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.
All Pictures are courtesy of JR Petsko.
Good stuff Shawn.. Glad you made it down.. Hopefully will have many more this spring.
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