Sunday, July 13, 2008

fools in the rain..again

I swear, the same thing happened last year!!

We went up to Dahlonega Saturday afternoon and had planned to ride the last 18 miles of the new race course to record exact mileage. We got to the trailhead around 2:30 and realized I forgot to grab our bag of clothes. oops. We drove all the way back to the house, and by the time we finally got started it was 4pm. Once we hit the road Eddie noticed smoke at a campsite along the gravel road. It turns out some f-in rednecks left their fire going and there were no less than 20 beer cans and bottles littering their campsite. We put the fire out and attempted to clean up the creek around there..unfortunately Eddie sliced his finger open on one of their broken bottles. Jerks. A little while later I got a flat. Then it started to rain, but not bad. Then, on our way to the finishing section of singletrack we encountered a HUGE tree down, it was quite difficult to get across. All in all, we ended up with about 25 miles in 5 hours including all our stops and diversions.

Today we met up with Dave Muse, Monte, Neal, and Lisa to ride the full 50 miles of the race course in one big enchilada..something I have yet to do (SOMETHING ALWAYS comes up during the ride...trailwork, rain....) I've ridden 40+ miles of the course more times than I can count, but never all 50 in one day..and today was going to be the day..until it started raining. As soon as we started climbing to Coopers Gap the skies opened up. Rain, lighting, it was quite dark but fun to ride in except for the descents when all of us would get junk in our eyes. Once we hit the turnoff to the singletrack, Neal and Lisa opted to take the gravel road to the car but Monte and Dave wanted to check out the trail so we chose that route. There was at least 5-6" of water flowing down the trail and the rain was still coming down hard from all directions, it was crazy...my fingers and toes were numb from the cold and I was shivering so bad I could barely stay upright. We met up with Neal and Lisa again in a few minutes, good timing. It was fun, but I was glad to see the car at the end of the ride which had been cut short once again...

I actually don't have any riding pics from the weekend, so these will have to do.

Teri and me at Bonegarden Cantina

Porter chillin' with the Q3s.


What do you think of Team Vassago/Grand Hustle? Found this perfect race team vehicle parked in the neighborhood.....



I've got the day off tomorrow...so it BETTER NOT RAIN!!!!

Oh, the Fool's Gold 50/100 mile route is set. It will go a bit faster than last year due to it being shorter (50, not 55 miles per lap) and removal of some of the eroded, steep horse trail. Fear not, it will still be a challenge for everyone. Look for a final map/route sometime this week.

5 Comments:

Blogger FixieDave said...

aaaswwww porter!

I wish I could get down there for FG!

5:56 PM  
Blogger MCF said...

Perfect vehicle and we would have to have you on the side with Porter!

6:16 PM  
Blogger Wicki said...

Yo, I dig the ride!! Sorry I've been mia...will get back on the wagon soon. Are you planning to go up to VT Nationals this weekend??

9:00 AM  
Blogger Namrita O'Dea said...

oh man, i don't have the money for that. are you going? i have to start tapering for 24 hour nationals, anyway. are you and DJ still racing that??

9:01 AM  
Blogger Wicki said...

I think I meant to write 24 hour nationals. Yes, I am going/racing with the D- what cat. are you racing...SOLOISTA?? :) If you are driving out, can I send a couple of things with you??

11:00 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home