Reunion - 18 miles

Today's ride was excellent for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I met up with a friend I hadn't seen in eight or nine years. Damien's a great guy. Back in the day (2003) when I originally relocated to Baltimore from Syracuse, he let me stay rent-free with him and his girlfriend for several months and we used to ride all the time. We caught up on things a little bit before, a little bit during, and a little bit after the ride and it's just great to be back in contact. We reeled in 18 miles of singletrack at Patapsco Park today and the trails were in perfect shape. Reason number two as to why today's ride was excellent: My All Mountain (AM) bike was incredible. I still have some tuning to do as far as air pressure in the fork and rear shock, and I definitely want to lighten it up with some narrower tires (The front tire is a 2.5- good lohdy!) but in all other regards it handled great. Never have I launched over rooty sections of trail with such confidence. (see cropped image for my sincere look of glee while riding) Full suspension is great. It's still going to take some time to get used to the weight of this bike, though it's sluggish feel dissipated as the miles went by. We didn't take too many pictures today but below are some snaps from the ride, and a little clip of me loving my AM bike today.