Trace Ridge Night Ride
Mike Brown, Wode, and I did a quick night ride Friday night. We started at the BRP, went down 5000 to Spencer, Spencer to Trace, down to Wash Creek, 5000 back to the top.
Here's a photo of Mike Brown and Wode at the Spencer / Trace intersection:
We got a later than expected start because of a few factors, namely that I didn't feel so good and Mike's lights were being troublesome. We finally got on the bikes at 9:20pm. We cruised down 5000 through the warm damp August air. I felt much much better as soon as we got rolling and I got my heartrate up. We turned onto Spencer Gap trail and followed that on up. That trail is always a bunch of fun. It's pretty steep right out of the box but mellows again (once many riders have been beaten down) about a mile later. The real steep stuff is over right after you clear the nasty nasty rooty section. I don't think anyone cleaned it that night. The trail then continues up at a much easier grade and if you're feeling good and pushing the middle ring, it's over in no time. Spencer intersects Trace Ridge trail where we took a left. Trace continues up at that point for a few hundred yards or so. Once you get past that though, the fun is about to start. I love Trace Ridge. Trace is one of the fastest mountain bike descents I've found ever. Anywhere. I'm talking about sustaining 25 mph, on 18 inch wide trail, for 10-15 minutes. Fast. Soooooooo long. Mike Brown was really moving that night, too. I hung right on his back wheel, tailgating even. There were so many cool moments in that 10-15 minutes that I couldn't possibly describe tham all. There was one moment though that I'll try... Mike was about 20 feet up and absolutely flying. He would hit little lips and soar through the air. He would come into rocky sections a little too hot and demand his machine to do his bidding. He tore over the lip jump even though a tree was obscuring the view of the landing. It was an awesome run. I had this feeling while following that was like... I was directly connected to him like a train. He would react... I would react. He jumped.... I jumped. If he would have ran off the trail and over a clif, I probably would have followed. It was mindless, clear, 'in the now' riding. No thinking, only doing. Man and machine, connected as one. No reservations, no limits, no fear... no thoughts...Is that the feeling one gets from meditation? Once the descent was over I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. A calm euphoria came over me as we waited for Wode in the parking lot. It was so good that I'm really having a hard time putting the feeling into words. My feet finally floated back down to earth once we started the climb back up to the car. 4 miles of gravel road climbing later we were there. During the ride I got one flat, we stopped and checked out a big frog, and took a breather once or twice and we still knocked it out in 2 hours. Yeah!
