So yesterday I was all primed to head to Alpine to hit up one of my favorite technical/stunt trails. I had a brand spanking new full face helmet and was ready to go. I had not ridden with my buddy Steve in months so it was going to be cool to catch up on things with him while out on the trail. I show up to the trailhead early and get all my stuff together. Steve shows up a little early as well and as I’m making final preps I realized that I left my pads at home! Freaking Bummer! Now it did not make much sense to be to wear a full-face helmet and no pads so I threw on the my regular helmet for the ride and went “naked” protection-wise. I always throw on pads at the top of Anderson because, well, this place has a tendency to have you leaking at the end of the ride if you don’t. But for this day, I decided to skip a few of the trechreous spots and generally take it easier.
What a great ride I ended up having today. It was one of those days when things just all seem to click and you have to tell people about. Not because you want to brag, but because days like this don’t always happen. They are kind of special and today was one of those days. My gear snaffu aside, I rode well and it was just a great day to be out on a bike. The stuff I did hit, just seemed to flow and feel much more effortless than in the past. I was jazzed. Steve and I always play around on stuff up there and today was no different. I was also having a great day with the camera. Angles just seem to be coming into view better and I was getting my envisioned shots on the first take. It was cool to be in a camera zone as well.
A different angle on the “Stair Step”
This is called the Halloween Drop. I’m not sure why, maybe it is because it will be a trick or treat. Not much room in between.
This little rock drop had been messing with my head since forever out here. I had launched bigger stuff than this but I would always roll it, even with pads on. I think it was the rock onto a rock that was tweaking my melon. After riding a few days in Moab, where this stuff is everywhere, I hit this without hesitation. I had to stop afterwards, look around and go “What the hell was I fretting about?”
Further down the trail, the camera zone continued as I got a different angle on the 911 roll. I was jazzed with getting some scenery in the background on this shot.
On our way back down I had an “interesting moment” on the wall ride. I came into the wall mighty hot and went up a lot higher than I had planned. I also had enough speed that I basically blew through the wall forcing me to come down off the wall in a much steeper section while turning the wheel sharper than normal. About halfway down the wall I was still leaned over and my fork was way out to my left. Because of the steepness of the wall past the “normal” area the fork came off the wall and somehow I managed to pull the frontend back underneath me and straighten it out just before the wheel touched down at the bottom. It all happened really fast, but there was still that bit of the mental slow motion thing happening. I stopped afterwards and had to let out a big yell. I had the post-adrenaline rush shakes and my stoke meter was officially pegged!
The rest of the run was a cruiser and we finished off the day off with some yummy burritos. Another great day to be a mountain biker.
-Bill
