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Thursday, June 1

'17 Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic: Part Two

Apparently, some of us had come up with a plan for Stage Two, the Galbraith Enduro™.  Fanny packs.  Beer.  I hadn't remembered all that.  Something... muddied the waters.

I did decide the night before that I wasn't going to get my spare bike with a squishy fjork all dirty just for endurbling purposes.  Tossing competitiveness out the window, I mounted up the Maxxis DHR+ 3.0 tire in hopes to lessen the pain and chance of flats.  No need to completely kill myself for our humble race cum adventure.

I stressed the importance of getting off the neutral start in a hasty manner, so as to spend less time in the woods waiting for our turns to endurble, and assure the earliest possible return time back to the Happy Valley Brewing Co beer pavilion.  We were pretty much at the top right behind the really fast guys, and in no short order, beers were shared and bladders relieved of internal pressures before rolling into the "race."

We seed ourselves as best as possible, but Dan still catches me even with a 30 second head start I was given.  Meh.  I guess as long as we all get down safe, that's all that matters.

We wait for Spohn and word reaches us that he broke his chain.  He walks out of the woods, and eventually there's six single speeders standing there with plenty of nine and ten speed quick links... and he's running an eight speed chain.  He shoves a nine in there and we hope for the best.

Enduro™ #2 goes off without a hitch (unless this is the one where Watts tagged a tree) and we get over to the check point for the sharing of the beers.  Down #3 on Croyle's and I was actually able to catch Spohn, which just shows that sometimes you feel like a nut, and sometimes you just feel someone's nuts.  Back up to the check point, more beer and burping and then over to #4 on Wildcat.

I'm actually able to catch Doug on this one, once again, I was just feeling some nuts.  I like the steeps.

#5 is the Enduro™ that busted my butt a few years ago.  I take zero chances and get to the bottom unscathed.  We all head back and stay at the beer pavilion until it's time to jump in the Narwhal for the ride home.  I would say we did the best job at maximizing our time today.

Back at camp, we come up with a plan for Tussey Ridge the next day that fits our purposes quite nicely, and somehow, we all remember the same plan in the morning... even tho mebbe an audible or two ends up getting called.

The original plan was to stick together all day long, drink three beers at the Happy Valley Brewing Co beer stop on Tussey Ridge, finish... eventually.  I had not bothered to remove the Minion DHR+ 3.0 from the front of my bike.  Part apathy, part laziness, part the fact that I was climbing faster than most and descending slower than many.  This should help even things out, not to mention, burn some calories.

We did a fine job riding together, but at some point after we pulled the plug on day one, I decided to treat the rest of the week like fat camp.

Eat minimally, ride hard'ish, mebbe come home even lighter than I started.

photo cred: Kyle C
Would have been a great idea if the Tussey Stage wasn't pushing 38 miles, but it was.   Once we got on the ridge, everyone dropped me like a sack of sad, wrinkly potatoes.  I was ded last to the beer.

So we had one... then two... and got to the agreed upon number which was three.  I seemed to remember saying something about, "Only drink within your comfort zone.  No need to make Tussey Ridge a memorial stage in '18."

Mebbe some of us had four... five... the Facebook live video telling the whole tale.  One hour and twenty minutes later with six beers in my belly, it was time to ride down the third Enduro™ segment of the day.  So much brake use and caution.  Then it's still almost nine miles to the finish.  Oof.

I knew we had to ride a new trail around an entire lake, and when I saw the size of the lake in the distance... more oof.  A fun trail, had I not been in my condition.  Empty.  Blurry.   Ded.

We hit the long road back to camp and my compadres were able to return the fire that I had brought to the climbs earlier in the day.  I just wanted to be back... so tired.

And then we were.  The beer cooler at the finish was mostly empty, but there were at least five blueberry/lemon flavored "shandies(?)", so we dispatched them and completed our day unscathed (externally, at the very least).

photo cred: Watts D

3 comments:

Ari said...

I followed your recommendation and got a hip monkey. It is truly great the only issue I have is the the belt slips on the buckles. Do you have the same problem?? Any ideas.? Thanks in advance. Ari Also, what is going on with back country research? Are they outa everything?

dicky said...

I put a couple of these on each strap to manage the ends. No slipping and no flapping.

http://www.nationalwebbing.com/products/SLMW-Black-Plastic-Midwest-Slide.html

You can kinda see them in this image here:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ku7oau95e3M/WH4wK4krPXI/AAAAAAAAa9w/5ROq57VPU7Amb4LGP3vFcXafFt77mshnQCLcB/s1600/fan.jpg

BCR was on vacation and should be back soon. He shuts down the webstore whenever he's behind or out of the office to keep people from placing orders and then getting pissed when they don't get stuff a week later. Should be back up soon.

Ari said...

Yes and yes. I will goeth to REI and search for the Midwest slides. Thank you for the quick answer. Have a good weekend and thank you for all the great posts!