I had a couple of goals for the day yesterday. One was to mow both the front
and back lawns and the other was to ride.
I mowed the back lawn in the morning after watching the boy for a while so
MrsB could get her ride fix in (she's overcome her fears of finding dead
guys and is riding Hartman's again - yay!). Then it rained for a while so I
couldn't get to the front lawn. I worked on some things around the house and
it seemed to clear up. MrsB had to go to the store, so I hung with the boy
again and I saw the skies clear up a bit. I did as much getting ready as I
can with a curious little guy in tow and then made the final prep as MrsB
returned.
There was a nasty looking black cloud approaching as the drops were
beginning to fall as I left the house on the SS. I could see a hole in the
clouds over the South side of Hartman's where it was sunny, so I tried to go
there as fast as I could. It wasn't fast enough to outrun the edge of the
system heading for town and I got thoroughly soaked and then hailed on on my
way out, but as I predicted it was nice on the South side (Bambi's trail
entrance). I looked back toward town before I started climbing the single
track and saw it was totally engulfed by a very mean looking and dark storm.
No sense in heading back now, I might as well enjoy this while I can. I
climbed Bambi's (had to walk one section that the SS doesn't give me enough
spin for) and enjoyed the sun. It dried me out almost completely when I was
at the top of the climb. I could now see a similarly nasty system coming my
way (it all comes from the West) and another hole in the clouds toward the
Southwest part of Hartman's, so I picked a route that I could connect a
couple of nice singletracks together and stay relatively low (there was
lightning here and there) and end up in the next hole in the clouds.
Skirting the meat of the storms, I managed to get a pretty good ride in. The
traction was great and I was cleaning everything, and riding really fast to
try and stay clear of the wrath of mother nature. The last piece of my
traverse was a trail called the Luge and I approached it I noticed the
ground here was a lot wetter than elsewhere. This area had just gotten quite
a bit of rain. The soil is very sandy, so usually it's all still ridable
after rain. I continued on and as I started down the DH, I felt the ground
feeling very saturated under my wheels and I could feel some rain falling.
My hole in the clouds was closing up and it was black behind and to either
side of me. Then I started seeing little streams of water coming in from the
sides of the trail. These grew and suddenly there were little creeks coming
in, and the trail had become a river. I kept riding, and the lightning was
getting a little closer than I'm comfortable with. The rain was pouring down
now and the trail had become about 1' deep, flowing in the same direction I
was going. Every now and then I'd ride through a dip and it was over my
hubs. I was riding in a flash flood! I managed to get to the end of this
section and got on to some road that only had an occasional flood crossing
it. I made my way back out to the paved road and spun home as the clouds
broke up and the sun returned.
When I came to the door to hand over my phone before hosing myself and bike
off, MrsB had to snap a couple of photos. Now, keep in mind that photos make
steep things seem flatter, and apparently muddy things seem cleaner. I was
really muddy and am still finding grit in my hair today (two showers later).
http://mattb.net/images/2004-08/muddy_full.JPG
http://mattb.net/images/2004-08/muddy_face.jpg
http://mattb.net/images/2004-08/muddy_feet.jpg
I was prepared for some rain, but not so much for the flooding. At least it
never got deeper than a foot or two. I think I may need to do some hub
rebuilding soon...
Matt