CamelBaks

I decided to ride the GORC Lost Valley group ride last night. Since I haven't been on the Gunnar in a week, I thought it would be good to work on my bike handling in preparation for this weekend's race. The group was a mix of singlespeeders, racers, and enthusiast level riders. I also saw Steve O'Neal, whom I met at the Castlewood race a couple of weeks ago. I loaded up with the CamelBak Rogue and decided to roll out with the singlespeed & racer 'dudes'. I put in some hard road miles over the holiday weekend, so I planned to take it a little easier during this ride. The group of 12 of us rolled out and took it fairly easy until the first extended climb of the evening. At that point, the guys on the single speeds started to notch up the pace and away they went. I just didn't have the legs for the paced climbing (I did a hill workout the prior day) and was fine watching them roll out of sight. Steve and another rider (Brian) stayed back with me and we enjoyed rolling along the trails at a good pace.

After taking one of the fireroad decents at a very fast pace (I think I hit 30mph at one point) we then headed back into the singletrack to make our way back to the cars. As we hit the singletrack, we could hear other riders throughout the woods. At one point, we passed our original group as they were bombing down the hills we were climbing. They were still maintaining their good tempo and having a blast. This was my first time to ride the Lost Valley trails, but I was comfortable enough to lead our group of 3. As I was riding, I was really enjoying the trails and noting how well they were laid out. I kept thinking this was exactly what I was looking for in tonight's ride -- picking a line, carving the turns, and using my body to guide the bike versus jerking it through the turns. I was in the groove and kept thinking I was becoming one with the trail. As we neared an upcoming switchback, I again heard another group of riders coming and reminded myself to be on the lookout for "riders up." Maybe the brief mental distraction took me out of the zone, because as I set-up for the exit of the switchback I crashed. I feel like a rock rolled out from under my front tire and the next thing I know is I'm driving my right elbow into the rocks like a WWF wrestler attempting an elbow smash to the head of an opponent. After smashing my elbow, I then flipped onto my back and thanks to my CamelBak, I feel like I avoided driving rocks into my back. Luckily, I wasn't seriously injured and finished the ride without any further issues.

Steve and Brian were good riding companions and I look forward to keeping up with the mountain biking and meeting more good people like them. As it turns out, Steve knows a lot of folks I know and lives very nearby me. We'll hookup for some rides at Chubb and the 'wood in the near future.

So, about that CamelBak. I was wearing my smaller Rogue pack versus the larger Mule. Perhaps I should look for one like this fella is wearing?