major leafage

Surprise surprise! We missed all the group rides today because we stayed out too late with Mr. Neal in Bolivia who is now back in town.......after too many beers we decided to sleep in a bit and ride at Pine Log WMA again.

Pine Log...sweet stuff there!! But not for the faint of heart...at least in the Fall. All the leaves were down and I'm not sure I've ever seen so many leaves covering the "trail". I say "trail" because what we rode on all day rarely felt like trail. The ground was soft from the pigs digging it up, there were babyhead rocks everywhere..I mean everywhere, and all that was covered up with 6" to 12" of leaves. My tires disappeared once in awhile. We were out for over 4 hours, and did about 2.5 hours of riding, and about 1.5 hours of hike-a-bike/bike whacking/standing around looking at the map and compass. Luckily we did not get lost! My nav skills are quite rusty, but luckily Eddie has a more innate sense of direction that I do. It wasn't the best place to go for a "level 2" base ride, but it was fun anyway. Well, fun until I hit a tree! There was a steeeep pitch towards the end of the "trail" and it was covered in pinestraw and leaves. My first attempt ended in a sideways leaf slide with me sliding straight into a tree and flipping over..ouch my shoulder. My second attempt ended in me whining like a little girl that I was scared..and my third attempt finally ended with success!

Eddie loved his Bandersnatch, though his seatpost kept slipping. He's gotta get ride of that quick release sp collar!! I'm sure he'll be doing his maiden voyage write-up in detail over here.