GREAT report and awesome pics, BFG! Sounds like a good and fun weekend all the way around. Thanks for sharing the experience; the course looks like it was a blast to ride.

That's exactly what I did when I finally cleared that big gap double at Sea Otter - - along with a Ricky Carmichael fist-pump too :D. It feels soooo great when you finally conquer something that's been giving you fits for a while and you realize all of your practicing has finally paid off.

Good job!

Looks like fun BFG.

Got back from Colorado last night around 6. After spending 2 weeks hiking and mtbing at 8500-14309 feet (The San Juans is where we were). I got to ride every day (not riding on a dirt road, but real single track!). The only problem is that everything was all up (which sucked because it took about a week or so to get used to the air) then all down. EX: there was a place near where we camped for a week called "Camp Trail" that was a steep climp followed by a steep dh along the same route (I never made it the 5.5 miles up due to time). I averaged 2.9-3.6 going up then 10-12 going down. I have a new definition of tecky.

I never forgave RC for going to Suzuki.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b2...4/HPIM0802.jpg

Only picture that I got in today. Picture doesn't do that section of trail justice. That's the final descent which leads to a road. To get on that final descent you have to navigate very tight singletrack with various obstacles and right before that descent, you got to navigate a very sharp, hairpin turn. The descent is very steep and has some corners to it the first half of the descent you're going along an old rock fence, at the end of it, you launch off a collapsed part of that old rock fence.

Dude that sounds AWESOME!

Sorry, I haven't ridden in a very long time. Jaw surgery is a bummer. It's okay though I get to eat "soft" foods in three weeks, then only eight more weeks until I resume a regular diet. Oh joy.

PS blended fried eggs: sounds really good, but.... not so much.


Edit: Oh yeah. Recent ride, lets see, yesterday I got on my enduro and rode out to the mailbox to send back a netflix that I watched. I even went on some dirt.

I ve been getting a lot of miles in an the new ride.I've been out on 3 good rides in the last 24 hours and I plan on getting back out today for another.

Just road 40 miles at the one of the local trails (me and my team mate did 4 laps each of a 10 mile loop in a 6 hour race). Is there any good way to keep your hands from cramping (mine got so sore that I had a very hard time even using my brakes, and in the last 1/4 mile I couldnt use them), without getting bar ends?

A long tour Sunday of Ninham. A local spot that I know half-assedly well. Been waiting to get a good tour, and this was it. Worked Saturday night. got home about 745a.m. Put on some fresh coffee, grabbed a quicky shower, tossed big bike and crap on/in the car and took off.

The place is full of fun drops and rollers of all sorts of sizes, all connected up with sections of maze-like tight and twisty trail. Log rides built up on downed trees are all over. Some up high, some low. A couple descent lines with some nice long series of drops and jumps.

Gaps Why I was so happy to be getting a group ride tour? Gaps. My rides tend to be solo much of the time, due to my work schedule and having lots of weekdays off. There were two drops in particular I've been itching to hit big time, but not when up there solo. Nothing huge, but gaps #@$% with my head big time. Seeing a couple guys hit them first worked. Hit 'em both without any trouble. A little squirrelly landing the first one, but hit it up again to get it nice and smooth.

Excellent. The downside: I had a SD card full of some really, really good shots of stuff from this ride. The SD card has completely crapped the bed. Can't store new on it, and keeps giving me "memory card error" no matter how I try to pull data off the thing. GRrrrrrr!

Man Scrub, When I saw you had a new post in this thread, I clicked on it anticipating the great action shots of your usual posts. Bummer!

Was sucky. I think there were some really good shots on that card- there is some seriously cool stuff in them there woods. Not even a single timer shot of me. :thumb:

Todays ride was carnage. First My front brake cable broke... as I was braking, sending me into a sign informing me that I was on a bi-directional trail. I got that fixed (the front lever had no give what-so-ever and the pad rubbed loudly, which drove me mad, but a ride is still a ride). I had just gone up a series of switchbacks maybe 20 meters further up the trail when I heard loud mecky noise and my friend make an odd yelp. I thought "oh no, he broke his chain". Which would have been a good thing. When I got down to him, I found his RD cage caught on one of his spokes. We got that loose after about ten mins or so. Amazingly his RD hanger wasnt bent. Seeing as his RD cage was badly bent, and it was Alavio crap, we bent it back to aprox. how it was before. That seemed to temporaraly fix it, but he still needs a new one. When we got back from the trail, we decided to ride to a place that he saw with a bunch of burms to jump off of. On the way there I tried to hop a curb, a big curb, at low speed. I must have landed near the valve because the tube tore around the valve. I spent the next 20 mins fighting with a pos mini pump to get a spare tube inflated (I was about 6 miles from my house). By the time I got that, it was to dark to ride. Fun fun.

Try taking your card into a photography shop, mine was able to pull pictures off a card of mine that wasn't working right, and fix the card so that it worked again. You may have removed the card when the camera was still on or something like that. the pictures should still be on there, just needs some work to pull them off.

Good luck.

I went for a quick ride with my wife, Lisa, in Allsop Park in Little Rock after work yesterday. This is a wonderful little park that is split in two by an old subdivision. The north section has two mountain biking loops and is never very crowded. A single trail with a few wide bridges goes up through the center of the park and then you have a choice of two trails (left or right) that take you back down to the parking area. Both options are great little rides. I always go for the one to the right first. It is an old favorite and one of the first mountain bike trails I ever rode. We had a blast just letting the bikes take us down. A little speed, slowing down for a more technical piece. It was a great ride and after 1.6 miles we were back at the parking lot.

