Night Ride!!!

Cleat issues...clack clack, clonk clonk

It was a slushy ride last night, five of us came out, Laurence, Shayne, Ryan, Justin and myself. The problems started early, as Ryan went down somewhere around the TTA on the way to Skull. After creeping up Skull trail inventive, little face, and Crazy horse. The cleat problems were getting bad and Laurence opted to head back to the parking lot as her spd's were getting filled with frozen snow and no amount of banging her shoes against the pedals was getting the snow out from there. The conditions were bad for cleats, and Justin was the only one riding flats, so we would all get a taste of the same problems that Laurence had. Last night would have been primo Crank bros. Egg beater territory but since we're all riding Shimanos we were having major issues. The snow made for really technical riding and some parts of the trail that would usually be pretty tame, were rather sketchy and technical in the snow. We rode up Twister and finished off with Who's your daddy, Night shift, and the short cut into the TTA. Shayne took the Rock star crash trophy (RSCT) with a nice toboggan slide on his right ass cheek down a rockface on the last trail we hit. He got a good speed going on the shortcut, gapped the road and came in way to hot over the snow covered slimy rocks and roots...yeah Yardsale!!!

Night ride!!!

Great right last night, and lets face it, when do you ever have a bad ride? The ride could only qualify as a borderline, group ride. Me and Justin made it out from the shop, and made it up our conventional climbing route: Skull, inventive, little face, centerfold, switchbacks. We were just about ready to go when we saw a light shining trough the trees and the hard breathing that most people would associate with Ryan Leech. I recognized the breathing as another Ryan, that is to say Ryan "Lavadome" Wickam. He had forgot his shoes and was late, but hammered up the trails to try and catch up with us. We let him take a breather before heading out again, and when Ryan stopped seeing double, we continued up the trail. It was a beautiful night, and surprisingly warm which resulted in slick trails and quite a few bails. Ryan took the "Rock star crash trophy," with his SUHE (spectacular up-hill endo), and I have to say that I feel blessed to have been able to witness this phenomenon for the second time in under a month. I almost managed to bail into the drink on one of the bridges and if I had succeeded in that I surely would have taken the "RSC Trophy" for myself. The park was busy with at least four groups on the go, which was awesome to see. We rode for about two hours and got a good burn going, and then had a beer in the parking lot with one of the other groups.

Cowboy logic of the day: Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.