Rode Wailuna on Saturday. Met Jeff and Sara at 08:30 and it was drizzling. The immediate thought was to call it and go home and sleep, but I didn’t want to waste the Cytomax and Endurox that I already mixed up. Root was running late, so by the time he showed, the rain had ceased and the sun was out and drying things out. The road climb was not too bad considering the secret training ride I did the day before, but once on te dirt, my legs were burning. I had to spin granny-ring on sections that were otherwise mid-ring climbs. Just after the bypass trail junction, Root got the idea that I should climb a lightning-killed tree for a photo. I managed to get up it, but at the expense of pulling the muscle in the front of my shin. This would cause me pain for the next 8-miles.
The descent was muddy in spots, but otherwise perfectly tacky. At the end of the doubletrack, we descended “upper paperbark” to the traverse trail to Newtown, but saw it continue on the other side of the road. The trail was well worn-in, so after descending a little, we decided to further explore it instead of riding back up to the doubletrack to the traverse. The trail was significantly more packed and ridden than when we rode it last year. Connecting to “lower paperbark”, we ended up at the grassy plain. A singletrack in the grass that had been run through by a truck caught my eye, and we went down it to explore further. We found “upper front door loop”, “lower front door loop”, and “back door”. We rode them in that order, finding ourselves at the outer powerline road. Returning to the grassy plain, we descended “Kerwin’s trail” through the stunt valley and out to the street. There were lots if new jumps and a bridge-to-log stunt that wasn’t there last year. The built-up section of the bridge-to-log was rickety, and the telephone pole section it transitioned to wasn’t set well, so it rolled laterally under rider weight. Total ride was 10.08-miles with a trail time of around 3 hours. Vavr was 6mph.
Still don’t believe Jeff and Sara went surfing after all that…
Root posted pictures already; I’ll add mine after I resize and whatnot in PS (don’t want to do it on WinPE)
http://www.studionewmedia.com/gallery/v/Fooligans/04282007
01 May 2007 – photos uploaded (I think I got the order correct)
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