Did a two stage ride today with Greg, Mr.Evil and I meeting up at 7:00 to do a fast paced loop before heading back to the lot at 8:30ish to meet up with the rest of the riders for a more mellow paced ride.
At a few minutes after 7 we headed into the cemetery twisties at a good pace, only stopping a few times. Apparently Greg went OTB early on and Tim fell off a bridge after he got off to the side a little and one of the planks fell off. Luckily the bridge was over an area that's normally dry and today was no exception. I had my share of mishaps, but nothing as dramatic, though I did narrowly miss taking a stem top cap my boys at one point. From there we headed up the climb where we all made it about the same spot before forward progress stopped. We continued on, but took the trail heading East towards the Devil's Kitchen instead of doing the standard loop. The original plan was to head over and do all of the Devil's Kitchen from the top. Unfortunately we were too short on time when we got over there so we decided to head to the long, fast, gradual down hill, until we remembered the trail that cut over into the middle of the kitchen. After some deliberation we decided to hit it and I don't think anyone was disappointed. It was a first time down it for all of us, I had climbed up it once with Jeff (walked mostly). It was much more ride-able than I anticipated, especially for Tim, though Greg and I were able to ride a lot of it too.
Once through the kitchen we high tailed it down the DT back to the lot to meet up with the others, getting there only a few minutes after 8:30. Powhunter (Steve), severine (Carrie), and gmcunni (Gary) were there and waiting for us. We took a short break to re-fuel and then headed back out. gmcunni had never been to Nass before so we planned on giving him a nice tour. First up was the warm-up twisties, which were pretty uneventful. I hung in the back with Carrie so I didn't see how Gary was doing, but at one of the stops I learned that he was hanging in there with Greg really well and seemed to be enjoying himself. Carrie has been down with bruised ribs for a bit now, so she was having a bit of trouble with her legs and confidence, she seems to be doing much better with the clipless though. So we hung in the back. The only thing of note in the warm-ups was the series of bridges over the swampy area, I was too far back to see who made them, but on my second attempt I was able to finally make it up onto and over the first one, which was a goal of mine.
I got caught up on the last one, but now I know I can do them all so it's just a matter of tying them all together.
After the warm-up twisties we headed across the street to the section south of scoville. Normally Carrie and I don't do the section of newer ST that goes off to the left towards the beginning. It's a bit more technical through there and some stuff got her hung up, but she made it without any major problems and seemed to enjoy the additional challenge. Once back onto the main stretch things went well, with out incident that I know of, the group seemed to be picking up the pace a bit. Carrie tried and made the little dip in the trail just after the last of the muddy sections for the first time, she also rode the knotted log without pause which was impressive.
We crossed e. chippens and headed to the big intersection where we sessioned the little rock drop a bit before hitting up b-street. The plan was to ride what I refer to as the Red loop, not because of red blazes, but because it's the loop that Tim's buddy, Red, broke his ribs on. The loop starts off on B-street and then heads over to one of the blue trails and doubles back towards to big intersection. We played on the large roller right at the beginning of b-street a bit, I was impressed that Gary rode it from the top on the looker's right a couple of times. I made on attempt at riding back up it and almost had it, but got hung up in about the same spot that Tim did right before me. Greg rolled it almost effortlessly. Steve took a more straight approach, which looked at first like it might pay off, but he got stopped short and almost fell backwards down the face. Gary attempted the climb as well, I think he went a bit too far to the left though and got caught up. The group gathered again shortly at the first cut over to the main trail while waiting for Carrie and I to catch up. This was the last time we would see them in the woods this day as shortly after Carrie expertly caught a stick in her chain and managed to rip the derailleur clean off, twisting the cage in the process.
It was kind of a freak thing, but it does happen. Several minutes later we were on our way with Carrie's newly converted SS bike. The group was long gone, we rode on for a bit, hoping that they were waiting for us down the trail somewhere, but they must have gotten sick of waiting. I finally got a hold of Greg on the cell and let him know that we were done and heading back.
Carrie was able to ride her SS back to the car without too much trouble. While we were getting situated at the lot Steve came riding in with a severely bent front wheel. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but he was missing at least on spoke and several others were bent. I guess Nass was hungry today. The rest of the group wasn't too far behind him, they had finished the loop and headed back on the blue trail to the lot. We shot the poo for a few minutes and then everyone headed on their way.
