Got out after work last night and rode out to Hartman Rocks solo. It had rained late in the
afternoon and the way the high desert works, that makes it a perfect time to ride. Things were tacky
and firm. I felt like superman because it was just so easy to roll along in the middle ring and
maintain a good pace. This was a sharp contrast to Sunday's granny gear and hike-a-bike punishment.
I climbed up Kill Hill and turned onto a steadily climbing jeep road to hit an old favorite,
Rattlesnake first. Gotta' hit that trail right off the bat in case the weather turns bad again. It's
a nice shape and I clean all the fun granite sections (think granite slickrock islands in a sea of
sage and sand connected by singletrack). I've got some good flow going and roll right into Back of
Beck's. I keep the pace pretty high for the sage n' sand section and take a quick break at the top
rock outcropping to look at the weather make some adjustments. Looks like the rain clouds are
breaking up, and the sun is low enough to peek under the clouds, lighting up the rocks for a
beautiful effect like this: mattb.netmary%20matt%20ryan3.jpgOpen ↗ (this is
an old shot in the same area). Continuing on the technical part of B. of B. and clean it all again
and run into an old friend from college. We chat and catch up a little and keep going on our
respective rides. I connected up to The Luge from there. A great night for this one as the air was
very still. I took full advantage of the fast conditions and laid into the berms with everything
I've got. Great, fast rolling singletrack. It's all coming together. From the bottom of the Luge I
hit Back of Hogsback, Hogsback, and then the fun, BMX-style downhill on Beck's. Back's is really
fast and I hit the rock ramp (perfectly ramp/wedge shaped rock with about 1.5' drop and a good open
rounout) with plenty of speed. Landing just in time to really hook up into the turns on the bottom
stretch. The Epic and I are one and thing are just flowing so smoothly. I climbed back over the
front ridge via The Notch, hit the bottom of the DH course, floating the gap just right and spun
back home for some food, beer, and quality time with my son to top it all off. Perfect. Looking at
my computer I ended up doing about 21 Miles, averaging 10.2 Mph. Much better than the 20 I did on
Sunday averaging something like 4.5 (when we weren't hiking).
Matt
--
Matt
"Gravity. It's not just a good idea, it's the law!"