Boxing Day Blowout!

Nothing like a apres Chirstmas ride to make the holidays that much nicer. Mr. Woodlot, thedude, Tim, and my bother in-law hit the Woodlot for a quickie on the 26th. We had decided on Gold, Blood Donor, Giant Killer, and Snakes and Ladders.

Up we went. I was riding thedude's Shore Stiffee for the ride as my Bor in-law was on my Atomik. I must say, riding up it was sweet and when we started down Gold I sure noticed a difference. All in all though it was nice. I think I should buy one.

Gold - Same old same old. Ride the first ten feet of the skinnies at the start and walk the rest. I've only actually ridden them once so I know I can. I just don't have the patience to sit there and try over and over again. Kelly(Bro in-law)walked the whole skinny section. He is a relative nOOb so it wasn't a big surprise to see him walk the "skybridge" either. I rode it as per usual and then the next big ladder stunt that was open. Lot's of closed stuff on Gold these days. It is in dire need of some work.

Blood Donor - Fun fun fun. Kelly seemed to really enjoy Donor. We cruised down it pretty good and I hit most of the stunts along the way on Deans bike. I was starting to get pretty comfortable on it at this point. Kelly was doing well and kept up quite nicely. When we got to the gap at the bottom, not wanting to break Deans bike, I switched with Kelly and rode mine so I could hit the gap. It was sweet. Very sweet.

Giant Killer - Well, it started out well. Again, we cruised down it nicely. Kelly kept up alright. We got to the log ride about half way down when things took a turn for the worse. I started down it, got about 40 feet and lost my balance. I had to jump off the log and derailuer got caught on a knot sticking out of the log. SNAP!!!! The bracket holding the derailuer to the frame snapped off. My first thought is Dean is going to kill me. Turns out, it wasn't that big a deal and Dean had the spare parts at home. Needless to say though the ride kind of sucked the rest of the way seeing as how I couldn't pedal.

Snakes - It was ok all things considered. Kelly even tried the last rock face. He managed to tripod most of the way down it and did quite well. I was proud of him.

All in all it wasn't the greatest ride in the world but it was really good to get out with the boys for a Christmas cruise.

Mr. Woodlot is now going away for ten days starting on the 30th. Hopefully my next ride will be a week or so after I get back. See you all then, and Happy New Year!

31 Days.

That's how long it's been since I last rode. Can you believe it?

Today I hit, you guessed it, the Woodlot. I started up around 1:45pm. I managed to ride all the way to where the trail starts to get really rocky. It felt great. Mr. Woodlot is in probably the best shape of his life right now. So from there I pushed up to Blood Donor. I had a good quick rip down it and love the new work that the Woodlot builders have done at the top. I avoided the gaps today though. I was riding alone and haven't been on my bike for a month. Better to be safe than sorry.

Giant Killer was next. It's always fun for a good quick ride. No matter what they do to the other trails GK is and probably always will be one of my favorites on the mountain. Again, I avoided the drops and jumps that I normally do.

At the bottom I decided that I would head over to Snakes instead of going down Hoots. So over I went. On the way up, I was pretty discouraged to see SIX dirt bikes coming down. Definitely not a good thing for the Woodlot. They were all pretty nice in getting out of the way and saying hello, so I didn't rip into them.

I got to Snakes and headed down. Bruiser, my faithfull lab, was with me today. By the time we got to Snakes though, he was prety tired. I cruised down Snakes nice and easy. I actually didn't even hit the Snakes jump. Something I've hit a hundred times. Down I went. I hit the log ride and then down the rolldown to the first rock face. I actually flew through this section for the first time ever. It was uber smoothe. It felt great to actually do something so smoothe that I have never done before. I stopped at the bottom, looked up and let out a "Woooohoooo!" Very nice. So I cruised down the rest and headed down the skidder to the car.

All in all, it was a pretty fun ride, and it was great to be back on my bike. This will likely be my last entry until the New Year. So on that note, Happy Holidays to all of my faithful readers! (rolling eyes here)

Mr. Woodlot