Tim had stopped by last night at my place to say hi, see the new baby and to see if I was interested in a night ride at the Woodlot. As luck would have it, I was just outfitting my hartail with my lights in anticipation of night riding sometime very soon. I gladly accepted his offer and we met at The Woodlot at 7pm for a moonlight night ride. 7pm was perfect because we were able to get the bikes all ready and start to make our way up the trail just as the sun set. We were both running lights on our bikes and on out helmets so we each had the ideal setup.
On the way up we just walked in the dark with the only light coming from the moon that was peeking though the misty sky. One in a while we would turn on a light just to make sure they were working, but we did not really turn on the lights until we reached the top of Toadstool on our way to Blood Donor. So with one of my lights burning, we made our way to the trail head of BD and armored up.
With all our light firing (I had 60W total going 30W on the bars and 30W on the head), we started down the trail. The total rush of night riding quickly returned to me as we started our ride down this favorite trail of mine. The way that the color of the ground changes color in the dark is amazing, it turns from a dark cold brown in the daylight to a warm fall brown color in the dark. Nothing else compares to seeing it for yourself.
So we rode BD without incident all the way to the gap at the bottom. Now there was no incident at the gap, but this was the first real jump on the ride and in the dark, your bike lights do not point down and your head lamp does not exactly point down at your landing area. I soon found out that I am thankful that I know the trail well enough to ride it without any light on the trail at all because when you are in the air, the trees, not the trail are all lit up. Both Tim and I had safe landings and continued on to Giant Killer, I was just pointing out that jumping in the dark is not for the faint of heart.
Giant Killer was a total blast as well. Watching your buddy come down the trail from a distance behind you is really a cool sight to behold. So over to Snakes and ladders we went. We both ripped out little gem. I paused on the plateau before the rock drop to let Tim go first. It was really cool watching him just kind of disappear over the edge of the drop. I quickly followed and we ripped the trail all the way to rock faces. We were like little kids in the candy store. I love riding with friends and riding by moonlight with your buds is even better.
We stopped at the final rolldown on the trail as Tim and I has a look at the squid line. He has a discussion about different lines and discussed what we would be building together the next time I was able to get to The Woodlot to build. I cannot express how happy I am with the way that the trail is coming together with all the work Tim has done on his own lately. I can’t wait to get diggin in the dirt with him soon.
So we rode over to Shotgun and started our cat and mouse game down the trial. It was my turn to be the mouse and Tim was the cat trying to hound my rear wheel in a little race down the trail. I must say that tonight I was on fire. After the first 2 little drop/stepdowns on the trail and the right hand berm, I didn’t touch my brakes, I just flowed the trial and leaned into the turns. It was crazy how much fun I had going as fast as I could in the dark all the way to the road crossing. It was at the road crossing that we switched cat and mouse positions and I chased Tim. For the first bit, I was all over him (as I said, I was on fire). Then I got too close and tried backing off, that was when I lost sight of the trail, hooked my tire on something and almost went ass over tea kettle into a tree. I stopped, regained my composure and started back on line making an attempt to catch up to Tim. Well, I made a big mistake and rode about 5 meters off the trail into the bush. I decided that Tim was to win the second stage of our cat and mouse game and we called it a draw.
So out to the cars we went and packed up. I must say I had a total blast night riding and I cannot wait to get back on the trail to do it again soon.
