Al, Ron, and John rode areas 23 to 21 to 22 for about 17 miles and 2:40’ish riding time today. Lots of fun single-track with no mud! A few stops were attributed to stripping off the tights and extracting the long-sleeved shirt for short-sleeves.
There are just a few logs and debris over the trails (at 23 near the landing strip and pipeline area) and Ron said it wouldn’t take much to clean it up. Al showed up today with “his new toy” -- a new Specialized Stumpjumper bike – the one with the “Brain” shock in the back! He states (and we can attest today) that the bike (with Al) really holds (“sticks”) going up steep hills with no spin-out of the rear wheel when hammering on the pedals.
Also, see the new picture of Al on the far right column! We got him worked out enough going up one longer hill that we were able to grab a quick shot with his new steed. Thanks Al.
By the way, the rocking chair is missing . . . only the back pad lies where the chair once sat – waiting . . . waiting for Todd.
All the best . . .
A crew of three Ron, Al (no picture yet), and John rode out from area 21 Weir Prairie through the prairie, up the very steep warm up hill and then hit single track joy for 8 miles out and within 2 miles of Yelm Highway today. The weather was just right and just a bit of hail until the end when there was about a 2 minute drizzle – that was all. Hardly NO MUD! No horsies!
John tried to get a pic of Al on the single track but couldn’t get enough distance in front of him. Every time he’d hop off to snap a shot – BAM! Al was right there with Ron – too late to shoot. Did we mention that Al’s been in CA for 3 months training and knocking off various single track trails through CA? Al’s been doing a lot of elevation climbing. Said he rode mountains that had a variety number of crosses on them. He said the locals talk like . . . “Yeah, I did the 3-crosser today in 3:45 hrs. today! Will just nailed the single-cross . . . .”
On the way back and in the middle of one of the meadows that the Chinook helicopters fly in we came upon a “Special Ops” (operations in military terms) group of about 10 or so camouflage-dressed guys that were practicing flying their special RC (radio-remote controlled) spy planes – about 3’ wide wing-span and the prop in back. They run off a battery for more than an hour. And, house a color and infra-red zoom camera in the nose of the plane, and can coast and soar in “silent mode.” Not a very talkative bunch. John saw the same group when he was out Thursday night and they were quite tight-lipped and finally hinted somewhat strongly along the line of it’d be a good thing if he’d like to ride off -- then they could use the plane to zoom in on him. They did not like the idea about maybe getting a picture of them either. Hmmmm.
Today’s ride: about 16-17 miles and 3.4 hours. Some killer hills. And, riding the prairie grass is harder than one may think!
Todd wrote to say he’d be out tomorrow early morning for a ride with Brian and perhaps a few others. Hope it doesn’t rain hard!
All the best . . .
