New Light rap

Since Chris and Ben were spent after having broken legs on Saturday's P-ride, Brian and Ali were no-goes following their quixotic adventure through central NC, and JD had somehow thrown his back out getting ready for his son's second birthday party (I'm curious too), it was just Daniel and I on the traditional Sunday ride at New Light. Well, Daniel, me, and a host of others all roaming around the trail on long-travel full suspension rigs. I'm assuming that the two-wheeled couches must be fun, because all the cool kids seem to be riding them these days.

For what it's worth, whenever I see someone riding a 6"+ travel bike on our rather tame Triangle trails I always start singing:

I like big bounce and I cannot lie.
You other riders can't deny:
When some dude rolls by on a 6'n'6 bike
And throws his long-travel in your face
You get SPRUNG...

(Sung, of course, to the tune of the Sir Mix-a-Lot classic "Baby Got Back.")

It's possible that this says more about me than either than anything about either the other bikes or their riders. Maybe even likely.

No matter, we weren't prevented from getting in a good ride, and while it was neither epic nor extreme I think we were both pleased at the pace. More importantly, I was able to finish a ride without having an attack of the tube-snake, meaning that we were able to ride mechanical-free. There was a moment as we skirted the lake when the wind started picking up and I thought we were in for another mid-ride shower, but the threatening clouds blew over and we were able to finish with a cool breeze at our backs. All-n-all not a bad Sunday.

In other news, Adam Haile has officially touched down in the Bull City and is already talking some smack about crushin' 'em on the Tuesday ride. Consider yourself forewarned: Ad-Rock suffers no fools.

**Actually, it's more like me talking smack for him: I'd hate to give the guy a bad name before he's able to even unload his bikes.

Shining a light

Our rag-tag crew reconvened at New Light this morning, with memories of our last outing here still fresh in our minds. Today Easy B substituted in for Chris and we hoped to make this another memorable ride. Was it? Well, there was thankfully neither hail nor tornado-warning worthy winds but we marked the ride down as the first of the incipient summer. Warm but not humid weather and a several days' fatigue in our legs made this ride hard, the smile-through-a-face-covered-in-sweat kind of hard. Looking ahead to Little River, we're riding smooth and smiling as B demonstrates here:

How's that for a look of intense concentration? This man's a machine.



The camera was low on juice, so there weren't any more pics until the end, where the shutter once again caught Brian not smiling, and Daniel cheezing enough to make up for his dour-faced riding partner.

Ride of the year (so far)

Since not everyone can be Cohutta-cool, complete with brushes with greatness and all, Daniel, Chris, Ali, and I headed out to New Light on Sunday to get in a quick lap before the rains descended on the Triangle. While there was a chance of thunderstorms in the area, the radar looked good when we left the house, so we figured we'd get in a couple of miles before the skies opened up.

We were about fifteen (very fast) minutes into the ride when we hit a portion of the forest that had been burned in the previous day or two. The scene was amazing: blackened ground, smoking clumps of vegetation, a few still-burning tree stumps, all with a pristine strip of brown trail running through the middle. I'd been lucky enough to ride after a controlled burn last year and the experience was amazing. I knew that we were in for a treat.



Indeed, the juxtaposition of the budding canopy, the smoldering understory, the charred ground all lit by the foreboding pre-thunderstorm sky made for the kind of ride where you're glad you brought along a camera. I'm not sure that the pics capture just how remarkable the scenery was, but hopefully they'll give an approximation.

Not that he's ever not smiling, but Daniel had more than enough to pull the corners of his mouth up on this ride.


Chris workin' it on a new section of the ever-evolving New Light trail.


Daniel chasing Ali down the brown ribbon and into the trees.


Three in motion...


... and at rest.


Ali's covershot.


Playing around on the hefty new bridge, with Chris posing as our friendly neighborhood troll.

We were having so much fun on the trail that we didn't notice just how quickly the storm was rolling in. When we wound our way down along the lake we could feel the wind picking up, though, and decided that maybe it was time to make some fast tracks back to the parking lot. The drops were few and infrequent at first, and for a minute I thought the storm was going to blow itself on over our ride. Then, almost as if as an afterthought, the clouds opened up and we found ourselves in a classic spring thunderstorm, complete with lightning, thunder, and some decent-sized hail.




The above pics were taken just as the clouds settled in, and as the few rain drops collected themselves for a full-fledged assault on our lycra-clad selves. We didn't bother taking any pics in the rain, as we were more intent on getting back to the trucks. Oh, and I hear that water and electronics don't mix.



We were muddy at the end, something I rarely find myself after mountain biking (surprising though that may be). We certainly don't have the epic stories -- or the podium finishes -- of the Cohutta gladiators, but it was still a ride worth remembering.