roccobike

I've had good rides and not so good rides. But there's no way to describe today's ride but 'bad'. I got up early and decided to get in a nice quick morning ride at Hog's Run in Harris Lake before the day's activities started. I took the dual suspension bike with clipless pedals and promised myself today I would take on the advanced trail with clipless to see how well I clip in and out. Well, long story short I fell five times, three were hard with the bike going one way and me the other. I can attribute one fall to forgetting to raise my crank as I cleared a protruding root on a sharp uphill. Three other times it was clearly snake bit tires. The fifth, well who cares.
The trail was not in good shape. Hurricane Alberto combined with a tornado that touched down in the area near the trail caused significant degredation of the trail. It was more 'rooty' than I remember. Add to this, sections of the trails at Harris Lake are closed. So instead of going out on the right side trail, all traffic has to go out on the left, or return trail, which has been worn down going in the other direction. Anyway after three falls, I decided it was time to call it quits, but not before the trail bit me twice more. I can't blame the clipless, these were not slow falls, these were fast one minute you're in control the next minute you're taking an unwanted trip. I'm not sure if the dual suspension contributed or not. One things for sure, I've got to work on this to improve. When I returned to the trail-head, the other MTBrs saw the blood on my elbow and knees and said nothing, dead silence.
When I returned home my wife had a father's day breakfast complete with a present of a set of Craftsman metric combined wrenches. Than made my day. I added some Polysporin for my wounded knees and elbow and later that day an IceHouse beer for my wounded pride.
Sometimes I think this is a young man's sport......NAH!