Rumble Tumble...

I spent a good part of last night in the saddle...or in the dirt. I'd caught word that BURP was possibly dry enough to ride, and since I had yet to get in a good pounding there this season, I headed straight there for a quick lap after work. The trail was not in as good of shape as I was lead to believe, but I made it happen, walked the muddy spots and fought the loose areas where some asshole had been riding what looked to be, by the tracks left, a fat-tire mini-bike. The Wagon Trail was great. I love all of the technical rock sections and wanted to test my metal on the 29er; all was good. With a heat advisory in effect, I made short work of the trails and then headed over to meet Kauk, Manimal, FM, SCotter, Tate, Davis and TB for some hot laps at Swope.

I arrive at Swope to whitness a hoard of folks prepping to ride. In short order all of the cool cats are gathered and ready to throw down the pain. We jump on the train and head into the business. A pretty solid pace puts us on Woodchuck Run and then into 8-pins. We all ride fairly solid through a section we dubbed 'The Karma Section" and kept the flow going as we passed some jerk with short mans syndrome who flatted bad enough he'd be walking his bike out of the trail, hence the new trail name. [That] in itself is another story...

After a good lap of all that is grand, I get the call that Manimal has arrived and we head back to the trail head to hook-up with him, toss back a barley-pop and prep for another hot lap. Also joining the hoard was the one and only Trail Asshole (he prefers to be called Dick). We all do another solid and painful lap, this time with me crashing my brains out twice; rolling and tumbling like a ninja into the woods, unscathed.

Towards the end of my four hour ride, we were down to three loyal riders who just can't say no to the pain; Trail Asshole, Manimal and myself. I was at this point more-than-done, my legs totally toast and in my weakened state, fell to the peer pressure. We head out to some new terrain and taste the sweetness that I can say is totally bad ass and is making me want a 6" full squishy travel bike. I'm telling you; there are some sweet features coming to Swope. It's gonna be good gnarly (in a good way).