Freezy, Sleety, Melty, Tacky

Picture ripped from Larry Flynt. This is not meant to be political. I was looking up pictures of Taco Hell and this was the best one.

I don’t eat Taco Bell, but if anyone has access to Taco Johns and they can send me some let me know.

By some miracle of Mother Nature, we actually made it through our ride last night. Some crazy coastal storm was brewing yesterday causing some unique circumstances on the East coast. Charleston got their earliest recorded snowfall ever. Pretty crazy! Columbia saw sleet yesterday and so did Greenville. Freezing rain warnings covered two counties in North Carolina. All of this and it is only November!

So what did we do? We went riding of course. Rick and I met up with two new folk, TC and Dennis last night out at Paris Mountain. These two are in shape!

So we did the normal route at Paris. When we got to the top of the mountain we stopped for a quick break and heard something odd coming through the leaves. It was sleeting! It really wasn’t that cold and I can’t even imagine that it was sleeting at the bottom of the mountain but we saw it for sure. It was a wicked night to be out with the wind whipping around. I like Paris at night because of how remote you feel, even though you are not.

So the night was going about like any other night on a mountain bike until we started going down my favorite downhill. We made the left turn onto Brissy Ridge. The order was TC, Dennis, myself and then Rick. The top of Brissy has a small drop of about a foot and a half, TC dropped it and Dennis started easing off the ledge as I prepared to wheelie drop it. Well Dennis didn’t make it and I was too close behind him for comfort. Dennis stuck his wheel in a root that was hidden under the leaves and took an impressive endo to the ground. As I was admiring Dennis’ grace, I realized I was in a tight situation. To huck the ledge was certain death as I would land on his bike. I was going to have to sacrifice myself for the sake of his bike and body. I stuck my wheel into the leaves off the side of the trail and pulled an Endo head tuck leg trap. What is a endo head tuck leg trap you ask? Well I made it up last night and it is when you do a half endo off to the side of the trail sideways and prop your right shoulder on the ground while kicking your left leg in the air to catch your Karate Monkey that is about to chop the helpless bike in half.

No harm no foul. I started having trouble with my light after that. It was slipping around again which is not good. I really need to address this lighting issue.

I took another semi-crash at the top of Sulphur Springs. I was really off my game at that point and just cruised back to the parking lot. It was great to get out.

Well if you are coming out on Friday or Sunday, I will see you then. Otherwise have a great Turkey Day and look for ride postings this weekend and next week.