St. Eds

Dropping down to the lake right off the bat seemed like a good idea at the time.

Actually, in retrospect it still doesn't seem all that bad, but on the way up it sucked. Not a hard climb some much, just a super out of shape rider. And a dog. A mean dog, on a 50 foot leash. What the fuck, why even have a leash? And then to shrug and say that you dog doesn't like strangers or bikes as if that makes everything ok? Maybe I need to start adapting some sort of Gnome-esque trail etiquette. Is a short 6 foot leash too much to ask? Unless your dog is Gordo the Wonder Dog of course, than no leash is fine with me, that's the one and only exception.

After my trip to the water and back I made a B line for Finn Hill.

While there I took the El Mariachi for it's first flight. First I should explain, I rarely leave the ground on my bike, when I do it's because of one of two reasons. The first is when I hit a bump, jump, or lip at speed and roll it, I'll absorb as much of the jump as I can and take the rest of it as a couple of inches of air. The second is when my front tire decides that it will go no further and I leave the ground sans bike, amazingly enough about 75% of the time I land safely on my feet. Neither of these count as a real bicycle flight. Anyway, I came into a clearing at near 20 mph to see a group of four straddling their bikes just off the trail right next to a nice little jump. Nothing entices this fat boy toward flight quite like an audience. Tiny chicken shit brake check right before launch and I was off. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you that I fucking sailed. I was so shocked by the smoothness of the landing I just kept on going, sliding sideways off a berm and into the brush. I figured it would be better to let my airborne visage live in the minds of the crowd rather than explain my off trail misadventure so I just rolled on at high speed. The last thing I heard as I rolled out of sight was,"he had no suspension". That's right I'm a bad ass.

Couple of lousy self timer shots while I was still riding my airborne high. I figured that was enough for one day and headed back to the car.