Saturday, February 25, 2012

Riding Dirty, Flying High...

Spring; a time of freeze and thaw and riding or not riding. Trail conditions vary almost hourly - take it when you can get it...even with doctors orders saying otherwise.
I headed out solo to do a recovery ride, my first since the knee injury. The day was perfect and word of good trail at Swope was a sure bet that the masses would be gathering to shred. As I pulled into the parking lot I saw many familiar faces: Cotter, Davis, Tate, Billy, Jerome, Doug, Farmer and running at me like a lost puppy - G-Wiz.
G & I decided we'd roll together because he wanted a slow day and I was curious if I could even ride at all, this being my first time on dirt in almost 6 weeks. I brought my rigid fixed gear mountain bike because I am a sucker for pain. 
I chased G-Wiz around most of the good, hard technical sections at Swope. I was not fast but I was in fact able to ride, and other than a few simple dabs; ride fairly well. Bunny-hops hurt a bit, and back peddling the corners to scrub speed was mind wrenching. All in all I felt pretty good for being on the couch so long.
G-Wiz had been talking highly of his newer death machine, and how it was so much fun to ride fast through rock gardens or take off drops, etc. He did all of those things and more, with me even snapping some less than quality photos off the Whales Tail (see above).
A good day, a helluva good time riding bikes with friends. Its great to be back on the bike. 

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