Ckucky, Root, Big Poppa (Chris), and I did a slightly-earlier-than-normal St. Louis F/R yesterday so we’d have enough light for some photos. It was Labor Day, so the earlier time frame was not an issue for anybody. It was definitely hotter even being just an hour earlier.
We dropped upper Dumps all the way to the log where we all discovered that the rain-soaked rotting bark was like white lithium grease spread all over the log. Pushing back up the side trail before the log, we went up past the inner loop and mainline to sideline and did the root drop jumps in the clearing.
While we were there sessioning the jump for photos, someone in tight bike wear on either a fitness bike or XC rig came up the trail. Nearly simultaneously, a helmetless dude on a CroMo Voodoo hardtail came down mainline. XC person (for some reason I visualize a matching set of white/silver/light blue wear, like the old Giant team uniform, even the helmet), disappeared down some trail into the inner loop, having seen all the armored hooligans blocking the trail. Helmetless dude lingered silently for a while, then started to talk to us… something about being injured from being hit by a car and having just put the bike together, so he wasn’t going to do any hard riding. He did a roll-up to the giant kicker and did a wheelie/roll-back, so it appeared that he at least knew what he was doing on a bike.
When we decided to move on to the Taco jumps, helmetless dude followed us, blasting the small jumps on mainline and generally ripping all the way down. So much for taking it easy… He put us all to shame on the jumps which had been recently recontoured with more kick at the lip. We dropped down through the bermed turns and rode back up mainline a bit to the second drop-in and helmetless guy followed. down through the twisties and rock drops we bombed, two-wheel drifting the turns and power-wheelieing the exits. Going straight through onto Hammock trail, we made our way down to the concrete, then rode/walked/pushed up to the upper tank so Ckucky could see the new punji trail. All the while, helmetless dude tagged along.
Dropping the punji trail then junctioning onto the exit trail, we rode out in the dark. My speed was pretty good, and I hit all the jumps fine, even though I only had the little Cateye LED headlight and it was decidedly dark. Habituation, I guess… At the bottom, we made dinner plans while watching HPD hassle somebody in a Saturn Ion. After a fairly long pause, helmetless dude tried to figure out when it was that we rode, then excused himself and went off in the other direction when we headed to Kanewai park. It’s not like we disliked him or anything: It was just a bit inappropriate how he wheedled into the ride group. He wasn’t even following us – he inserted himself in the middle of the pack!
We rode back to Ckucky’s house via Waialae Avenue, bumping into Jeff and Sara at Zippy’s. Dinner was at Hokkaido Ramen on 11th. Ave. I had the enormous “Mabo tofu crispy noodles” for $6 plus tip. I’ll give it a C since I got heartburn. I think the Mabo tofu is better at Sumo Ramen in Market City…
More pics here: http://www.studionewmedia.com/gallery/v/Fooligans/labor07/
D = 5.81-miles, Vavr = 7.1 mph, Vmax = ? (computer error), T = 48-minutes
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