Yesterday was such an incredible day. I spend from 10am to 4pm in the woods of UCSC. I rode with two different groups. Hit all kinds of stuff. It was one of those incredible days that you just want to squeeze every little bit out of it. It was warn, sunny, and traction was epic. A bunch of DH runs and a ton of feature rides. So many people out riding. What a scene!
While I hit a lot of cool stuff, I ended up with just 4 hits filmed on crappy cell phone video. I’m stoked to have the shots but there were at least 5 other hits that I wish we had filmed. Next time! I was mostly stoked to be riding.
My first big hit of the day turned out to be the biggest and hardest and I was not warmed up well for it. A monster left side tree ride with huge root gap requiring a gentle climbing approach. My first two attempts were crashes (soft landings), the first pushing the front end so hard as to twist my bars. My stem was not loose. I’m glad this went instead of folding my wheel. I ended up with 2 weak hits where I made it and no video. Next time, this tree is my #1 target! I’ll also be bringing a proper camera for the job.
Mailboxes was super fun, lots of work has been done on the trail. All sorts of cool little bumps added to the straightaways and bigger berms in the corners. This tree shows what happens when you don’t plan your chainsaw work well. Poor guys had to break off their bar just to walk away.
