Seven Springs (Pennsylvania)

Redemption! After a season-opener that featured a trip to the hospital, I was eager to get back in the groove of things at the second stop of the Gravity East Series. That's just what we got, too.



The bus was back in action again too. This time our group consisted of Rachel and three team riders - Nick, Ross, and myself. We showed up to the resort late on Friday night and slept in the parking lot. When we woke, Nick and I took a short walk to check out the layout. The feel was similar to that of the Massanutten Yeeha - a fairly large number of riders, spectators, and sponsor tents. The course was short and fun, featuring only one truly technical area - a short rock garden that would prove more daunting than expected. Other than that area, the course featured several jumps and a generally fast and flowy pace.

Gutted!

The interior of the bus is being revamped from scratch. It's bare now, but will soon have a new floor, couch, storage space, and TV with Super NES! Here's its current state.





UPDATE: Now the floor has been sealed with bedliner paint.





I also redesigned the door latch, which looks like an erector set in its current state.

Snowshoe (West Virginia)

The bus was still out of commission, so the trip to the US Open was out of the question last weekend. Instead, Joey, Jarrod, Joe and I went to Snowshoe to ride.



The rain had been constant all week, but subsided by Friday night. The weekend was sunny and hot, which dried out the soggy ground by Sunday. On Monday Joey and I planned on driving to Timberline, but his sprained finger swelled overnight and we decided to forego that trip. Instead, we hiked to the top of Seneca Rocks on our way home.

Massanutten Yeeha! (McGaheysville, VA)

Hmm...how can I explain it?

Friday's practice was going perfectly. My tires were hooking up on every corner, I was feeling confident and fast. Each run was increasingly better than the last and I was really settling in well on the new bike.

On my fifth practice run I came screaming through the first rock garden and set my sights on sprinting out of the first "bump garden" - a field of small, but awkward and sporadically-placed rocks. As I'd done in previous runs, I started to mash the pedals in order to "ride the rear wheel" through this bumpy patch. Unfortunately my front wheel smacked a rock just as I rose the the front of the bike to apply power, which threw my weight forward and sent me flying over the bars.

Some people say "face first" to describe any over-the-bar fall, but this time I mean it. I landed "face first" in the rock garden and have the stitches to prove it. Oh yes, somehow I busted my face despite wearing a full-face helmet and goggles.



I was carried off of the trail and transported to the hospital where they cleaned up my face and stitched me up. Everyone there was amazingly helpful and one of the eye-witnesses to the crash rode to the base to find Rachel and tell her where to find me at Rockingham Memorial Hospital in Harrisonburg.

It was a rough way to start the season and I hope that it's my only BIG wreck of the year, much like the Snowshoe wreck of last summer.

In true idiot-fashion I claimed to feel "much, much better" the next morning. I still wanted that run, even if it was going to be slow. The rest of my body was sore from the fall. My right knee was swollen, my right hand had two jammed fingers, and the rest of my body had scrapes all over it. Still, I insisted that I'd take it easy and just try to make it down safely.

I carried a bag of ice on the lift in an attempt to loosen up my jammed fingers enough to grab the handlebar and brake lever and committed myself to a slow and cautious run. I made it to the bottom [eventually] and my time put me in the middle of the pack, 16th out of 30 riders in CAT2.


I found this photo on Sempertubby's Photobucket.

It seems that I was hardly the only person to go down, even if I was known as "that guy" for most of the weekend. I was topped on Saturday by the US phenom, Neko Mulally, who broke his wrist on that morning's practice run.

Sherando Lake

Just returned from another great shuttle trip! This weekend Sean, Joey, and I drove to Sherando Lake to get a few runs on Torrey Ridge, Kennedy Ridge, Slacks, and White Rock Gap trails.



The weather forecast was grim - rain expected throughout the weekend. Our luck triumphed once again, however, and we only had rain at night, which burnt off early on Saturday morning to reveal blue skies and comfortable temperatures. This weekend we stayed at low elevation also, which meant much warmer temps while we camped.





Our plan on Saturday was to take turns driving the jeep, while the other two rode the trails. That meant two runs for each rider after three quick shuttles to Torrey Ridge. Unfortunately, Joey and I both wrecked during our runs. Joey caught the worst of it, though, when he bruised his ankle after being pitched over the front of his bike. To add insult to injury, he smacked a tree limb with his eye a little further down the trail, which ended his day of riding. We decided to break for lunch and then shuttle Kennedy Ridge via offroad trails. Since Joey was unable to ride for the remainder of the day, he volunteered to drive Sean and me to the top. The drive up was pretty epic - rocky terrain and several water crossings - all the while with two bikes strapped to the rear rack.


The drive to the top took a while and we were losing light, so Sean and I quickly grabbed our gear and headed down the trail. The Kennedy Ridge trails were mainly fire road with some bits of singletrack mixed in. We flew down the wide-open sections and made it back to camp in no time. After a full day of riding, we relaxed by the fire and celebrated a great weekend of riding. The next morning we packed up and headed home.

Chaching

Just another example of my random luck - Snowshoe used a photo of me for one of their preseason ads. Sweet!

Flagpole Knob

This weekend marked the first mountain bike trip of the season. We left Richmond on Friday night and met up with John and Robin at our campsite. The wind was nonstop the entire weekend, which made the brisk temperature feel even more chilling. We had a great campsite though, aided by the ultimate convenience of having John's offroad trailer to use as our kitchen. John's got a pretty dope setup. A Jeep CJ pulling a stout offroad trailer, which holds most of the essentials and one very fun toy - a 1980 enduro motorcycle. I'm definitely jealous.



On Saturday we took a run on a scorching downhill trail to Hone Quarry, where we were met by Rachel, Robin, and John. When we returned to the top of the mountain, we were met by Nick, who'd driven from DC to ride with us. After lunch we took another run. This time we set out for a longer route, which turned out to be a bit more hiking than riding as we followed the ridgeline on a "tour de knobs." The last section of the trail was all downhill, however, and a real scorcher at that.



The next day we packed up camp and took two runs on our way out of the area. One was similar to our first ride, which dropped us again at Hone Quarry. It had it all - narrow singletrack, loose rock gardens, and fast, wide-open sections. A great way to cap off the weekend. One more quick run near Second Mountain topped off the weekend and soon we were on our way home.