Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Unprecedented

Evergreen on Tuesday April 10, 2007. It began snowing as we pulled up to the Park N' Ride / Church in Evergreen. "Dammit! We are riding anyways."

Mike S. has been someone I always have loved to ride with. Today he was sporting his 6" travel Kona that he has upgraded all over the place. It is now set up for anything that can be found on a trail.

I am concentrating on getting smoother and faster, so I am sticking to the same bike for a while: Black Sheep Ti 29 SS. It is fast and fun.

Today, I was ready for the cold. I had some thermal gloves and a compression top from the one and only Louis Garneau. Icebreaker on the outside for the warmth. The only change I made was midride... I pulled up my sleeves. Otherwise, I was the perfect temperature. My diaper (or chamois) was the LG Big air short, which is easily the most comfortable padding I have encountered in my years in the business.

I called Dave (aka Slowerthensnot) to see what conditions were to be like in Evergreen. He said that is would be likely muddy and sloppy. As I said, it was snowing lightly as we drove up. As we stepped out of the car, it opened up to be amazing and beautiful. We rode out in the green and got lost as quickly as I have ever heard of.

After back tracking for a while, we made a big change and turned back on track. This led to downhill after downhill where I couldn't catch up, nor wipe the smile off my face. The trail was as sticky as I have ever seen it. So, there was no slipping, no sliding, no missing lines. It was pure fun. We agreed that this was the most ideal we had seen the trails in a long time.

We finally descended into Evergreen and checked in at the great Creekside Winery. They were closed, but gave us some good directions back to the car.

We had a blast! Come with us next time, instead of just reading about it. Bring water and a snack and you will have a blast.

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