Undead Drunken Monkey

Damn it feels good to be a gangsta’

We were up and at it real early on Saturday. We were headed to Columbia to drop off SCS Monkey and Undead Drunken Monkey for the parts swap. I showed up with six chicken biscuits in hand and a suitcase of beer for the boyz. I instructed them to try and refrain from the drinking until my bike was complete.

From there, we were headed out for a long day in Charleston. Meeting up with our friends downtown for lunch and then off to a wedding reception in Summerville followed by a late night drive back to Kristin’s house in Columbia. All in all I was up for almost 19 hours straight. TMHTE prepared me for this type of day.

Up Sunday morning for an ultra-secret pick up of the UDM. Once we were home the dogs were so happy to see us I thought the world might implode around us. Shade did his “ohhhh my god every time your gone it seems like forever” dance and after throwing the ball a zillion and one times for Buddy it was time to mount my trusty stead for the first time in eight days.

Last week I started to realize that the bike gods are actually on my side. I had just failed to see the half-full cup. These broken frames that I experience seem to always happen before a major event. For example, the first time I did the ORAMM, my SUGAR 292 cracked three weeks beforehand and I ended up riding a CAKE in the race instead of my 29’er. Yes, I have been riding 29’ers for over 3 years now.

Two weeks before the SM-100 my CAKE broke and I was forced to ride a new bike in that race. I am sure there were some other incidents as well but my mind is failing me. With all of this going on you would think that would have broken a frame in a race by now but it has “yet” to happen. Its only a matter of time before it does but so far the God’s of two wheels have blessed me.

After being sick all last week and not doing anything exercise related I thought that I might suffer on this ride. I rode from the house up the Swamp Rabbit Trail, up Altamont, dropped in the park, rode firetower, Kaunga, Lake loop twice, climbed Pippsissewa, Dropped Brissy, took the backside road up to the top, rode the downhill course all the way to the bottom of Mountain creek, left the park via the front entrance, back roads to the front side of Altamont, over the king of the mountain, back to Furman on the SRT home.

I have no idea how far that is but I am guessing around 40. With that distance and climbing Paris three times I am satisfied. My legs felt great as they had their biggest break in a LONG time. My body felt like crap as my sinuses and sickness are still lingering but the mocha frappachino peanut butter cup induced sugar coma that I had climbing Paris the last time sure did help.

Nothing in particular to note about the ride besides the following:

Climbing the backside of Paris (inside the park) I heard a squirrel come running and looked up just in time to see him huck a 10 foot embankment down into a pile of leaves off the side of the road. He hit with the elegance of an extreme skier sticking a 100 foot drop into 10 feet of powder and then popped out of the leaves in an instant running across the road in front of me. It made me laugh out loud.

As I was leaving the park I realized Sunrift was having their demo day in the park and I almost stopped to ask if this poor fellow needed help loading a Kayak high on the multi-stacked trailer. As I climbed the small grunt climb to the road I heard BONNG, BONGG, dunkadunkadunka and looked back to see the kayak now lying on the ground. WHOOPS.

The crazy part is that once I passed Sunrift again on my way home I saw them unloading the same Kayaks.

Its good to have a bike again.