down HILL!

So much exhausting fun.

Buddy and I drove out to Rick's last Friday at Seven Springs with a car load of bikes.

Quite an assortment it was. There were two borrowed heavy duty downhill rigs and two single speeds - one being completely rigid.

There were also some beers, but not many empties.

Not long after arriving we took a walk to survey the course.

So it looks flat. It's not real easy taking a self portrait of the group through the steep twisties.

The start of Saturday began with an awesome breakfast by our hosts then a lap of the 24hr XC course.

As I said before, ouch. I'm in no shape to climb hills, so climbing a ski mt. was just plain painful.

Yeah. That's a self portrait of me trying to recover enough to walk up the hill.

Shortly after some lunch, we were ready to rock & roll.

Or play hockey? Looking at Buddy in all his pads, I couldn't really tell which.

Luckily the size of the bikes made it obvious what we were about to do.

Though the bike size quickly played another important role. Just when I thought the bike I borrowed was too big (not big like wrong size, but just too much bike for me), Buddy's turned out to not be big enough and cracked after only 5 runs.

So he did what I did last year when I broke a bike, rented one.

Now things started to heat up. I was finally comfortable with my bike and Buddy his, so Rick decided to take us down Frankenstein (the new gnarly expert trail). That was a lot of work, but we made it. The trail was freshly cut, so the football sized rocks were still moving as you hit them through the hairpin turns. Unfortunately the second time around wasn't so nice. Buddy flatted and I wussed out a few times. Quickly (for me) the trail became work. To go fast and be smooth, I had to think too hard. Late in the afternoon, my thinking capacity was dwindling.

Even after a second flat and broken seat for Buddy, we kept riding when Rick called it a day.

For a brief couple of runs, we were pure rocket. The two of us flew down EC1 (upper and lower - expert trail) smooth and quick. It was done without thought or effort. Our bodies and bikes simply ripped down the trail over the rocks and drops like we were on rails. It wasn't until the very bottom we realized the downhill nirvana we just experienced.

Back on the lift we road up to the top with smiles ear to ear under our full-face helmets.

But it didn't last. A few runs later, our bodies tired from the long day of rides, our composure was gone and it was time to head back.

Sunday we were sore, but we were back at it.

We didn't have quite the gusto as the day before, but it was fun nevertheless.

Most importantly - no XC riders were hurt in the course of this adventure.

- b