We met with a few more guys for breakfast and then headed to the gas station to meet the others. 

I think we had 11 people all together.  Thomas brought his new ride…dang it’s pretty!  And far too shiny…but there are people willing to help him with that little problem. 😉

We start off and then Allyn suggests we split into two groups and some of us ride a “fun little bypass” and catch up with the rest of the group later down the line.  Okay, Allyn is being blacklisted with Brian in the ‘people who cannot be trusted at their word’ doghouse.  Apparently his definition of easy is just that it was something I have ridden before, or similar to things I have ridden before.  Yeah, but I like -barely- rode it successfully those other times and this particular day it seriously kicked my ass.

Takers on the mini-adventure included Skip, Cathy, Nigel, Thomas, Allyn and me.  Please note:  Everyone else is a total badass

This was one of the easier climbs:

The first descent was like a freaking stone staircase and I was trying very hard not to do an endo the whole way down.

I was talking smack to them for my own benefit, something like “You bastards tricked me!  Holy shit!  Hahahah I made it!  This is awesome!”

Going up one of the inclines I bounced funny off a rock, tried to blip the throttle and save, but ended up spinning the bike around fully, landing on my ass and smacking the back of my helmet hard on the ground.

I chose a poor line up another climb and fell over low speed.  Nigel helped me up and made fun of me for being young and totally exhausted already while all the old folks were just getting started.

Eventually we reconnected with the main road and continued on to meet the group.  Nigel gave me some pointers for taking the turns faster on the high speed gravel (that stuff makes me nervous, I get phantom pains from my side scar) and I thought I was doing a lot better, but he was sitting down in front of me, waving his arm to coax me faster still.  Oh well.

Eventually we caught up to everyone and took a nice long break.

We got going again up more easy dirt roads.

Sean and Mike taking a break to soak up the scenery.

We hung out at Peppersauce to regroup.

These two crazy kids did the whole thing 2-up on a DRZ!

Here’s John goofing off

At Peppersauce, Allyn and the group from the earlier detour tried to convince me to come on another ‘fun easy little loop’ and I was honestly about to go, even though I knew it was a tra, but I was so exhausted I dropped the bike turning around.  I took it as a sign and stuck with the slower group instead.  Thank you Zeb!

I was shocked we arrived at the top first, considering how slow and easy we were all taking it.  About an hour later these fools roll up bruised and dirty.

Apparently the ‘easy fun loop’ was more like a gauntlet run and it eventually beat our best riders into submission and sent them back the way they came.  Allyn and Nigel both got flats and I know there were some getoffs too.  Yikes!  I’m glad I dodged that one!

We had yummy pizza and hung out, with riders heading down at various times.  Nigel got a ride down with Mike to get his truck and come back up for his bike while Sean and Allyn set about trying to fix the other flat with a tube snagged from Thomas.

The tube got pinched and he ended up throwing it in the truck with Nigel’s bike instead.  Oh well, good effort!

And lastly, here’s a picture of Allyn trying to figure out how to use a cell phone to call for help.  Hee hee hee…

And of course, as much as I love giving people a hard time, I have to admit that first detour was my favorite part! 

My body dissagrees though and I am really glad I missed that second detour!