Your Favorite Mountain Bike Moment

[gopherhockey]

Thought I'd stir up some posts. I find riders often like to tell their favorite stories. I'll start it out.

I haven't really been as serious a mountain biker as most people I know, so I only have a few years of riding - most around here (this will be my year to travel more outside MN).

Most of you probably have a real specific "moment" that is your favorite... mine happens to be more general. Maybe next year I'll get a more specific moment.

The moment(s) I like best? Finding new trail where I had not seen it before.. those hidden or new sections at various local bike areas.

I started out riding Battle Creek mostly. It can be a real confusing place to ride if you have never been there with other riders. I went from riding the paved trail up through the park to 3M and back (I lived downtown St. Paul at the time) to venturing off into the hills. If you like discovering new trail, this is a great place to do it. Just when I thought I knew the area well, another strange and hidden trail would pop up... like the one on the west side of the creek.. or fern alley.. many of these trails coming out of nowhere (thanks to MORC).

Lebanon.. ahhh.. my favorite trail that always seems to get better. I remember last spring going for my first ride of the year. I had pretty much written Lebanon off the previous year - (I tire of riding on ski trails very quickly) Since I live only blocks from Lebanon I figured I'd ride over and take a few laps... I had read that they had some trail work going on there and figured I'd check it out. What a HUGE surprise! Yea, the initial climb out of the parking lot was the same old boring one (still is) - but I get to the west end of the trail and BANG, I'm in some of the coolest single track a fairly new mountain biker has ever seen. After the nasty hill climbs I'm once again invited into a trail - hey, this one has log piles! Wow... what a huge change, again thanks to MORC. I immediately got a hold of one of the main trail crew members and have never missed a trail work day there since... even calling in "sick" a few days from work to get out there and build new trail.

This got longer than I wanted.. so I won't talk about my first night ride that has me wondering if I'll ever ride in the light again :cool:

Ok.. your turn...

[TrailPatrol]

I have been riding (as an adult) since 1993. In 1995, the department (Anoka County Parks) decided to start a park ranger bike patrol, and I was named "Lead Ranger" of the unit. The chief contracted with Kirby Beck of Coon Rapids P.D., and the second certified Police Cyclist Instructor in the country to train us. "Like we don't know how to ride a bike" I figured. Let me tell you, in two weekends, I learned more about biking, about using the bike effectively, about riding in traffic, nutrition, gearing, bike repair, and just plain riding than I ever imagined. Beck is a fantastic instructor, and also teaches "Effective Cycling" if you ever get chance to attend, do it.

My other favorite moment was one that I caused, but was not actually a part of, other than as an observer. We (NCMBP) were still the only National Mountain Bike Patrol in MN, WI and da' UP. We were working our second Chequamegon Fat Tire Festival in 1997, and our first year on the 40 mile race. Because of the number of events we worked, we had bought blue strobe lights for the front of our EMT and First Responder'd bikes. Brian Podany, who was an EMT and also a deputy sheriff had added a red light to his bike, giving him red and blue.

I had ridden the 16 mile race (I still do) from the mid-point, and was working in the medical tent when I hear Gaylan, the announcer say something about "The race must be over , because here comes the North-Central Mountain Bike Patrol off the course. We came out of the tent and looked, and there, coming down from the top of the hill at Telemark were eight yellow-jerseyed patrollers, riding "en mass," blue (and red) lights flashing. They crossed the line as a group, marking the official end of the race, Gaylan remarked on the loudspeaker "I like the flashing lights; Nice touch, Mr. Podany! Let's have a big hand for the North-Central Mountain Bike Patrol!" It was cool!:cool: Evidently, I wasn't the only one who thought so; we gained five new members that evening, and were asked back for every Fat Tire Festival since!

Ride safe,
Hans :banana:

[SickBoy]

Easily, my most thrilling moment on a MTB came at the 2001 Welch Mountain Jam... it was the series finals that year and it was the first time I had raced there when the "Drop" was part of the course. I didn't bother to pre-ride it (probably not the greatest decision of my life) so about 3/4 of the way through my first lap, I started anticipating the Drop and thinking, "Geez, I should have pre-ridden this thing..." . I had come to the NORBA Nationals there in 98 and 99 and watched the pros fly down there, so I think I must have had some idea of what I was up against. The first two drop ins are the worst - and you gotta be sure to avoid the big rock. Anyway, I came to the entrance, let out my best war whoop and let her fly. Tons of people (well, tons for an MNSCS race) were back there and everyone was cheering, louder than I had ever heard for a race I was in. I cleaned the whole section top to bottom without dabbing. I came out of the Drop and I yelled to my friends' dad, "This is way too easy!! Those pro's are wusses!!" and my whole motivation for that race became to just get back to that part of the lap as quickly as possible...

And then last summer, the dropout on my SID split in a crash halfway through my first lap, before I even got there... :(

[KleinCrazy]

Hey Andy,

I think I have a picture of the crash that took out your SID.

