Dry Canyon

Yay for me, the most successful ride of the year so far.  Good turnout, no mud, fun trails.

This morning when the torrential rain storm blew through my yard at 4:30am.  I figured another one was going down the toilet.  But as the day progressed, the sun came out and the rains dried up, and the itsy….wait.

Anyway,  took two carloads from the shop and then met another bunch of people in the parking lot of Timp Park.  The object was just to make our way up and over into Dry Canyon for what I remembered to be a fun downhill.  Luckily The Nosacks were among those who met us there, and they are bona fide experts on the area. I suggested to Kris that they should renew their vows and the altar someday, and I offered to officiate.  Kris didn’t really respond.  Found a more reasonable route up to the water tank road and a couple detours from Betty which took the edge off the climb to the altar.

Regrouping at Betty's bottom. I gotta say I prefer her top.

Felene! Man, is in the forest.

King Noah had the energy for a wheelie after climbing to the altar. The dirty truth is it was because he was listening to Britney Spears. (this is true)

It still sucked, but just a little bit less.  When we finally made it up to the overlook at the top of 051, those new to the trail system were beginning to murmur.  Good news was we were ready for the downhill.

The top of Dry Canyon, I think he was listening to "Vogue" here.

¡Que Bueno!  I had been down Dry Canyon trail before, but under much less favorable circumstances involving  a sheared derailleur and a Holder.  Fast, rolling, buff, singletrack that rockets you through a thick scrub oak canopy.  The leaves aren’t quite fully out yet, and I figure it just gets better when they are at full strength.  A couple of steep, rocky sections keep you honest, and once you head down between the cliffs you better watch for hikers, and have a bell(all the cool kids have them now).

In the last 3/4 of a mile or so you get the chance to “smoke the pipe” without those annoying munchies, and then you begin the infamous stair section.  The bulk of the group opted for the stair route while Bill and Jolene took the ladies route.  The stairs are tough to get a rhythm  on, just when you think you’ve got it, the steps get higher and closer together.  I was moving along good, when I burped a tire a little more than halfway down.  This had the added benefit of giving the others someone to blame for them not cleaning it.

After being shown the wrong and the right way to use a CO² inflater we buzzed back on BST up the water tank road and down Cliff to the race course and the cars.  A fun night with a lot of climbing and some of the coolest people you could hope to ride with. (I’ll let those who were there decide if they were the cool ones or not)

Thanks everybody for coming.