Laurel Mountain -> Pilot Rock
Ian ‘the pony’ L.:
Callum R.:
and Cody S.:
I had never ridden with Callum or Cody before. Actually, Cody and I hadn’t even met until Ian pulled up in his big-ass-truck around noon-thirty today. We drove up to Yellow Gap and were on the trail pretty quick. Everyone but me hit the trail like bats out of hell but after about ten minutes Ian and I were riding together. I passed and kept the pace solid but not over the top (read: I didn’t chase Callum and Cody) and Ian held my wheel… dispite his huffing and puffing. Even though the tempo started high everyone, including me, was out just to be out in the woods and have fun. Long breaks and laughs were abundant. … So were high cadences, big efforts, and the usual git-it-git-it-git’s…. and yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!’s….. and WHOOOOO GOOD JOB MAN!!!’s. Just like a couple of days ago Laurel’s landmarks passed by quickly. This time around I made more of an effort to clean the lower super-tech and am happy to report a little practice makes for excellent results. I cleaned just about every ridable obstacle *cough*exceptthesupereasyfirstcreek*cough*. I left the chain in the middle ring more than I probably should have, too…. but I was feeling good. Callum and Cody were climbing like madmen all day. Cody wasn’t even clipped in. After a quick breather at the gap we took the Pilot connector and for the first time in forever I cleaned it! Callum was right there with me and moments after we hit Pilot Cody and Ian arrived. The descent down Pilot started with me following Callum and Cody but I passed Cody at the first safe place. Callum was lipping off of any little thing he could and we both took the switchbacks like we were on rails. We regrouped at both overlooks and at the no-name trail to the inner-loop. Cody took a hard spill and jacked his wrist, Ian’s quads were locking-up, and a HUGE thunderstorm was overhead so the decision was made at the intersection to head down rather than up-over-and-around the Slate/Pilot loop. The trail was slick and soupy in moments but we were at the road and headed back to the big-ass-truck before it got too bad. Callum and Cody rocketed away on the final climb and Ian and I chilled, knowing that no-matter-what…. we were only going to be only five minutes behind…. and he had the keys.
A few videos from the Pilot Rock descent, following Callum:
hmmmm… photobucket wasn’t cooperating earlier so here’s the same vid on youtube. It was dark out because of the impending thunderstorm so the original vid isn’t the best…. but boy o boy does youtube’s compression suck!
