My ride today started nice and early. I was up and out the door by 5:15am. I stopped to pick up a coffee and breakfast and was on my way out to today's riding destination: Red Mountain in Mission to ride Arduum. I was at the hill climbing by 6am and the only company I saw during my ride was a black bear on the road.
Climbing on the Ollie was a bit tougher than my Rune. Lets just say I did a fair amount of pushing. Once I was at the top it started raining, so I geared up and started my ride down. I am likely racing in the Arduum Challenge in a few weeks so I figured I should get a good look at the course on my own to scope lines and get a feel for the course.
Its steep, rocky, rooty, wet and off camber. Technical is the one word that sums up this course. Perfect course to try out a new part on my bike and break in my newly serviced rear shock. After a few turns of the knobs, everything was dialed.
I managed to get a good look at the sections I wanted and sessioned a few of the jumps and rock sections. I think a after riding it a few more times, I should have it down in my head and the speed will come.
So at the bottom I had a choice; ride Arduum again, or ride the Bear Mountain DH course. I chose to hit Bear to see how it was and to see if there had been any changes in the last year or so. Bear had seen some recent buffing and was simply awesome. In fact I have never seen it better. Someone had raked the whole trail, cleaned out all the drains and buffed up all the jumps and berms. I had a total hoot hitting the gaps and railing everything in sight. At times I was 2 wheel drifting corners so I know I was riding at the limit.
At the bottom of Bear I decided to hit Arduum again. I pushed up to a point on the trail that I wanted to session. After a few attempts on this one particular difficult jump. I decided to call it a day and rode out to my car.
It was now 9am and time to go home.
Climbing on the Ollie was a bit tougher than my Rune. Lets just say I did a fair amount of pushing. Once I was at the top it started raining, so I geared up and started my ride down. I am likely racing in the Arduum Challenge in a few weeks so I figured I should get a good look at the course on my own to scope lines and get a feel for the course.
Its steep, rocky, rooty, wet and off camber. Technical is the one word that sums up this course. Perfect course to try out a new part on my bike and break in my newly serviced rear shock. After a few turns of the knobs, everything was dialed.
I managed to get a good look at the sections I wanted and sessioned a few of the jumps and rock sections. I think a after riding it a few more times, I should have it down in my head and the speed will come.
So at the bottom I had a choice; ride Arduum again, or ride the Bear Mountain DH course. I chose to hit Bear to see how it was and to see if there had been any changes in the last year or so. Bear had seen some recent buffing and was simply awesome. In fact I have never seen it better. Someone had raked the whole trail, cleaned out all the drains and buffed up all the jumps and berms. I had a total hoot hitting the gaps and railing everything in sight. At times I was 2 wheel drifting corners so I know I was riding at the limit.
At the bottom of Bear I decided to hit Arduum again. I pushed up to a point on the trail that I wanted to session. After a few attempts on this one particular difficult jump. I decided to call it a day and rode out to my car.
It was now 9am and time to go home.
My dirty bike with a new part on it.
Not a bad morning of riding and now at least I have a mental picture of the race course to go over in my mind. Next weekend: '08 Test of Metal
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