Time for another trip up the center and then down the left trail. First there is a little hike-a-bike (at least it's always been that for me) to the top of the ridge and then sweet singletrack down a long bench cut trail. I was feeling good and a bit bold. My bike was feeling good, I had a new jersey on, nothing could stop me. I came up on a log across the trail. I seemed to remember clearing it before so I went for it. I had never cleared this log before! I still haven't. My back tire caught and I was sent to the right, into the hill landing on another downed log.

I laid there for a second, slowly checking for injuries that I may not be feeling just yet. Lisa came up on me and asked if I was alright. I was but a little slower to get up when these things happen. I checked the bike out. Everything was fine. A little blood on my forearm and some soreness in my right leg where I landed on log #2. I would be okay so it was back on the bike. Shortly I came upon another log. This one was bigger and someone had added some sticks to make it rideable. Maybe it was but I would have been too timid at this point to clear it so I walked it. Not much farther down the trail I came across yet another log. This one was the one that I actually cleared before. Not wanting to keep my tail between my legs this entire ride I went for it. Although not the prettiest thing I've ever done on the bike, I made it and continued my ride to the bottom.

Lisa and I stopped and talked a bit and then I realized that I needed to get moving before my leg totally stiffened up. So back up the center trail to the trail on the right for another fun ride to the car. In all we only got in about 4.5 miles but it was enough for me. Sorry I don't have pictures of how beautiful the park is looking. I've got to get back out there just to do some photography soon. Maybe some good fall shots. Anyway, this weekend should see as on the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail for some pre-adventure race training. Maybe I'll get some photos there.

My friends and I found a mini DH course (By mini I mean 0.07 miles). But It was steep and had some rocks. I'll post some pics of a video of two, If someone can tell me how to put videos in photobucket :thumb:

Here are some pics of my ride today. It was literally like a creek bed the whole way to the top. Took about an hour to get to the top.Once I did get to the top, to where the riding was level, I had to turn around. I managed to make it all the way down on the bike. First time in this type of conditions. I found out that speed helped me make it through. I think I will be getting some knee and elbow pads now. http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...g/IMG_2942.jpg http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...g/IMG_2930.jpg http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...g/IMG_2927.jpg http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...g/IMG_2924.jpg http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...g/IMG_2923.jpg http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...g/IMG_2932.jpg

Wow, that doesnt even look fun!

I always enjoy looking at the ride pics that are posted, until this ride, I did not have anything that stood out. I kind of followed scrublovers format with the last pic of the flora. It was fun, I am glad that I attemped and suceeded. I did have some doubts a couple of times. Here is the google map... http://www.trailpeak.com/donate/dona...6&height=691.2

Oh, I wasn't raggin' your choice or nice pictures, but that trail just looks sketchy with a capital S. Props on navigating that successfully and coming out unscathed.

I'm with slicky...that looks like torture!

Like a rented mule. Quicky mancation Tuesday to the Vietnam trails in Milford, MA. You know, where those one ladies come from.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_0090.jpg

The Domain handles fore and aft loading quite nicely. http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_0080.jpg

Hunter Mtn. N.Y. lift terrain last Sunday. Not the best/biggest, but damn fast. Ten runs from 10a.m. to 4:30p.m. My upper body felt like the aforementioned mule afterward.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_0087.jpg

Wednesday hitting Arcadia, R.I. as the second day of the mancation. Got a nice little tour. then since I was passing the Trumbull, CT trails on the way home, decided to detour for another 1.5 hours of playtime.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8/IMG_0018.jpg

Off now to spend some quality easy spinning time at the local default trails before work tonight. :)

How's the IH frame holding up, Scrub?

Well, I finally have my lungs and legs back so I thought it might be time to post a belated report from Sunday’s race. Final one of the season at Silver Mountain, ID. Turns out it was a Super-D (much to the surprise of a lot of us, who were expecting the stunt DH due to bad info on their web site :notamused ).

So here were 19 of us on the line for a LeMans start on the hottest day of the year (103º record temp for the day) in full face and armor. The course turned out to be the same one they’d used for Silveroxx, so I knew what to expect for the climbs at least.

I did better on the start climb than I’d done before, managed to reel some people in on the second climb, only got passed once on a descent I think. All in all, it was the usual, suck-the-life-out-of-you Super-D fun.

Managed an eighth overall - - and probably about that placing among the Experts (I’m pretty sure I was the only over-30 there). So no Expert podium but at least I got on for being in the top 10 overall. Sorry no pics of the race but at least there’s the podium proof (I'm the goofy one in the middle of the back row):

http://www.silvermt.com/ImageLibrary...RS4_004_08.jpg

Fun way to cap the season at Silver.

Great job Doug! Wow 103 degrees. Climbing had to be brutal?

Today was definitely my favorite ride this summer. It poured down rain the entire time I was out there and I found a lot of muddy paths. I got home wet and layered in mud. :thumb: I don't think I stopped grinning at any point during the 75 or so min the ride took me. In fact, I'm not sure why I didn't stay out there longer!

I thought autumn would bring doom and gloom for my riding, but I had forgotten just how much I love the rain.