Catch up

On Monday April 13th Matt Delheimer, Lily, and I went out and rode Lloyd's Trail outside of Truckee.  It's low enough that it has started to melt out.  There are a couple of jumps that I wanted to hit (the last time I hit them was over 5 yrs ago and I was on my Enduro.....and it was the biggest jump of my life).  We warmed up by hackey sacking and riding a LONG wall ride along the dam.  Matt needs to work on his wheelie drops (crunch).  We proceeded to pedal the Dirtbag's up to the jumps.  They were dilapidated!!  We spent an hour and change fixing them structurally and adding dirt to the lips.  They came out great and I hit each of them 3x.  We kept cruising to the top and rode the fun swoopy trails w/ logrides abound.  Lily stepped up her game and crushed almost every logride on the mountain.....even one Matt couldn't do!!  You go girl!!  

Wed April 15th- Epic backcountry XC w/ Daron, Nate Dog, Socko, and Lily in Downieville, CA.  Halls Ranch to Fiddle Creek to N. Yuba.  20+ miles of uber tech gnar.  TONS of exposure, steep techy rock climbs with lots of do-not-fall zones.  I was pretty gripped.  Worst part- I put in new cleats on my shoes, and the release point was WAY farther out than my last pair-sketchy!!  I tipped over a few times, luckily to the uphill side of the "trail."  I need to get a smaller camera or just lug my big SLR b/c I could have had some SICK pics!!  Halls ranch is a 2k' climb over 2 miles on trail.  It was relentless.  To make matters worse, a dirtbiker had roosted a ditch through each tight switchback.  I could feel my heartbeat in my head for most of the climb and I had to delineate gnats from my blood pressure peaking creating spotty vision- but no- they were gnats!!  We got some fun ridgetop singletrack that ended with a ripper 4 mile DH.  We then climbed up N Yuba which was intense to say the least!!  More exposure, then some gnar, then more exposure.  I prayed that Lily was walking her bike.  She was!!  We finished up with grub and beer at Trout Creek in Downieville.  What a day!!  XC epic in Downieville.......CHECK!!