Snake Boots

If you look real close you can tell the guy not on the bike is wearing boots. It was a cold clear day with temps in the mid 40's when we headed out to do the Munson/Twilight thing. The gentleman in the boots, let's call him Cowboy, is a relative newbie to the sport of mountain biking and had agreed to join us on a slow paced lap. This was only his second time on single track and his first trip to this trail system. He got out of the truck with these boots on and I thought he was joking. Turns out the place he normally rides (he's not from around here) has a lot of water and areas he has to hike a bike so the boots come in handy. He just assumed we'd all be wearing them. Not that we all didn't look odd in our cold weather gear, well they did, I looked as perfect as I always do. If you notice I'm not in any of these pictures.

I didn't know what Cowboy's fitness level was and after seeing the boots and heavy jacket he was wearing I was concerned he might have trouble doing the loops we had planned to do so we headed out easy. At 4 miles we lost our first rider who was getting tired, it wasn't Cowboy. He was hanging on just fine, boots and all. Bob Marley was missing the gaggle of women he's been riding with lately and Jwheel was huffing and puffing by the time we got to the 15 mile mark. Cowboy never complained.

I've known Cowboy for a long time, in fact we raced the FTR motorcycle enduro series for years starting in the early 80s. He has always been tough and a much better motorcycle rider than I ever dreamed of being. I can remember riding for 2 hours at a time during the spring part of the series back before we had Camelbacks. The only water on the course was at the check points and it consisted of a trash bag lined trash can that you dipped a paper cup into. It worked out good for the early riders but the later rows got to dip through a layer of spit to get to the dregs at the bottom of the can. At one particularly brutal event down in Crooms I got back to the truck to find Cowboy curled up under it like a dog. He would eat ham sandwiches at the lunch stop with extra mayo. I can still see the mayo sticking to the dirt on his lips. I could barely choke down a cracker.

Oh, sorry about the trip down memory lane, you tend to do that as you get older. Anyway back to the bicycle ride last Saturday. We didn't stop much, it was too cold so we really went faster than the usual beginner pace and finished up the 20 miles in a little over 2 hours. Cowboy was hooked. Even though he was tired he was glad to see his fitness was up to riding that long. In fact the longest ride he'd ever done before Saturday was 12 miles. Even in the amazing shape I'm in I could tell I'd ridden.

We stopped at Moe's for burritos then went by the shop where Cowboy bought pedals and shoes. He'll be back again.

Amsterdam Trail Ride

I've figured out the trail layout for the Amsterdam ride so the bikes won't catch the ATVs. I'm just going to put in mostly separate trail. This will result in a little more pavement and some two way bike traffic but should make the ride experience better. I've already collected some good prizes. I'll post some trail pictures as I lay it out.