What a day!
It didn't go perfectly smooth but it was a ride I won't soon forget.
I left my Camelbak at home, as it's not in my usual armory and I didn't know we were going for a real long ride.
My buddy Nelson (02 CR250) and I arrived on scene at 9:30am on Saturday, to sign up and drop $100 each towards Guy Perrett's upcoming ISDE run. We got acquainted, split into three groups (Pro, Intermediate, Novice) and set off. We both signed up for Intermediate, the pro loop might have been fun but not without water, in 100 degree temps..
We left for the ride at around 11, dust was the word of the day. You couldn't see where you were going and it was hard to follow the arrows, unless you stayed far back from the person you were following. It began off with some easy, fast trails heading into the hills. It got into some tighter fun stuff, and then we started to climb.. It got a bit gnarly for a while and I could smell coolant.. I took it easy and soldiered on up to the next meeting point, where we rested and I let the bike cool off.. I popped the cap to check the level and it was doing okay, I lost a bunch from the pressure when I took the cap off but it only dropped an inch or so. I added some water and we got going again. Some more tight stuff and gravel roads mixed, we got to the top of Greenstone Mtn. and it was about 3 hours so far, 50km's. We could have made better time but we stopped a lot to regroup.
At this point we met up with the Novice and Pro teams, and we had a big lunch feast, I guzzled about half a gallon of water, and relaxed in the shade for a bit. Most of the bikes were running quite rich as we were pretty high up at this point. I'd been dying for a drop of water for the past hour, and eating nothing but dust and roost, so I was getting arm pump in the tight stuff and a bit tired.
The lunch and water brought back my energy and we began or descent.. I left before the group, after the pro guys left, to ride in some clean air for a change. It was great, smooth sailing and I could actually see where I was going! I took off my goggles for the rest of the ride, and had a great time racing against myself.. The trail cut into some very tight, virgin stuff that had just been cut/marked two days prior. There was no trail to follow, just arrows.. It was really different, but I was looking forward to getting back onto some trail. It wouldn't have been hard to get lost in that section, if you got off trail. It was tight going for a while, until it opened up again. There was a lot of steep downhill, some parts tricky as they were very rutted and roots galore, plus some stream crossings, etc. It was very fun terrain, with a little bit of everything thrown into the mix. I got to the bottom and back into camp at about 4:00, marking 75km's to completion. I was the first one in, so I waited for the guys to catch up.. Some guys were setting up a big scaffolding for the DJ and sound equipment, courtesy of DC Shoes. I drank another half gallon of water, and fried in the sizzling afternoon sun. It was scorching hot, over 100 degrees.. For the last part of the ride, my eyeballs felt like they were melting from the hot heavy air rushing into my helmet. :flame: At least there was no dust!
A bit later there were two live bands, Blinded and Kook Show :aj:, a freestyle exhibition, good music, great company, and a whole lot of cold beer! Seth Enslow and Shane Watts were supposed to be en route but they never arrived.
As it got dark some big nasty clouds rolled in, and we had a great lightning and thunder show for a few hours.. We were raiting for the rain but it never did come. The video screen and projector got set up, and they put on a new video which was pretty cool, when it got to the segment with Wattsy and Perrett chasing each other through the Kamloops trail, everyone got really excited and riled up.. A bright orange glow came up from across the valley on the other side of the mountain.. The lightning had started a very large forest fire which was lighting up the whole sky! The wind then blew down the projector screen and tore it in half, so the video was done.. But what an experience it was, all of it. Were were all like :yeehaw: :yeehaw:
The beer was gone, and we felt some rain drops, so we loaded up and decided it was time to crash.. It had been a long day with a lot of riding, and we were bushed.
I can't wait to do it again next year... :thumb:
It didn't go perfectly smooth but it was a ride I won't soon forget.
I left my Camelbak at home, as it's not in my usual armory and I didn't know we were going for a real long ride.
My buddy Nelson (02 CR250) and I arrived on scene at 9:30am on Saturday, to sign up and drop $100 each towards Guy Perrett's upcoming ISDE run. We got acquainted, split into three groups (Pro, Intermediate, Novice) and set off. We both signed up for Intermediate, the pro loop might have been fun but not without water, in 100 degree temps..
We left for the ride at around 11, dust was the word of the day. You couldn't see where you were going and it was hard to follow the arrows, unless you stayed far back from the person you were following. It began off with some easy, fast trails heading into the hills. It got into some tighter fun stuff, and then we started to climb.. It got a bit gnarly for a while and I could smell coolant.. I took it easy and soldiered on up to the next meeting point, where we rested and I let the bike cool off.. I popped the cap to check the level and it was doing okay, I lost a bunch from the pressure when I took the cap off but it only dropped an inch or so. I added some water and we got going again. Some more tight stuff and gravel roads mixed, we got to the top of Greenstone Mtn. and it was about 3 hours so far, 50km's. We could have made better time but we stopped a lot to regroup.
At this point we met up with the Novice and Pro teams, and we had a big lunch feast, I guzzled about half a gallon of water, and relaxed in the shade for a bit. Most of the bikes were running quite rich as we were pretty high up at this point. I'd been dying for a drop of water for the past hour, and eating nothing but dust and roost, so I was getting arm pump in the tight stuff and a bit tired.
The lunch and water brought back my energy and we began or descent.. I left before the group, after the pro guys left, to ride in some clean air for a change. It was great, smooth sailing and I could actually see where I was going! I took off my goggles for the rest of the ride, and had a great time racing against myself.. The trail cut into some very tight, virgin stuff that had just been cut/marked two days prior. There was no trail to follow, just arrows.. It was really different, but I was looking forward to getting back onto some trail. It wouldn't have been hard to get lost in that section, if you got off trail. It was tight going for a while, until it opened up again. There was a lot of steep downhill, some parts tricky as they were very rutted and roots galore, plus some stream crossings, etc. It was very fun terrain, with a little bit of everything thrown into the mix. I got to the bottom and back into camp at about 4:00, marking 75km's to completion. I was the first one in, so I waited for the guys to catch up.. Some guys were setting up a big scaffolding for the DJ and sound equipment, courtesy of DC Shoes. I drank another half gallon of water, and fried in the sizzling afternoon sun. It was scorching hot, over 100 degrees.. For the last part of the ride, my eyeballs felt like they were melting from the hot heavy air rushing into my helmet. :flame: At least there was no dust!
A bit later there were two live bands, Blinded and Kook Show :aj:, a freestyle exhibition, good music, great company, and a whole lot of cold beer! Seth Enslow and Shane Watts were supposed to be en route but they never arrived.
As it got dark some big nasty clouds rolled in, and we had a great lightning and thunder show for a few hours.. We were raiting for the rain but it never did come. The video screen and projector got set up, and they put on a new video which was pretty cool, when it got to the segment with Wattsy and Perrett chasing each other through the Kamloops trail, everyone got really excited and riled up.. A bright orange glow came up from across the valley on the other side of the mountain.. The lightning had started a very large forest fire which was lighting up the whole sky! The wind then blew down the projector screen and tore it in half, so the video was done.. But what an experience it was, all of it. Were were all like :yeehaw: :yeehaw:
The beer was gone, and we felt some rain drops, so we loaded up and decided it was time to crash.. It had been a long day with a lot of riding, and we were bushed.
I can't wait to do it again next year... :thumb: