Saturday, January 19, 2013

Riding with the team.



Over the past year I've done a few team ride and they were a blast. These past couple weeks I've go down to Morgantown, for a couple team team dirt road rides. They were some of the most fun I have had on a bike for awhile.

"Just your average WV road ride"
Last week I decided to come out of hibernation a few weeks early and join the team for a ride. Jonathan, JR, Jerry, Jeff, and I met up at JR's and headed out. Our first interesting part of the ride was riding through a crazy tunnel. You could ride through, or you could crawl out of the side of the tunnel.




After while we were on Little Indian Creek Extension(L.I.C.E.), which was the most entertaining part of the ride. Came to the creek crossing and JR was trying to get everyone to take the shallower route across, though I kept urging them to take the deeper section for more interesting photos. Everyone had made it across without problem, well all except Jonathan who didn't even attempt to ride it. Almost right after we started going again I decided to go right through a large puddle which brought me to a stop. I decided to not jump around the edge, since I did the same thing during JR's birthday ride and just ended up on the ground. As we were nearing the end of L.I.C.E. JR and I stopped and where waiting for everyone to regroup, when we could hear Jerry yelling about something, he decided to ride through a puddle and it was a lot deeper than he had expected, and his bike sunk to above his water bottles. Sadly the only witness to this was Stephanie and no one caught any pictures. After this the ride was still fun but nothing really note worth happen, besides be bonking on the final 10 miles.


Most likely Chris favorite part of the ride.
This weekend since JR's Race in North Carolina was canceled due to flooding, so JR organized a team ride. I was contemplating making the trip down to Morgantown right up till the last minute as for me to make it there on time. I showed up to the parking lot I saw Jerry, Jonathan, and Steph all huddled together and JR right in front of them, later I had saw they were taking a picture. As I hurried and got in to my riding gear, I saw Jonathon head out as he wasn't riding with us today due to wanting to rest his knee. The first few miles were on rail trails up to Point Marion where we would meet up with Chris, he would ride with us until we got back to Point Marion.

After we left Point Marion we hopped on a atv trail because the road was too “smooth”. We Eventually got back on the road and started climbing, this climbed seemed familiar but I wasn't sure from where, until Jerry and mentioned this was from a ride Jerry, Jeff and I did last year.

Jerry trying to find a line, thinking were just Baiting him.
After awhile we left the smooth roads and rode along a old rail road bed. We came to a Y in the road where we stopped and I grabbed a bit to eat as a side by side came up the trail behind us. They dropped over the hill side in front of us down to the crick. We took the longer way down to the crick, the hill we rode down was pretty loose dirt. As I got to the bottom the side by side was still trying to work their through the crick. I watched for a bit, after they were on the shore I just clipped in and attempted to ride across and didn't clip in completely so I came to a stop in the deeper section, after I got situated I clipped in and rode the rest and had a wet foot. Jerry stopped at the top of the hill to take video, while JR and Chris tried to find a way to walk across without getting wet. Steph was following JR but took her own route and rode half way across. After we were all across Jerry came down and was trying to scout a line, as we were trying to coax him along to just ride it. The Next crossing had a muddy lead up but wasn't to difficult. As we were riding to the next one JR called out a log and I saw it and was thinking I could clear it, so I built up speed, then I realized there was 2 logs separated and I wasn't to sure if I would clear it. I was lucky enough to clear both with my front wheel and hit the second square with my rear wheel.

The smoothest crick crossing.
The third one we had to hike a bit through the woods to get to a spot to cross, Again Chris and Jr were looking for a way to cross and stay dry, I again just lined up and just went for it and made it across but hit a root on the other side and came to a stop. Jerry followed suite and made it across, he eventually went back across to try another line. Jerry, JR and I were trying to find Steph a line that she would be able to make it across on the first attempt and not fall over. This is why Jerry had went back across, JR pointed out a section that was deeper but calmer and thinking it wasn't as rocky. Jerry lined up and rode across and Steph Followed suite only to make it half way across but something happened half way across before taking a plunge, knowing that its not fun being wet in this temperature we each offered up something dry or to keep her warm. The next to crossings were a lot easier and smoother and not as interesting.

After 5 Crossings we went up hill and came to a spot under some power lines. JR took the lead and we started to head down towards a valley, JR was snaking down down the hill side and Jerry had been taking a more direct route down. I opted to Follow JR down he came to a stop to check out the bottom of the hill, I stopped behind JR. We both sat and watch Jerry come down from the side, he was saying his breaks weren't stopping him. We watched as he sailed over the hill and hit the ditch a the bottom and went over the bars, JR and I made our way down to make sure he was alright and disappointed that no one had a camera on Jerry yet again. Jerry said he tweaked his right arm, shoulder and knee but hasn't too bad. After everyone grouped up at the bottom JR had said we had bypassed the last crick crossing and we're heading back to Point Marion, where Chris went his own way and we headed back to Morgantown. The ride back on the rail trail seemed longer than on the way out, guess my legs and body had hit the wall.

All Pictures are courtesy of JR Petsko.









1 comment:

  1. Good stuff Shawn.. Glad you made it down.. Hopefully will have many more this spring.

    ReplyDelete