Dawn Patrol

I was up early today, so early that I watched the sun rise over the mountains to the east and climb in sky warming up the cool morning air as I climbed up the mountain. It's been months since I've actually seen the sunrise. Every time I see it I make sure to pause a moment or two to take it in.

At Goldmine (the top of The Woodlot) there were a few centimeters of snow which made the ride oh so entertaining on the frozen icy roots.

Goldmine is the trail that I always use as the barometer of a bike's performance. I use it as the shakedown run for any new bike I get. Todays run down Goldmine solidified my opinion of the Legend MkII. This bike is truly fantastic. It's fast in the rough stuff, corners really well and has a solid pedal platform which makes picking up speed a very simple task. One thing I did notice is that it sits higher in it's travel than the MkI which means less pedal strikes (thumbs up).

There is one section of trail where I've never been able to go completely brakeless until today. I was able to pick a line and stay on the gas with 100% confidence and then lay the bike over in the corners without any issues.

After Goldmine I hit Snakes and Ladders where I've been doing some work recently to fix a broken bridge. Today I rolled up on the section to do some more work only to find that another tree had fallen in the area directly onto the teeter totter. Thankfully Tim and Rob had solidly built the teeter so once I cut the tree off, no repairs were needed. I then got to work framing and gathering rung from the broken ladder bridges. By the time I left today the ladder was fully runged and rideable. I'd put it at 80% fixed and rideable for those that really want to.

I only had time to put two nails in each piece of rung and then I packed up my tools and headed home. Shotgun was in great shape but hadn't quite thawed by the time I made my way down so in spots I was little sideways over frozen roots.

The weather today was amazing and when coupled with a decent ride on a fabulous bike and a productive morning of building, I'd say I was one happy rider at the end of the day.