So my buddy's wife drops us at the bottom of a local ride around 7:15 this morning. We were about 5
blocks from the parking lot when we notice that the flags along the street are at full attention,
flapping away like mad..... "great..." we think "gonna be one of THOSE mornings"
Luckily the sun had poked its head over the hogback by the time we saddled up and began the long
grunt to the summit. I was just getting over some sort of nasty repiratory thing, so was hacking
lung nuggets most of the way on the climb.
We saw all of... hmmm... zero people until we hit the parking lot on the top. And then we only saw
one there. "Is there something we should know?" I ask my buddy.
A quick bit of road work led us to a fairly recently completed beautiful singletrack descent that
wound its way over one canyon. We did come across about 6 people climbing this trail. Things were
getting crowded..
🙂
A couple technical rock sections kept us honest (one uphill, one downhill), but for the most part
it was simply fantastic warp-speed through the evergreens, with an occasional stand of aspen
blazing gold.
Hit the river path and hauled it down, making our way over a couple of rocky sections. The rear
of my bike starts feeling kind of mushy..... Sure enough, I see that I'm losing pressure in the
rear tire. "What the..." I think to myself, "I've got these new-fangled tubeless tires. What's
the story??"
Stop along the river and have a look - sure enough, I have what appears to be a friggin' PINCH flat.
On the tire itself. So much for the tubeless hype. Quickly throw a tube in and we're on our way - a
bit more road work, then into a city park for more singletrack along a reservoir. Make it back to my
buddy's house in a bit less than 3 hours.
All in all, a great fall ride. Lots of climbing, lots of singletrack, and very few people. Except
for that flat tire thing.
Me tired now........
-S.S.-