Yesterday, I got in a much needed day at the trail. My Saturday was filled up with a memorial service and a company party, both of which, I was not looking forward to. I woke up on Sunday morning with the sun and low 70 degree temperatures starring at me in the face. It was going to be a great day.
I went ahead and loaded up both the Moots MootoX and the Ventana El Terremoto to get some final runs in before doing my Maxxis Ardent and Moots reviews. When I got to the trail head, the weather and conditions were perfect. We had just enough rain the day before to make the soil conditions nice and tacky with minimal dust.
I unloaded the Ventana with it’s new rubber and headed the free ride section. Big Creek’s free ride area is small, but has a good couple of short runs that are a blast for a local urban trail. I climbed the first run and walked the rest. There will be more on the tires later, but these conditions seemed perfect for them. I ran the rock gardens and drops several times mixing in full gully/jump runs in between. So far, the day was perfect.
After shuttling for a couple of hours, I headed back to the car to unload the Moots and get some cross country laps in. When I got the the parking lot, I ran into Rusty (iridetitus) and in pure iride fashion…I got the response…”yeah, I can do one more,” so off we went. The trail was in great shape and we were blasting through the first half of the lap. We even hit the free ride section and took two gully runs. I believe my exact comment was, “It’s a lot different when you lose 13 lbs. and 6 inches.” The Moots and 29 inch wheels handled the runs like a champ and afterwards we met up with some friends from the local board at the bottom for some trailside bike talk (The Heckler).
Rusty and I headed back to the parking lot to pack up and head out. It is really amazing how a great day on the trail will clear your head. It was just what the doctor ordered for lack of a better phrase. After the Saturday that I had…there was nothing other than a good day on the bike and some time at home with the other half that was going to fix my head.
I did end up missing the 12 hour race at Yargo due to my Saturday circumstances. Joe, thanks for taking my place on the team, and Marty (Lonestar), Eric (Redrocker), Tom (Omega) and Joe (RegularJoe)…I hope you guys had a great time. I’ll be there for the next one.