There are rides that take you deep into the pain cave and the only reason you enjoy them is because they eventually end and you feel a sense of accomplishment. This was not one of those rides.
I had a desire to ride, in particular the Goose. Apparently Monte had the same inclination because I received a text from him that snowballed into a great group ride Sunday morning. For those of you who weren’t there, you weren’t missed because we were having way too much fucking fun. Although, in hindsight we feel that you should be disappointed that you missed out on so much rad getting.
Because we got rad! (Editor’s note: I’m using the last of my three-exclamation-points-a-year quota)
After the receipt of Monte’s text, I began flooding the phone networks with invites, suggestions and prodding. Most of what I got in return was an avalanche of “I’ve got family obligations.”
Ali and Richard were staying at the Lounge and wanted to ride Sunday, so they were in. We learned that Kenny and Heather were hunkered down at the Yurt and were interested in riding. A group was formed and the plan that was being incubated, hatched. Meet at the Little Creek station and then onward to the Yurt where we would head up the Windmill. Past that, it was anyone’s game.
Once readied, we all headed out making the mistake of letting Kenny be chased by Richard. They quickly dropped all of us like a ton of bricks. I for one, had chosen for some reason I will never understand, to bring my DSLR with me. So beside just chasing Kenny and Richard I was literally carrying a ton of camera. On a positive note, it was said carrying that forced me to actually take some photos. And I’m glad I did.
The ride was to go up Windmill to the Bowls and Ledges, over to the Practice Loop and then up the South and down the North Rims. This is a route that I prefer as it is the way that I best know the trail meaning that all the alternative lines are memorized perfectly and I rarely miss something that I had wanted to ride. With that in mind, the first stop to play was on the way to the Wall of Death. Coming in from that side, we hit the roller down into the bottom of the Wall and the headed up to, well, you know, get rad.
I slayed this personal demon a while back and have loved kicking the little bitch every time I ride by. And I kicked her pretty hard this time around. Our last ride together, Kenny eyeballed the wall for a while and even thought about trying it on his hard tail. This time around, he borrowed Monte’s bike and without even so much as testing tire pressure, clipped in and rode down the thing. Impressive.
Unfortunately, no one was quite ready for him to roll it, so no foto evidence is available. However, the eyewitness accounts are reliable.
This was just the beginning of the playing. I think the longest we rode in one stretch till we hit the North Rim was about two minutes. There was a lot of riding in circles and rolling down things.
And that is what riding the Goose is all about, grabbing on to her svelt neck and riding her until she bucks your ass off. When she does, it will probably hurt, but I’ve never met anyone who regretted the ride.
Seeing that we were headed up the South Rim, the Triple Crown No Dabs Contest was set up and we headed through the Bitch, the Steps and Rattlesnake. As usual, the Steps proved to be the most difficult. A lot of effort was spent trying to figure out just how to get our knobby tires up and over that section. It’s often overlooked as a difficult move because most people come up to it, stop and walk it and never think twice. There is nothing aesthetically pleasing about it. But it still resides as one of the hardest moves on the Goose.
The day peaked for me at the Boobs. It’s been a while since I’ve been on top of them and seeing the ride had turned into a sessionfest, I took the opportunity to bounce around on ’em.
Here’s a little tribute to myself using Ali’s photos of said Boobs.
After all, it is my blog and I’ll toot my own horn whenever I want.
P. L. and R. (which does not mean Pratt, Lukas and Ryan 😉