I remember it being quite spectacular.

I was one of the Patrolers takeing care of all the crashes at that nasty pitch out of the woods. We had over 100 of the 500 racers go down there at least once.

The best was a tie between your crash and the guy who was able to role his tire off the rim without popping the Tube. Funniest thing that whole day.


l8er
James

[Don Youngdahl]

My Durango Adventure

It was a huge white beauty, whinnying furiously and galloping across the meadow toward me and my mountain bike - the biggest horse I’d ever seen. I’m a city boy, afraid of any animal bigger than me, so I had a quick decision to make regarding the horse’s intentions. To make matters worse, I was lost in the hills east of Durango, Colorado, late in the day, with a thunderstorm fast approaching from the west.

Fortunately, there was a slight downhill grade to a scrub oak woods in the direction I wanted to go, so I didn’t waste a lot of time deciding to make a run for it. Even after I had gone a ways through the woods, it sounded like the horse was still following me. If they ever have an over-60 class for cycle-cross racing through scrub oak, I think I’d do rather well!

It all started when I signed up for the Tour of the San Juans, a three day supported ride in the San Juan mountains of southwest Colorado that’s held each year in early September. There is a choice of routes, a road ride from Durango to Ouray to Telluride and back to Durango, or a mountain bike ride shuttling from Durango to Silverton, then over jeep trails to Ouray and Telluride and back to Silverton. Both routes have some good high altitude work - 11,100 foot Red Mountain Pass on the road ride, and 13,100 foot Imogene Pass on the mountain bike route. I chose the mountain bike option for two main reasons -- slower speeds to view the beautiful fall colors, and in an early season snow storm, I’d rather be off road on fat tires than on a paved road with skinny tires.

I arrived in Durango a few days before the start of the ride, eager to start my altitude acclimation. Durango is at about 6500 feet elevation, and the numerous single track trails in the vicinity make Durango the home base and training ground for several top pro mountain bike racers.

My plans to assemble my bike and hit the trail shortly after my noon arrival hit a snag when I found I had a flat tire. After that was fixed, my pump went belly-up with a large dose of Minnesota mud in the internals. After a long walk to a bike shop to pump up the tire and replace my destroyed pump, it was late afternoon before I was rolling.

Durango has some neat single-track trails originating in Horse Gulch, which is accessible via an abandoned road that starts just a few blocks from downtown. My plan was to ride up Horse Gulch to telegraph trail, a single track with an easy 600 foot climb to a saddle in the ridge, then drop down to Horse Gulch on a new single track. The climbing part went OK, but I missed the sharp left turn at the saddle, and wound up taking a trail down the other side of the ridge. By the time I realized I was on the wrong trail, I had lost too much elevation to back-track that late in the day, so I kept going down hill on a road that hopefully led back to a main highway.

My trail was angling off in a direction away from Durango, when I spotted a jeep trail leading into a horse corral that looked to be in the right direction. The road into the corral crossed an overlook point where I could see a highway across the valley, apparently leading back toward Durango. I headed out across the pasture to look for a way down to the highway, scarcely aware of the big white horse.

After my cycle cross through the scrub oak and across a small irrigation canal, I got to the edge of the pasture, and sat down (outside the fence!) to wait out the impending rainstorm. While the storm was moving in, I saw two other handsome horses in an adjacent pasture, racing around in circles with a lot of high spirited prancing and jumping. It was a most compelling sight, no doubt enhanced by the excitement of the moment.

The storm, a typical San Juan shower, passed quickly. I set about making my way down a steep hill and across a large irrigation canal to the highway. It was no easy task, but at least it was not complicated by large animals chasing me. After flagging down a motorist for directions, I found Horse Gulch Road, and rode an easy 6 miles back to town, the last few miles downhill as dusk turned to darkness.

Don Youngdahl

-

[SickBoy]

Originally posted by KleinCrazy
Hey Andy,

I think I have a picture of the crash that took out your SID.

I remember it being quite spectacular.

I was one of the Patrolers takeing care of all the crashes at that nasty pitch out of the woods. We had over 100 of the 500 racers go down there at least once.

The best was a tie between your crash and the guy who was able to role his tire off the rim without popping the Tube. Funniest thing that whole day.


l8er
James

James - if you have that pic somehwere, post it up here or email it to me or something - I'd like to see it... lol...

[BrightYellow]

Don, I went up Telegraph trail last summer and I can see how you missed that turn, I almost did the same. The way back down the front side (Anasazi Descent) was a treat, too bad you missed it! Some pretty sketchy riding.

I'd highly suggest Durango as a destination mtb vacation. The trails were awesome, very well marked and the trail heads were just blocks from town. The pros don't train there for no reason. Take a look at the map:

http://www.trails2000.com/teletrail.html?page=teletrail

[Paul Bunyan]

Maah-Dah-Hey.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

[KleinCrazy]

Andy,

This isn't you is it?

[SickBoy]

Nope.