OK Guys...here goes nothing. I hope you have your reading glasses on ;) .
I don’t even know where to begin with this. What a great time I had at Paragon this weekend…I impressed myself along with the other who got to see me ride. I can’t believe I almost didn’t go! The weather was beautiful and the people were great! Papakeith and I arrived in PA Friday afternoon and set up camp. Not too long after we arrived Treejumper arrived and then Flying Scot and his two children. We thought we were the only campers for the night, then we realized that Daniel Joseph and his buddies were on another sight. So, we sat around the fire for a while, bs’ed and turned in early to get ready for our big day!
We started off with a fairly easy ride Saturday morning…there wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle. We had Flying Scot and his kids, who are great riders, with us along with his wife…so we stuck to the fairly easy stuff…plus we didn’t know where I would fit in at first. All morning we rode around, took the easy trails, and we found a nice little sand pit to play around in. Well…there was a nice big, steep hill in this sand pit that everyone was going up and down. They asked me how I felt about it, and I wasn’t really ready for it. But when I ever saw Flying Scot’s wife go up it on her XR 100, I knew I could do it. So…first try, up the hill I went. What a rush! I didn’t go down it…now I kind of wish I did because I went down worse as the weekend wore on! So, I tried it again…I didn’t quite have the speed I needed the second time and as I gave it some gas to get going, I ended up going halfway up the hill on my rear wheel only! THAT WAS GREAT!!!!! :yeehaw: Then we took a lunch break…
Saturday afternoon was great thanks to our trail guide, Scooter. We took the more difficult trails in the afternoon since we didn’t have the children with us, and I decided to be brave! There were more rocks at Paragon than I have ever seen in my life!!!! My first fall of the day happened on a pretty rocky uphill, but it wasn’t bad. I got up, got the bike going, and was on my way up again. Well everyone was already ahead of me so I didn’t see the path they took. I could’ve gone left, the really rocky technical trail, or right being the easier trail. I didn’t realize I had a choice and went left. I made it up about halfway and just bailed. It was pretty scary! On the way down I realized where I was and went the right way that time!!! Then I decided to follow Papakeith down a hill. He picked the wrong way to go, and of course I followed, lost control and took a dive. I scraped my arm up pretty good, :whiner: thank god I was wearing long sleeves!!! Well, I got up, realized I was fine, and kept going! Then everyone I was with (Scooter, Papakeith, Tree jumper, LoriKTM, and OffRoadWarrior) asked if I was ready to try some single track, which I haven’t done much of, if any, yet. “Sure, I’ll try anything once” I say. HAHAHA! What a mistake that was! I made it about ten feet in, decided it was way too tight for me, and had Papakeith take my bike out for me. In the meantime, Scooter told Papa about some wider single track that may be for me. Well, it was. I made it about 9/10 of the way through 3 sections of wider single track. Little did I know that Scooter had warned Papa not to take me into the 3rd section, so when Papa asked if I wanted to do this last section I said “Sure, why not?”. Well, there was a tight, technical section that I just could not get through. I tried and tried. My first attempt resulted in my debarking of a tree…that was pretty scary! This is after the first tree that I had severe object fixation on and bashed right into! I was getting tired seeing as this was my first real ride so I had Papa take my bike out of the woods for me. I then made it down all the rough rocky sections I had made it up earlier in the day! After that I decided I was done for the day and Papakeith went off and played with OffRoadWarrior on his trials bike for a while.
Camping on Saturday night was…interesting! Seeing as I’m a newbie, I didn’t get a lot of the inside jokes but laughed anyway. I made a new friend in one of Daniel Joseph’s buddies and ended up talking to him all night...6 beers and a lot of laughs and firewood later we turned in for the night…
Then there was Sunday!
Well, Sunday came along and all my fellow riders decided it was time for Samantha to learn Turtle Hill. :eek: Papa had told me about this hill before, but he told me they always went up it. We were going down it. This hill is the longest, rockiest down hill in all of Paragon and I DID IT!!!!! I didn’t make it down in one shot, I fell a couple times, stalled a couple more, but I finally made it down. That was exciting in and of itself! Then we took on the water! I had never gone through more than puddles before, I was pretty nervous about it. The first water crossing was a river…everyone had gone through, except me and RM_Guy…he talked me through it and I made it about halfway through before killing my bike and almost falling over. Luckily Papa was there to catch my bike so I didn’t drown it! He brought my bike the rest of the way through that…The next crossing was a mud puddle…everyone went through again with little to no problems. I took the wrong way and ended up taking a mud bath! I got the bike going again and got myself out of that one! We had a few more crossings that I made it through no problem. But, I have to say the most amusing part of the day was when Trigger did a bunny hop off of a hill right into a pond! I could’ve cried I was laughing so hard…after we all knew he was ok that is. Everyone else went around the pond but he had to go in it. By the time we had crossed our fifth or sixth river/pond/mud puddle everyone was getting pretty worn down, so back up Turtle Hill we went. Papa, Trigger and I let everyone else go ahead since I needed a bit of a break. Then we were on our way up. I only fell/stalled twice the entire way up! What an accomplishment!
After lunch we let Eugene guide through what we though would be a nice, easy trail ride. Everyone was pretty tired so we weren’t up for much. If we only knew what we were in for! The ride started off fairly easy, some down hills and straight aways. I didn’t really have a problem keeping up, but I was still last in line! Then we got into the woods and it started to get real rocky. I had a tough time but made it through most of it. There were a couple of sections that I had to have Papakeith bring my bike through for me after trying and not succeeding. Then we came across a water/mud/rock crossing. I took one look at it and said “No way, I’m not doing that.” Papa said ok, stay here, I’ll be back for your bike. Well by the time he got back for me I was halfway through it. Treejumper told me he was going to record what I did on his helmet cam and of course I wanted to show off to my boyfriend who couldn’t make the trip! It took me a little while and few stalls but I made it through. I couldn’t believe it! The rest of the ride turned out to be fairly easy. My confidence grew and by the end of the day I was being called speedy!
All in all I had a great weekend! Thanks to everyone, especially LoriKTM, Treejumper, OffRoadWarrior, Scooter, Trigger and of course Papakeith! I appreciate all the patience you had and all the confidence you had in me! I can’t wait until the next trip! :thumb: