Soapstone... and crash

It was really nice to get out on the mountain bike again this past weekend! We went on Saturday afternoon, hoping to get a few hours of riding before we get a bunch of snow again which would make it tough to ride.

There were four of us heading out, and I was the only one that seemed under dressed, scorning pants for just shorts and a long sleeve shirt. I did remember my gloves however, and ultimately I wasn't cold at all unless we stopped for a while. We decided to try and head for the "Home Depot" (No, I don't know why it's called that) trail over towards Porter Road. After a miscue or two in trying to find it, we ended up just where I had been a few weeks ago and had really enjoyed. It's a pretty windy trail with a lot of lines through, around and over rocks.

One particularly fun section involves riding over two rocky ridges that are somewhat connected by a deep trough that you need a lot of speed to get down and back up the other side. Shawn was a bit farther ahead of me and had stopped when he missed the line and was checking it out. I saw him, and just decided to go for it without thinking. This was a great idea as I made it all the way through both sections and the guy behind me just followed me right through. Sometimes it's best to just go for it, instead of spending too much time thinking about it. It was a lot of fun and the other guys wanted to try it. Unfortunately, on the way through Josh got a pinch flat and spent some time fixed that instead of riding. This gave us plenty of time to try riding the ridge in both directions, and I cleared it a few more times, but never quite so good as the first time.

After we got the flat fixed, we headed on and then looped around to head back to the house. Just ahead of me, I saw Josh to a wheelie drop off a pretty big stone, probably about a 2 foot drop. I just followed him right off it with one problem. As I pedaled hard to bring the front end up, my wheel spun and instead of lifting the front wheel and staying back over the drop my momentum stalled and the front wheel dropped! Not a good position to land on the ground in, as I went over the bars and slammed into a few rocks. I ended up with a pretty bruised thigh and knee, and it's still bothering me today.

That was pretty much the end of the adventure, we were mostly back at this point with one detour as we tried to avoid some flooded trails. All in all, a really good time and I'm glad we went as it's snowing now, and it will probably be a few weeks before the trails are rideable again.