Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Lions, Tigers and Pirates, Oh My...

Last night I got to ride some dirt, actually, it was a lot of dirt. I left my place of employment at exactly 5 o'clock, as there is never a good reason to stay a second longer. I head over to pick-up Speeding Jesus from the bike shop and head to destination one; Swope Trails. 
As we arrive on scene we note the 163* vehicles in the parking lot adorned with roof, bumper and hitch racks. Our guess is the trail is going to be uber-busy- a man train of walrus proportions. The Manimal, Coletrain, Cotter, WhiteMike and Cliff join us for what was to be a hot lap of everything, as we were on a time crunch and had plans for another trail ride later that night. 
It was instantly obvious to me that I was not doing a hot lap, but rather a sorry excuse for a soft peddle, cry baby, lame attempt at just keeping up. Some days you feel good, others you don't. I could not warm-up and was dying an early death. Thankfully I ran out of time  and got to bail early to head over to destination two; Wyco.
My psyche was at a low for the day due to my failed attempt at keeping up with the heard at Swope, so I decided a beer or two was in order to drown my misery. I think this really helped because once on the trail at Wyco I was feeling a lot better. Must have been the carbs. Or maybe it was the crew; G-Wiz, The Silent Killer, White Mike, OTC, Handleballs, Princess Boner Ghost, OTB Mark, and Tim. It was G's warm-down day, so we let him lead us on an adventure of moderate peddle rotations. We had a lot of fun riding on the MTB trails, hitting many of the new skinnies, berms and ladder bridges recently constructed. Pretty fun shit if I do say so myself. 
At some point we headed across the dam to ride some of the Bridal trail; home of some steep ass climbs that kick you straight in the balls. Then The Silent Killer took us down a fun and steep descent on some rogue death trail that was pretty sick followed by more singletrack and hike-a-bike climbs. 
All said and done we had a solid night of riding bikes on two different trail systems in near perfect conditions. The dirt was great, the clear night air was refreshing and the crew was emitting nothing but rays of pure awesomeness - to which I now instantaneously retract, as Handleballs was emitting a stench beyond conception by anyone who has not personnaly stacked bodies in a mass grave in 120 degree temps. 
So yeah, we had a great ride, a grand night in the saddle. The Pirate crew is indeed ready for 100+ miles of good times come Saturday's race/keg stand event. Cheers.

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