Something's up

So, this past weekend I was lucky enough to catch the dreaded summer cold. It worked me starting thursday night into Friday morning, and come Friday evening, I was out of it. Basically, I stayed on the couch trying to work, while drinking gallons of water. Ugh. Felt like shit.


Saturday rolled around, and, we'd had plans with Stefan & Amber to do a mountain bike ride. I was psyched to take the new Dawg out for a play session to really check it out. Riding around the alley and dropping off curbs really isn't a good mtb ride. We'd finally decided on a trail...we'd hit Kenosha to the Lost Creek Wilderness. Basically, it's the Kenosha trailhead on the OTHER side of 285...from the Kenosha/Georgia Pass ride. The trail was really nice. It starts out with a flat/semi-rolling downhill, then, comes to an abrupt uphill about 1-1.5 miles in. This is no ordinary uphill. It gets steep in some sections, and, is very rocky & loose. The thing I liked about it though, is it's rideable. We got bottlenecked climbing up, and we had to bail, but, still, I don't think I coulda made it. Once you hit the top of this little climb, it levels out, and, then, lookout. A killer RIPPING downhill for about the next 4-5 miles. You have all different kinds of conditions. Hard pack to loosey goosey sand, to trees, to wide open 360 degree vistas. It was absolutely gorgeous and VERY fun! There is one short little climb/switchback about halfway through the descent, but, it offered a nice break & challenge from the screaming downhill. Once you hit the end of the proper trail, you cross a small bridge/log, and, climb for about 1 mile. This climb is TOUGH. It's not long, but, it's steep. We hit the Johnson Gulch/Road 260 intersection, continued on a bit, but, the weather started to change, and, we didn't know how much further we could really go. So, after another fast downhill, we had to turn around and climb out. The climb was tricky at first only because it was a bit sandy, and somewhat off piste. However, as we climbed, the dirt got more and more tacky (a few rain drops here & there), and eventually we made it back up to the very top. It seemed a helluva lot shorter than I anticipated it was going to take. I think partly because it really isn't steep after that initial .5 miles back OUT. I was struggling so much on the climb, partly because of the altitude, and, mostly because that damn cold had a hold on me. The finaly stretch of downhill was great. We hit that steep rocky section that gave us fits on the way up, and, I was able to clear it all on the Dawg.

I definitely had a sense of confidence on the bike (thanks to the bike of course!), that I hadn't had before when MTBing. The bike handled amazing, and, the tires were extra grippy. I really enjoyed it! We got back home after a quick stop & shop in Belmar, and, I hit the couch...HARD. I was so achey.

Sunday, I just rested. I headed out to PPC to finalize the spec/build for the new bike, which, hopefully will ship soon. I can't really dig up a photo of the new frame, but, it's either going to be black, or, charcoal grey. I think the frame/fork is only in black or white. Either way, the build is gonna be great, and, PPC is going to build me up some custom wheels to really get dropped on.

More to come!