heh heh. so much for spring skiing. Right before I got the
phone call from my patrol buddy working today, letting me
know that it was shaping up to be AWESOME up on the
mountain, I had arranged a little ride with Kamikaze #2,
Mr. Adventure and K2's friend.
The Mr. Adventure ( my hubby for the uninitiated) settled in
for his post breakfast Sunday nap, and the gals called me to
ask if I could show up early. I attempted to rouse my
napping mate, but all I got was a grumble so off I went.
K2's new digs are right across the river, literally from the
Beacon Bomber staging area, and the east entrance to the
trails. But you can't get there... so we have a three mile
neighborhood ride down to the bridge and the back along the
other side of the river on the centennial trail.
I shift into the granny and just plug up the first hill when
we get to the trails. I've been really tired, but being out
the in the sun feels great... so I just keep on pedaling up
to the top. This is going better than I thought, and I can
just feel getting my biking legs back under me.
It's odd, no one else it out... until we get to the top and
the DH's are throwing themselves down the course. The pace
is pretty easy, K2's friend is a new rider, a little
uncomfortable with some of the terrain. The beauty of Beacon
is that there's something for everyone, so it's a good place
to learn. We traverse the barely green slopes on the packed
sandy trails, at a cruising pace. I have to take my
camera... they are replacing the power lines, and the new
cables are just stung across the trail at one point. The
work crews have hung neon work vest on then, which are very
visible. It's a limbo moment to go under them, and we are
thankful they aren't live. Then back around on the XC
course... I can feel my rhythm coming back to me. And the
svelte Hawaiian... omigod.... so sweet after the rebuild!
smooth shifting, everything moves like butter....The gals
even asked if I had gotten a new bike it was so pretty when
we started out.
Down at the bottom, we hear that whooshing sound, and a herd
of DH comes flying through the woods, on one of the many
trails that criss cross the XC routes. Now, here's where I
had a strange, slightly negative experience. We circle back,
and on one of the wider, ( former jeep road) trails, a herd
of young dh was standing around, essentially blocking the
route... a la snowboarder if you know what I mean. So, I
politely call out, can we get through please? They clear a
narrow opening, and someone says to K2,"you know you better
watch out, this is the technical riding area".
well, we were more polite, said nothing, and just went our
merry way. But in 7 years of riding that area, that's always
been shared, that's the first time I've ever run into some
"attitude". Of course I always watch out for them, at
certain spots. The eastern portion of this area IS totally
crisscrossed with fall line trail for one set of riders, and
topographically oriented trails for the others, and I would
never NOT watch out for them. I just didn't like the
attitude. Whatever, I wasn't going to let it wreck my day.
Normally everyone gets along just fine... proper yeildeing
on the single track that goes up the back side, good
bantering, the good old "howyadoin" when passing, and I've
even had friendly offers, "hey ya wanta give it a try"
sometimes when I stop to watch. So hopefully this was a
fluke experience.
We pedalled our merry way home, smiles on our faces and the
sun on our backs. Note to self: bring money for the Rocket
Bakery, which we go right by, next time.
penny