Saturday instead of the Piglet....

[zio]

I decided that instead of a full day of racing 2 hours away from home with the DRN'ers at the Wild Piglet, it'd be better to go for a half day just up the road at my local hangout (see p.4 of the Wild Piglet thread in the Enduro/Harescramble forum). My friends Kelly & Angryjim came into town to sample the Yosemite soil & promised plenty of riding in my short afternoon.

Those two are fast. Really fast. I did my best to keep up, and started out in good form. I felt great, despite not having my braces on "just right". They kept sliding down a little, which hampered the ability to bend my knees at key moments. Regardless, I was having a blast. Having been hitting the gym hard for the last 5 weeks really helped out. But soon enough, the combination of overconfidence in my skills, pushing harder than I should, and the slipping braces (maybe just an excuse) lead to several spills. And once I started falling, I just couldn't seem to get my rhythm going.

The terrain consisted of mostly medium to tight single-track, almost all of it on rutted up & downhills. And I kept stalling on the uphills that normally don't give me that much trouble. That's when my energy started to fade a bit, and I started making mistakes. Once, we headed down a little rabbit trail with Kelly & Jim right behind me, and I just sort of jacknifed going about 5mph. When I did, both the bike & I fell to the right, I tried to clear it, but it caught my right foot under the swingarm. My foot stayed pointing downhill with the bike, while my body twisted horizontally across the hill. Instantly, I felt the brace lock my leg in place, and all the twisting was limited to my hips, waist & upper torso. I am 100% positive that the Asterisk Cells saved my knee on my first outing with them. :thumb:

Soon after that minor get off, I had a doozy. We were on a new trail I had never been on before. It started out with a rutted downhill, then leveled off into some tight single-track through trees, then soon opened up a little & I picked up the pace to try & catch Kelly & Jim. All of a sudden, after rounding a blind right-hander, I saw their tire tracks veer right sharply in the 20 ft wide trail- to avoid a huge fallen log. I followed, but somehow didn't clear the log completely. The opening between the log & side of the trail was about 2 ft wide, but looked more like 3 ft from a distance as it was obscured somewhat by small plants & brush. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I remember seeing blue sky. My hip felt pretty banged up. I think I landed on another big log, but again, it was a blur. I thought it was going to be much worse, but by the end of the day all was well & the only reminder I have is a teeny bruise on my hip.

I called it quits after only about 35 miles or so. For some reason, it just wasn't my day. I was sort of let down, because I was feeling so good physically, and Kelly & Jim are ironmen & I was looking forward to keeping up with them for one of their epic trailrides. Oh well, next time maybe!!!

 

[dirt bike dave]

Good report, Zio. Sounds like fun, even though those teeny bruises have a way of ripening into a huge mess after a few days.

BTW, there is no shame in not keeping up with Angry Jim and Kelly. Those guys haul.

 

[fremontguy]

Those Cell knee braces sure come in handy when you least expect trouble. When I find myself pummeled off bike in some weird position, I look at knees and think wow this should of hurt. Like to ride Miami Creek sometime, sounds fun.

 

[zio]

Hey Les,

Let me know when you want to come down. We can get Jim back here, and you & I can do the "5 minutes behind" sweep. ;)

 

[angry jim]

Zio. For the last time, quit wrecking when you're behind us. We can't rate'm if we don't see'm.

But seriously...(isn't that a Joe Walsh album?) we had a fun day out there. Talk about your perfect traction. Right after you called it a day, we found the best trail of the day. We were pushing race pace on that baby. I could here that 520 right on me until an accidental stall :think: We rode it backwards and it was just as good. After seeing you off and taking your 250 out for a spin, we put in some more fast riding. Kelly ended up finding a really tight trail. We were nose to tail when Kelly almost looped it going up a super technical rock garden. How he found enough traction to wheelie, I'll never know. I backed up and got a run and made it right up. Kelly just pushed the magic button and tractored up from a dead stop :thumb: . We came across a group of guys who were struggling a little bit, but they didn't need help. By this time we had a good sweat going, and Kelly was pushing hard, I think in an attempt to drop me :debil: . If either guy made the slightest mistake, the other would immediately be gone. There was one section across a wooden bridge that was kind of tricky. On the way back, I made it through really good, but Kelly wasn't so lucky. I was riding my best by then and was pretty much gone. I took a wrong turn but quickly corrected and stayed in front and then waited for Kelly at the turn for the rabbit trail. We ride this kind of stuff at Clear Creek all the time, so we're pretty comfortable on it. We decided to call it a day so we would have some energy left to have some fun later. We had a killer meal on the way home and a fun time later that night.

Don't let Zio fool you. He showed flashes of brilliance out there. This one time... at Band Camp.... I mean on the trails, Zio blows by us while we were lollygagging and we chased him down and diced bar to bar to bar for a few minutes. Cool stuff. You and Les would be a good match. Zio is obviously not afraid to crash. What happened at that log we may never know. I came around looking for you and wasn't sure what you were trying to tell me about that crash. We need to get you a helmet cam. We'll have to do this again. Thanks for everything Jeffery. aj