Making It Happen

Ever had one of those days where you literally had to force every situation to get your ride on? That was the way things went on Saturday. I woke up early to ride at Raccoon Mountain...mind you it has been at least 6 weeks since I have been up there, so I was really looking forward to it. It was going to be the warm up to a full weekend of riding. I packed up my bike and my gear and made my way up the mountain. When I pulled in the lot was empty...first tracks on Saturday morning, how sweet. Unfortunately, the weekend has a tendency to cause this trail to become quiet crowded, so this was making me really stoked. Right as I was suiting up, a fellow local and guy I have met several time pulls up and we start talking. He was supposed to meet some mutual friends and they were not at the meeting spot, so he made his own agenda and at that moment, I realize I forgot my helmet. We agreed to ride together at a casual pace to reduce the chances of injury and just enjoy some time riding in the woods.

Near the midway point I receive a random phone call from one of our mutual friends that missed the meeting spot earlier on..."Hey, I noticed your car in the lot, where are you?" We figured our route and eventually all met up on the trail. From there, things began to unravel. After a few short minutes of floating through singletrack, a ppppssssssstttt sounds comes from a few feet behind me...flat!!! and Tim stopped to change his rear tube. Problem fixed and we are back on the bikes again. A few miles later all hell broke loose and Wade clips a tree with his bar and he gets ejected and thrown to the dirt. He is wincing in pain and eventually has to be helped up off the ground. Moose and I cut through the trails to get back to the lot in the fastest way possible, grab a car and head back to meet our injured rider. Total bummer...I was the moron without a helmet and chose to ride anyway and someone winds up getting hurt. No fault here, but strange how that worked out. Moose hooked me up with his helmet and Tim and I rode for about an hour more just to wipe away the bad juju.

Sunday morning, I woke up and milled around the house making breakfast and loading up gear. Called Big J and drove up to Sewanee to meet Ivory and Brandon for some more mountain biking. The weather was unusually cool and the chance of rain was pretty high, but after Saturday's episode, I was going to ride no matter what. We all kicked it around at a nice pace for most of the Perimeter Trail and then it finally started raining. This trail has all of these really cool rocky climbs that you have to put some trials moves in to clean them...hard anyway, but even harder when wet. Not the smoothest day I have had on the bike in a while, but it is such an awesome trail that who really cares. We eventually found our way back to the picnic shelter and hung out there while it poured down some cold rain. No matter what, it is always nice to hang out with your crew after a killer ride in the woods.

Tonight it is on and in full effect. Bishop is back in town for a few days before heading out to Colorado for a summer of part-time work and full-time fun. Makes want to go back to college big time...anyway, we are getting the Tuesday night crew back together for as many hours in the dark as we can muster the strength to ride. This weekend is the Burn 24hr and tonight should prove to be a nice kick off to a ton of bike riding over the next few days.