Me vs. The Mountain

Having been blessed with yet another glorious sunny day, i decided to go on my first mountain bike ride of the season yesterday. So RT, WW, WL, and I met up at Mount Seymour base camp at 3:30pm (just off Northlands Golf course at the base). After getting all geared up, we proceeded to make the climb up the main trail. Most people actually "shuttle" up the mountain (one person leaves a car at base, while another drives everyone with their bikes to the top -- it helps to have a pickup), but us pain-lovers decided to go for the gusto and do it the hard way. So began the ride up the mountain, with WL leading the way, and WW&RT bringing up the rear, with me in between. Normally, we'd only go about 400m, to the entrance of Old Buck Trail, an easy, X-country trail. This time, though, WL suggested we go up to a trail called Ned's Atomic Dustbin. He said it was just "a little bit" further up the trail. Well.. actually it was a whole lot of "little bits" strung together, and WW and RT were clearly getting a little impatient (and tired). Meanwhile, my lower back was killing me, and my legs were feeling really heavy... I jokingly told WL, that he'd be getting a few weeks of silent treatment from his friends for making us do the climb. But, we stuck it out, and about an hour later we made it to mid-mountain.

By now, it was 5:30pm, and it was gonna be getting dark soon. We weren't able to find Ned's trail, and instead found Pingu which i vaguely recalled doing last year. The entrance of the trail featured a "pleasant" one-foot drop -- just to get us in the "mood". We all managed to get through it ok, and so we were all pretty pumped. Our minds (and bodies) quickly changed its tune though... While the trail is wider and more scenic that the ones on Burnaby Mountain, I soon remembered why Pingu is was one of the more challenging trails around, with its numerous dropoffs, curving ladders, and long skinnies. RT had the first "incident", when his brakes locked up during a landing..and went he flipped over his handle bars. Now, I didn't get to see it first-hand, but I can imagine. RT always seems to manage to fall without anyone seeing him, and if he does he gets up really fast, trying to appear if nothing happened. But I didn't laugh, cuz i knew i was in for a doozy of a fall -- and sure enough it came about 20 min into the ride. I cleared this curved ladder section, but upon landing my front tire caught the face of a big rock stuck in the ground. My bike came to a grinding halt, and thanks to wonderful laws of physics, my body kept moving through the air. For a brief moment, I was airborne, and touched down rather ungracefully on my forearms and chest. Fortunately, my body armour protected me from serious injury , but i had the wind knocked out of me. My knee also hit the ground, and until now its pretty tender (i suspect i bruised the underside of my knee cap). Needless to say, I was pretty shaken up by that fall, and i was tentative the whole way down..and decided to walk many sections, that i otherwise probably would ridden. I did manage to clear this 30' foot long ladder skinny across a stinky wet bog. THAT was a rush. WW tried to clear it too, but ended up walking most of it until the last section. She fell, but fortunately she didn't end up in the pond (which smelled like rotten eggs). Of course RT, was their to pick her off the ground (albeit with some light laughter :) ).

ANYWAYS...Pingu turned into Pangor's trail which wasn't any easier..but we realized that we'd best not doddle as darkness was starting to fall upon us. Plus, some of us were getting really hungry and cranky. So we started hauling some a$$ down the trail (mostly with our bikes in our hand ;-) ). The trail was becoming somewhat unfamilar, and we just knew we had to keep heading down. We eventually came upon a T junction. WL and I had to make a call, and we decided to head RIGHT. EHHHH! WRONG!!! After a couple minutes, WL asked a hiker who'd happened to be running the opposite way for directions. Sure enough, we were supposed to head left. [What is it with guys and not being able to ask for directions, huh? sheesh!!! ;-)] We finally made it back to the parking lot at 6:30pm. We were sooooo happy to have made it. It was such a rush to be able to finish...especially after riding uphill for an hour, where you not only have to fight that little voice inside telling you that you should turn back, but also testing your patience, stamina and the strength of your friendships too ;-) However, next time we're gonna start a earlier in the day, so it won't be such a race against time (and darkness).

Admittedly, the mountain served me a can of proverbial whoop a$s yesterday -- it definately got the better of me . And I'm paying for it today. Nevertheless, we all had a AWESOME time, and I'll be back for more.

Here's to the 2004 freeriding season! Ride on!