Saturday – The forecast called for snow from 3:00 PM till 8:00 PM.  Roger, Denmother and I were up bright and early.  Drink coffee/hot chocolate, getting our bikes ready.

 

The rest of crew…we weren’t sure if they would awake before noon.  Come 9:00 AM when the lift opened up, I think everyone was ready.

 

Mechmann – Getting ready:

 

 

Baconspokes – The only other rider with any fashion sense this weekend.  (Hockey jersey.)

 

Girls Gone Wild!

 

Switch_youth – Going from a FR hardtail to a Switch can’t be all that bad.  Right Dino “The Traitor” Brown?

 

Hum, are those steps icy?  (Shot at the top.)

 

Ok, maybe just a little.  (SlideyStepsSpokes picking herself up.)

 

Tkblazer – Always matching on Skidmarks:

 

Sprockethead – Sunday would have more snow here:

 

Allison:

 

Some fire road action:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pair of regroup shots:

 

 

Play time of Bullet…

 

Mechmann – Maybe them Slowcoms aren’t so FRO after all?

 

 

 

 

Hoosierdaddy:

 

 

A man with good taste in bikes:

 

Another fun section:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up, Allison – Time for a sequence:

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little A-frame tree roller.

 

Sprokethead surprises me:

 

J_Sims:

 

aframespokes:

 

aframe_youth:

 

Allison on the log ride on Shotgun:

 

logride-ohshootmaybeishouldn’tdothis,toolatehereigospokes:

 

Once in town we took the Shuttle back up.  Roger, Denmother and I hooked up with their old riding buddies:  B-rad, Martin and Taurino.  We took the gondola up to McCoy and dropped Chain Smoke.

 

Poor Roger, 40-less:

 

B-rad with a nice sequence:

 

 

 

Don’t worry, Martin and Taurino are always there to keep B-rad’s ego in check.  The gondola rides with these three are hilarious and worth price of a lift ticket alone.  If B-rad ends up in counseling for low self esteem, we know who to blame.

 

And another rider:

 

The run out:

 

We also ran into a now blonde Gab-re-ella out with her husband.  Of course she was putting 97% of the male mountain biking population to shame.

 

Saying hi to Sally SuperMom:

 

Once again the 6 of us loaded up in the gondola.

 

We got off at McCoy, but B-rad called us a bunch of “vertical smiles”, so we pilled back in to the gondola and rode to the top.  Part of the ride up we could not see anything.

 

Visibility down Kamikaze was poor and there was maybe two inches of snow.  Riding was not too bad.  Maybe the first quarter mile was tough, then we had good traction.  Several of us were quietly cussing B-rad.  Once we reached Shock Treatment, everyone was smiling and glad we had followed B-rad.

 

Roger and B-rad rode the wood with success.

 

B-rad – Notice the pant legs:

 

 

 

We were almost done with Shock Treatment when disaster struck:

 

 

My rear derailleur got sucked into my rear wheel ripping it in half.  “Oh crap, my weekend is done”, I thought.

 

Martin was nice helped me get the power link undone.  I removed the chain and wrapped the two broken spokes.  Roger guided my powerless Horse down the fire road while the rest of the group finished up on Richter.

 

Of course when you ride with Roger and Denmother, some disasters can be fixed.  Poof, a new SRAM X-9 derailleur appears.  Roger and I are able get things fixed.  The shifting was good enough for lift riding.  Man what a relief!!!

 

We went and had lunch at the Yodler.

 

Then it was back up to the top to repeat the last run with the addition of Sally Supermom on her MKIII.

 

 

Taurino and B-rad reload for another snowball ambush on Kamikaze:

 

They would somewhat regret making snowballs when their gloves were cold and wet.

 

I must say that the Novara cold weather biking gloves that I picked up from REI were awesome.  My fingers never got cold and I was able to control the bike with ease.  Also, thumbs up to wool sock liners and SealSkinz waterproof socks.  My feet stayed warm all weekend.

 

Here I am takin a break on Kamikaze:

 

My old Army raincoat really came in handy this weekend.  Sadly it is so old that the inner plastic was flaking.  I had to put her down after the weekend. 

 

B-rad rides into a small drift in the same corner:

 

Sally Supermom on Shock Treatment:

 

B-rad – Just about to clip me in the corner:

 

No harm, no foul.

 

Denmother:

 

Roger:

 

Smile Martin!

 

B-rad Shock Treatment wood sequence:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A little group shot at the end of Shock Treatment.  From left to right: Martin, Denmother, B-rad, Roger, Sally Supermom and Taurino:

 

Riding with this group was the highlight of my weekend.

 

Roger finishing up on Richter:

 

Denmother:

 

Marin:

 

I think we did a run down Velocity, with B-rad I doing multiple runs till closing.  Good stuff!

 

Nice dinner at the Italian/Pizza joint that night.

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"This stinks! This is total BS!" - Bob 'Bulldog' Briscoe