What a weekend…
This weekend started off with what was suppose to be a nice easy pace road ride with some friends. NOT. Why? Chris! Mr. Hammer Down decided to lead the road group at a blistering 26MPH pace most of the day! I have to admit though I was having a blast staying up front with the leaders all day hehe. My planned ride for Saturday was going to be riding the couch and relaxing, 34 miles later I guess that didn’t work out. I’m glad I went though because I got to spend time with some of my favorite people and it’s always good to see my friend Erik back out there after going through so much.
You can’t see Chris but he’s up there in front of Mykyta, the other hammerfest.
One of the main reasons I ride bikes, friends. It was great to see Kathy back on the bike as well as Donna making an appearance! Okay, so I got some shit for this photo because I put my hand on Erik’s shoulder. Shut it.
Later that night, Chris got called to a show in HB his work was displaying at so off we went. Kickass sunset on the way!
This basically proves, he is just a big tool. Ha!
Today, we had planned on doing the entire Counting Coup course as part of our Vision Quest training. You can see Craig and I making our way up to Chris and Mykyta in the lead.
The weather was absolutely perfect for bike riding today and apparently hiking too…
This sucks! Half way through Blackstar, I run up on a razor sharp rock and there goes my rear tire. Not much was going to save this tire, at least nothing I had with me. When this happened, the other guys had gotten a little bit ahead of me and I couldn’t reach them via cell to let them know I would be returning to the truck. ON FOOT. 8 miles back! 8.
Token bar shot. Too bad I was walking next to my bike when I took it. The hike back sucked, plain and simple. Hiking in stiff bike shoes is not fun. I now have blisters the size of quarters on the back of each foot, my right knee is killing me and my back hurts. I was fine up until about mile 4 then it just kept getting worse and worse. Nothing like 8 miles of hike-a-bike.
When I finally made my way back to the pavement and less than 1 mile from the truck, I felt a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, I spent only 40 minutes using the object on the right and over 2.5 hours using the object on the left. Ugh.
As I made my way back to the truck I noticed the guys were already back. They went all the way to Motorway, down and back to the truck in roughly the same time it took me to hike back. Ridiculous. At first, I thought, why didn’t they come and get me at the BS gate at least! Then I remembered, I have the truck keys in my bag, dammit. Here I am, head hung low, feet in pain, walking back ready for a nap.
After a few hours rest, I headed over to my sisters place for my nieces birthday, she’s already 8! My mom made her a giant ice cream cake in the shape of a cupcake, go mom! I had to do a fist pump because of the excitement!
I hope you chose to read this post and not just look at the pretty pictures because I have something to say. While making my way back to the truck I passed 26 bikers and 8 hikers. Out of the 26 bikers only 14 asked me if I needed anything or if I was okay. Out of the 8 hikers not one asked if I was okay, 2 did smile and wave though. All I have to say it, if you see someone walking their bike down a trail that they should be riding, something is most likely wrong. Whether or not you feel like you can help, you should always ask and make sure they are okay. They could have bike problems, be dehydrated, starving, physical problems, who knows! I couldn’t believe the people that didn’t even ask, I even smiled at them and looked expecting them to say something at least.
To make things worse, a few of those same non-talkers who passed me on their way up also passed me on the way down and yet again, nothing. Then, when I reached the pavement and kept walking, they didn’t even offer me a ride as I walked off passed the cars parked at the gate. Unbelievable.
I hope you had an eventful weekend, with more ups than downs!
Chris took a little video of the guys coming down the Motorway, here it is.
