Last Sun we rode with the bug's in the heat and now it's raining. I got off work really early today. Only worked 2 hours so i hooked up with the Maing and his wife and went to Hood River. It was kind of an adventure ride, as in we took a bunch of trails that we we're sure where they would end up. We started farther up than i ever had and it was more of the same. Rocks and rocks. Then we rode a section we always do then it was all new for me. Single track with embedded rocks, little steps, deep woods. Cool stuff. After that it was flowing trail through a meadow. Did i mention it was raining? 
I started having some fun and was sliding around corners but i remembered i was wearing my work clothes and no armor so i started to be more carefull. It got more and more muddy and the descents got more and more sketchy. I went down once and almost hit a tree. We made all the way around to the new re-built FRANKENSTEIN trail. Steep and steep. cut straight over and hiked up to cut into drop out and down seven streams. By this point i had been soaked for like 4 1/2 hours and was ready to get in a warm truck. Awesome day but really difficult conditions. If it was predictable i probably wouldn't like it as muc
h.
es. What was 3 drops was now even better with a couple of step ups thrown in. Flying J and i took a new single track. Fun. Back to two chair and down. We got to XchorusX and i was watching the real riders hit the big lines. Whiplash hit the first line on the left and wanted the 2nd also. He said " Don't film me" so i did of course. Big crash! Over rotated and hit hard. His glasses cut him good on the forehead but it didn't stop him from riding the rest of the way down. Rubberdown hit a tree and jacked up his leg and i bailed from a 
ladder and twisted my ankle. that's how it goes sometimes. ended up wit pizza at Cascade Locks.
(12) and Otto (10) to Fall City for the first time. And it couldn't have been hotter. Record eat for May in Oregon, 90's or something. Anyway..the bugs we're out BIG time and reminded me why i mostly ride there in the winter. It was hard to talk without breathing them in. 
SO this was my first ride on the Gran Mal since i hurt my rib's about 4 weeks ago. Maing,Chip and Noah went as well. Maing is on the Rib program as well, so he was taking it easy. We kept it pretty mellow but it was really good for me. no pain really, and the bike seemed to be working well Otto and Louis had fun but the heat was getting to them. We rode the new and improved sictor gnar and it was really fun. It was cool seeing Otto riding over logs on his little hardtail with the 24" wheels. Louis and Otto
had some fun on the teeter totter in Basic training. I saw Maing sneeze and then double over in pain. I guess he's still healing. He was getting a kick out of Otto and Louis going over the teeter totter at the same time. pretty funny. Of course we ended up at paddingtons for pizza but you probably guessed that didn't you.
's no underbrush , so i yelled to Otto to follow Dave for the safe way down. Then Dave crashed. " Hey Otto, don't follow Dave". Otto rode a little ladder over some fallen trees. That was cool to see. It's only a couple of feet off the ground but he's a little kid. I'm still on the Bianchi SS hardtail. It's been so long that I've forgotten what gears are like. At least for XC riding. My Downhill bike has gears. Looking forward to getting my Enduro built up again and doing some Looong epic rides this summer.
