Chickys Rock!!!

Not only did we go ride the harder trails at the Cove, we overcame mechanical obstacles as well. We friggin rule!!!

So Paula and I decided to tackle the Cove this morning since our race was rained out. We met at 09:30 to start our journey. Thinking that the lower trails were going to be muddy we decided to go up. I'm so glad we did. The trails at the top are just that much fun, and it's fun as crap to say you've ridden them. People just look at you differently!

The route was as follows:

BS Road, Comet, Tuckaway, hike a bike UP Jacob's Drop, Brushy Mtn Fireroad, Gauntlet, Horse Pen, Trough, Brushy Mountain Fireroad, Buck, BS Road. Of course the Road is boring, but you have to get there some how. Comet was muddy and messy. Tuckaway was fun. I was able to ride all the way to the steepest section near the top before having to stop. I could tell that it was going to be a difficult day on the bike at this point. The top of Tuckaway is like a jungle. You can barely see the trail where the trees and weeds are overgrowing the trail. Here we made a left and headed out the doubletrack towards the base of Jacob. I was struggling to find any kind of rhythm and felt very tired. At Jacob, it was time to hike-a-bike. This doubletrack is steep, rocky and rutted. It seemed like it took forever to get to the Brushy Mtn fireroad. Once at the top of Jacob, I decided to remove my baselayer which was completely soaked. Meandered along the fireroad for a while until my rear brakes got on my nerves. Felt like they were dragging. Adjusted them a bit and felt somewhat better. Finally got to the downhill part of the fireroad and enjoyed the chance to cool off.

Arrived at Gauntlet and took a break while waiting on three guys to come off of the trail. We didn't want to start going down and risk running into them. Gauntlet is a scream!!! I love this trail. It is so worth the climb to get there. I hit my pedal on this weird root near the base of a tree and nearly washed out in one turn, but other than that I did alright. Freaked myself out of crossing some logs, so I eased over them walking. Kept on zooming after this. I nearly ran into Paula at this one turn. She checked up about the time I went to pedal, YIKES! Needless to say, we didn't wreck and survived the rest of the trail.

We were slowly riding across Horse Pen Trail just enjoying the chance to rest. Chatting about various things. Neither of us rode the narrow bridge. We stopped to talk to a turtle. My first turtle this year! =) We started across the wide bridge when I hear, "POP, dink dink." I slammed on my bakes to stop thinking I had a stick in my back wheel. As I get off the bike I'm looking and see no stick, just a flat. I think to myself, "damn, oh well I can fix that." Then I hear Paula saying, "WOW!" I look where she's pointing to see this gigantic nail sticking out of my tire. =( Sadness began to set in.

Of course, flats are one thing, but impaling objects in my tire was something entirel new to me, so I did what all good mountainbikers would do. I took a picture! HA HA HA. My next move was to jerk the nail out. I remembered a very good friend of mine telling me long before I ever got into mountain biking "if you ever get a hole in your tire, stick a dollar bill inside the tire to protect your tube." Well I didn't have any bills with me, but I did have a ziploc bag, a small gauze pad package from my first aid kit and a package from my Sharkies. All of which would be nice substitutions; however Paula was eating a Clif bar so we decided to use that to reinforce the hole in the tire since it was probably the thickest of our options. Removing the tire/tube was a peice of cake. Getting the new tube in was easy too. Well that is until we inflated the damn thing then discovered it was hanging outside the tire. HA HA HA, so I deflated it shoved the tube back in and reinflated.

Problem is this tube had evidently been riding along with me for a while because it wasn't holding air very well at all. None the less, I still had extra CO2 and a handpump and figured I'd just stop as needed to add air. I put the wheel back on the bike, but not without hearing another sickening ding, clank. DOAH, I knocked the inside brake pad out of the caliper. WTF????????? Ok, well I can fix that too as I've done this before at my house. Problem is how to get the little spring thingy out. Paula found a small stick that I was able to successfully pry the springy out. I showed her how the pads work and was able to reinstall the brake pads. So off we went on my spongy back tire. I wanted to get on towards Timberview Rd incase I needed to phone for a ride. Once we arrived at the trailhead for Trough, we added more air to my tire. Now we're down 1.5 CO2's and the handpump wasn't working worth a damn.

We were able to climb Trough up to the split in the trail before stopping. Both of us were pleased, but then we realized we probably had a twenty minute rest while I was playing Bob the Builder with my bike. Anyway, climbing up Trough really isn't that bad. It is actually a very nice trail and rather scenic at times. I'm thinking next time I want to get in a quick ride I'm going to park at the gate on Timberview, ride up Trough and down Gauntlet. Once we got to the top of Trough, we decided to do something different and headed to ride down Buck. I've been down this trail once before and have climbed it once, so memory of it was sketchy. I did remember the first crazy turn, forgot about the second one. The trail is a bit tricky and I was trying to be extra careful with rear tire. I really didn't want to put my other tube in and I didn't want to waste anymore CO2.

Buck was weird today as there was soft, squishy trail in unexpected spots!?! We made it safely down and enjoyed every minute of it. I actually like this trail more than Hi-dee-Ho. At the intersection, we decided that Hoe Trail was probably like a swamp and headed towards BS Road. This bit of trail is flowy and nice. Enjoyed it too. Arrived back at the parking lot and still felt like riding more. I only wish I had brought a sandwich or other snack. I tinkered with my brakes and back wheel/tire some more before we headed back to the lower trails. We were going to ride Songbird, but as we got closer decided to stay on the fireroad. We wound up riding up to the Tunnel. As it turned out this was cool as we got to see some neat water falls cascading down the mountain. Took a few pictures, oohed and aahed a bit. Dipped our hands in the cool water. Heading back down the fireroad, the rear tube finally had enough and went completely flat on me. I used more CO2 and tried the handpump again, got enough in to keep going. It didnt last long as I was nearly on the rim as we got to the road again. I started to walk back to the car then got mad and tried adding air again. It held up for bit longer then went flat again within eyesight of the parking lot. I picked the bike up and carried it for a while then finally just pushed it to the parking lot. HA HA.

Since I've been home, I had my single speed donate one of it's Ignitors to Ritchey - thing is this one has a "wire" bead in it, so it's a tad different. I also didn't get it seated properly on the rim yet either. I put it on there after struggling to remove it from the SS, inflated it, test road and decided that was enough for today. I will likely get a new tire soon, but for now I'll go with what I have. I do have to go buy some CO2 cartridges and tubes before next weekend. Can't have too many I guess, especially since I threw two tubes away today and used 3 CO2's.

We rode between 15.5 and 16 miles today and according to my Garmin that included about 2500ft of climbing.