As if Saturday wasn't enough of a dose on it's own, we rounded up the troops for a Sunday ride as well. Shawn Bunnin, Alan Reain, Jon, Craig, myself... and Tori. I tried to pick up my Turner from Bow Cycle in the morning but it wasn't finished yet, I was keen to ride it. Keeping in the team spirit of carpooling, we all packed into the yuppie mobile and headed out for some fun at Moose Mountain.
Tori split with us right away and went with Shawn's dad and sister. The rest of us blasted off on Sulpur Springs at full XC pace, then went over to Ing's Mine. I suffered with poor technical riding on Ing's Mine and Prairie Link... but still had fun on the flowing turns. We stopped for a little snack at the base of a Prairie View, trailhead was super busy. Climbed at a good tempo all the way to the top, but fortunately for the most part it seemed the "lets race each other till someone drops" mentality had died out, at least for a while. Shawn had the sharp eyes to spot a Canon digital SLR camera in a bag at the side of the trail, so we sent it down with some hikers, suspecting that it belonged to a Japanese tourist family that we'd passed who were on their way back down. I managed to be the last one up to the top, and the last one down to the gravel road, no surprises there. Tried to descend well, but still felt sketched out and like I was always toying with danger. Came back on Prairie Creek, nice tailwind and the downhill technical stuff had us all smiling, it's a fun trail to carry some momentum through. We passed a bunch of weekend warriors and hikers at the end, the hikers seemed a bit dumbfounded that we rode the last rocky descent approaching highway 66. I was fading a bit on Prairie Link, and strategized that a stop in Ing's Mine would be neat for the guys that hadn't seen it before while giving me a rest. We crawled all the way to the back, and I definitely felt refreshed after a few minutes in the cool mine.
We had a meeting of democracy at the Sulphur Springs/Ing's Mine 4 way trail crossing, and decided to ride back up Sulpur Springs. It's a nice, non-technical climb, and all was going well until Craig attacked Shawn, which was enough incentive for everyone to finish the climb off in pain. Sulphur Springs back down to the parking lot was fast and fun... as an aside, I actually think running the Suffer Solstice in reverse has some merit to it.
Craig gets the award of Chief Instigator and otherwise standout rider. He hasn't just decided to "return to mountain biking", he's obviously "returned to elite mountain biking" in short order... which makes the 'goats stronger for sure. I might as well be wearing a girl scouts jersey when Craig comes along for rides...
We hurried back into town so I could pick up the Turner from Bow, and drop off the Specialized. There definitely is some utility in having two mountain bikes, one can be serviced while the other is being pulverized, so in theory at least I could ride 24/7. I'm coming fairly close this weekend so far.
Jon, Kelly, Tori and I went for a heaping pasta dinner at La Viena on Kensington road... I'm glad I finally made it there, had always heard good things about it and it certainly didn't disappoint. We arranged Monday's ride at the same time, then planned to meet up with Devin and Shannon for a couple of beers at Original Joes in Garrison Woods. The first 15 minutes upon arrival were spent molesting a Honda Ruckus out front that had a for sale sign on it, talk about a sweet looking little ride.
Biking stories and good times ensued, until bed was beckoning. Like my dad used to say when I was little, "tomorrow's going to be a big day".
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