A River Runs Through It

Ok, maybe not a river exactly, at least not at this point. A stream then, usually no more then 3 or 4 feet wide. But it braided itself with the trail most of the way up the canyon, even becoming the trail at one point, and just about everyone's feet were wet by the time we got to the top. Good thing it wasn't too cold last night, even in places where the coldest air normally sinks down and gathers.

I prepared for a typical Wednesday Night Ride, especially since the last ride Cyril emailed everyone promising some pub time at the end. So I packed a change of clothes into my little Jack Wolfskin, and warm riding clothes, water, etc. and headed out on the Love Goat to time-trial up to 26th and San V since I was running late and was afraid they might actually leave on time.

As it turns out, I needn't have worried--at the projected ride time most people were still putting on clothes and getting bikes out of cars. I found Cyril, introduced myself and he set me up with a sweet little Light & Motion setup that lit my way all night but since it was mounted to my helmet I had trouble adjusting to light far enough up the trail to find it in a lot of places in the canyon. Now I understand why the WNR guys always have a helmet AND bike setup...

We gathered everyone and debated routes: Westridge to the hug and down Backbone? Sully Canyon over to Westridge and down? I suggested either the canyon or Westridge and over to the Whoops--I knew a "secret" backyard trail that routed around the closed fence at the bottom, even though they locked up OJ's Escape at the very bottom which was part of the fun of taking that trail. Sigh. In the end we elected to test Sully Canyon since no one had been up it since the last round of storms. It wasn't bad compared to other times I've been there--like with 10-foot drop-offs or the raging river that literally carried my teammate Albi's bike so far downstream after he crashed that he never found it. I like the canyon because up or down it's technically challenging without being scary and steep. Even still, I haven't been on the mtb in a while, and I haven't ridden anything other than fireroad in a VERY long time, so I found that my skills and comfort level were definitely lower than they have been. But, it was good nonetheless to get out and start pushing 'em back up--I was happy that I would come to a stream crossing or some other problem I wasn't sure I could clear and I felt that familiar knot of anxiety in my gut but I breathed it down and went for it anyway, and I'm equally happy to report that most of the time I made it--only tipped over a couple of times. There were other problems I could have tried and elected not to that night, but all in good time. And I was at least climbing well even over some of the more technical sections--I even got some kudos from Christian.

Since the canyon took longer than expected, we elected to split at the top: one group would go on the Backbone, the other would ride as far as Dead Car/Cliffside and then return down Sully Ridge. Yes, I elected to go the short route with Christian and Larry from REI (btw Jamie, when you read this he says an enthusiastic "hi!")--I was tired! Larry was cool--on the ride down I learned that he's only been riding for a year (mostly road) and is just now getting into dirt, but he runs a lot. He recently spent four years as a combat medic, and now he's putting application packages together for PA school.

Turns out there were no concrete plans to go for beers afterward like at WNR, and since the ride split we didn't. But I got some laughs and scored some points with a couple of the guys who asked my what all I had in my large and full pack when I explained that it was mostly a change of clothes for when (not if!) we went for beers after the ride, since that was our WNR ritual, even if the ride took so long we missed last call we would just pack up coolers and bring them with to enjoy at the trailhead.

All in all a fun ride and fun night--I won't be able to make the next couple of weeks since apparently we are heading up for ToC on the 14th, but I can't wait for March--they are a really fun group of people and it feels good to be reconnecting to my beloved AR community after being away for so long!