All in all a good day to be riding, the weather was beautiful. I'm glad I got out, but I could have done without the mechanical failure, mostly because I wanted to finish the loop and get the extra riding in.
At a few minutes after 7 we headed into the cemetery twisties at a good pace, only stopping a few times. Apparently Greg went OTB early on and Tim fell off a bridge after he got off to the side a little and one of the planks fell off. Luckily the bridge was over an area that's normally dry and today was no exception. I had my share of mishaps, but nothing as dramatic, though I did narrowly miss taking a stem top cap my boys at one point. From there we headed up the climb where we all made it about the same spot before forward progress stopped. We continued on, but took the trail heading East towards the Devil's Kitchen instead of doing the standard loop. The original plan was to head over and do all of the Devil's Kitchen from the top. Unfortunately we were too short on time when we got over there so we decided to head to the long, fast, gradual down hill, until we remembered the trail that cut over into the middle of the kitchen. After some deliberation we decided to hit it and I don't think anyone was disappointed. It was a first time down it for all of us, I had climbed up it once with Jeff (walked mostly). It was much more ride-able than I anticipated, especially for Tim, though Greg and I were able to ride a lot of it too.
Once through the kitchen we high tailed it down the DT back to the lot to meet up with the others, getting there only a few minutes after 8:30. Powhunter (Steve), severine (Carrie), and gmcunni (Gary) were there and waiting for us. We took a short break to re-fuel and then headed back out. gmcunni had never been to Nass before so we planned on giving him a nice tour. First up was the warm-up twisties, which were pretty uneventful. I hung in the back with Carrie so I didn't see how Gary was doing, but at one of the stops I learned that he was hanging in there with Greg really well and seemed to be enjoying himself. Carrie has been down with bruised ribs for a bit now, so she was having a bit of trouble with her legs and confidence, she seems to be doing much better with the clipless though. So we hung in the back. The only thing of note in the warm-ups was the series of bridges over the swampy area, I was too far back to see who made them, but on my second attempt I was able to finally make it up onto and over the first one, which was a goal of mine.
I got caught up on the last one, but now I know I can do them all so it's just a matter of tying them all together.After the warm-up twisties we headed across the street to the section south of scoville. Normally Carrie and I don't do the section of newer ST that goes off to the left towards the beginning. It's a bit more technical through there and some stuff got her hung up, but she made it without any major problems and seemed to enjoy the additional challenge. Once back onto the main stretch things went well, with out incident that I know of, the group seemed to be picking up the pace a bit. Carrie tried and made the little dip in the trail just after the last of the muddy sections for the first time, she also rode the knotted log without pause which was impressive.
We crossed e. chippens and headed to the big intersection where we sessioned the little rock drop a bit before hitting up b-street. The plan was to ride what I refer to as the Red loop, not because of red blazes, but because it's the loop that Tim's buddy, Red, broke his ribs on. The loop starts off on B-street and then heads over to one of the blue trails and doubles back towards to big intersection. We played on the large roller right at the beginning of b-street a bit, I was impressed that Gary rode it from the top on the looker's right a couple of times. I made on attempt at riding back up it and almost had it, but got hung up in about the same spot that Tim did right before me. Greg rolled it almost effortlessly. Steve took a more straight approach, which looked at first like it might pay off, but he got stopped short and almost fell backwards down the face. Gary attempted the climb as well, I think he went a bit too far to the left though and got caught up. The group gathered again shortly at the first cut over to the main trail while waiting for Carrie and I to catch up. This was the last time we would see them in the woods this day as shortly after Carrie expertly caught a stick in her chain and managed to rip the derailleur clean off, twisting the cage in the process.
It was kind of a freak thing, but it does happen. Several minutes later we were on our way with Carrie's newly converted SS bike. The group was long gone, we rode on for a bit, hoping that they were waiting for us down the trail somewhere, but they must have gotten sick of waiting. I finally got a hold of Greg on the cell and let him know that we were done and heading back.
Carrie was able to ride her SS back to the car without too much trouble. While we were getting situated at the lot Steve came riding in with a severely bent front wheel. I'm not sure what exactly happened, but he was missing at least on spoke and several others were bent. I guess Nass was hungry today.
The rest of the group wasn't too far behind him, they had finished the loop and headed back on the blue trail to the lot. We shot the poo for a few minutes and then everyone headed on their way.All in all a good day to be riding, the weather was beautiful. I'm glad I got out, but I could have done without the mechanical failure, mostly because I wanted to finish the loop and get the extra riding in.
