over 2 years ago I think). This was quite a fun trail. Something I wasn’t expecting. After WYD, we took the fireroad down to Skull. I noticed Yoshi was being really slow, so I took it easy with him. He trotted the whole way back to the truck. Usually he will break into a gallop on the fireroad.

It was a good ride, but it was also a strange ride. I never did figure out what was up with Yoshi (he is fine today). My only theory is that maybe he didn’t want to go biking today. He has taken off on my during a ride once before. All is well that ends well I guess.

Had a great ride yesterday. Shane, Darryll, Mark, Mike and myself hit the dump for a nice tour. My trainer work is definitely starting to pay off. I feel much stronger on the climbs, and my endurance is definitely improving. We were out on the trail for 3 hours (not all of that was riding), and I never ate a Cliff Bar. Of course that may be due to the fact that when I went to get one from my pack I discovered I didn’t have one with me 😮

The only mechanical on the ride was Mike’s bike. He was riding a hardtail he built for his girlfriend, and the drivetrain was skipping when he layed down the power. When this happened, his knees would drive up into the bars! Yeouch. I have done that before and I know it hurts. Good thing he had on armour.

While trailing Darryll down Snakes N Ladders I got the privilege of watching a wipeout unfold right in front of me. Thankfully I stopped before becoming part of the action. Darryll went off one of the log drops with more speed than normal, and his front tire washed out off the side of the trail! Woops. He went down pretty softly and didn’t hurt himself, and hadn’t damaged his bike. Good news.

On Y2J Shane did his usual leaping thing. I was finding my rear shock was bottoming out on some stuff it shouldn’t have. I will have to look into that.

By the end, Yoshi was just wiped out. He needed a good long run, and he certainly got it yesterday. When we got back to the truck, he needed a little help getting into the truck. I loaded my gear into the back, and when I went to get into the truck, his body was on his bed in the back seat, but his head was dangling into the footwell of the drivers side rear seat. He was knackered! Mission accomplished.

Of course I was pretty tired and hungry, so I stopped at Francelli’s for an Americano, and a giant oatmeal chocolate chip cookie!

Saturday, Shane, Sean, Darryll, and myself headed to the dump for a nice old school dump ride. All of us were feeling a little lazy, so we took it easy on the way up. Instead of doing the switchbacks, we hiked up the Walk Up. This isn’t exactly the easiest way up, but it takes you to the entrance to Hot Cherry.

We rode up Hot Cherry to Green Ribbon, then took Green Ribbon to Organ Donor. After Organ Donor, we went up a little bit, and took Inventive (backwards), then went down skull to finish the ride. It was fun, and reminded me of days gone by.

I didn’t stop to take too many pictures, but the ones I did take are here.