First MTB ride of 2010

Zipping down through a twisty section, photo by Dave

Holy crap it was cold today. I met Dave in Jamaica and we rode a few miles to the trail head at Cunningham Park. It was 27 degrees F, so cold that my camelbak hose froze repeatedly. I had to chew the rubber valve to break the ice and then blow it back inside of the reservoir in order to get any water. In doing so, I must have punctured the rubber valve and it dripped throughout the ride and froze to my sweater. The wind was relentless and unforgiving. Why in the world, I neglected to bring a windbreaker is beyond me, although I was wearing a base layer, warm weather jersey, wind vest, arm warmers and a wool sweater over top of the whole shebang.

photo by Dave

The trails were solid with a crunchy layer of ice on top. Our rubber tires rumbling on the frozen trails make quite a pleasing ruckus. Cornering was a bit precarious and I found myself unclipping and hanging a leg out in some of the turns. I managed to ride a couple of snow covered skinnies which didn't seem like the brightest idea, but I saw that the snow on them was undisturbed and so I knew there were no icy ruts to detour my tires off of the log.

Descending the only really sketchy descent at Cunningham, photo by Dave

Despite the freezing temperature and blowing wind (which really did blow) we stopped often to take photos of jumps and log rides and other tom foolery. One of the funniest parts of the ride was when we stopped to jump the log below. It's so much easier on your make-believe bike.

But we did jump a few logs with our real bikes as well. Dave's been getting better and better on his mountain bike. He only just picked it up this summer and now he's out there skying off of jumps and riding steepies. Thumbs up D.

Dave hitting a jump in the middle of some great singletrack.

I am loving how light my new F1 is; makes bunny hopping logs so easy!

You can check out more of Dave's photos at his flickr site here.