The Storm and What Came of It

So Good Friday comes and with it a steady light snow storm greeted me when i awoke. Just last week I was riding in shorts, a base layer and jersey! Today I'll be back to the knickers and cut of jeans. An Early shot of myself & Scott trying to troubleshoot his rear wheel problem. This turned out to be a broken internal in his hub which ended Scotts ride with us on Friday. Maybe next time, my friend.

Heres the story..I got a call Thursday evening while I was turning tools on repairs at the ToP cranberry store with TJ as we listening to some music from the Rat Pack. It was Mike, a guy I've ridden with a few times during the winter months and it was always fun so I made the schedule changes necessary to make the morning ride.
He told me that there would be several people showing up at the Pool in North Park around 9. A few cups of coffee, loaded up the 05 Purple Rig and I was off. The others turned out to be great guys and two of the younger ones (High School) lived nearby and actually build more than a few miles of the trails through out the Park. So we had inside guides for the day. How cool! Since I have done very little mountain biking over the last few months this ride was a treat! I had forgotten how "rusty" my cornering and traction skills had gotten due to all the road riding. It was so pathetic to watch me hesitate thru corners and off camber trail sections.

Vaughn, Nick & Ken near the end of our ride. We stopped often to goof off and snap photos, but still managed to get a good 15+ mile ride in. Look for Vaughns name in the Month of Mud races later this year and hopefully he gets into the Cross races too. Good Luck Vaughn!

There's a couple of shots of Chris making some sweet jumps! I would have to say that Chris has some mad skills with getting his bike up & over things! To bad the camera wasn't faster so we could have captured the wipe-out that followed this aerial! Just kidding, Chris pulled this one off as he always does with a solid landing!

After all the riding we loaded up and headed to Moes Southwest Grille in Cranberry (beside the ToP store) for some fuel and conversation. I was really glad the group invited me along

The last climb to the Pool Parking Lot! Hum looks like a few of us where finally worn out. Oh well this climb was a little slick so there wasn't any shame in walking, next time we'll get it! Thanks again to Mike for the invite and i look forward to the next time. Mike riding the trials @ North Park

stork