Elm Creek Revisited

Friday and Saturday were good days to ride. Warm, sunny, dry and the the trails at Elm Creek are hard and fast. Too fast! Friday was a day for some power laps on the mtn. bike trails. I did five fairly hard laps on the monocog flight. Riding on the single speed is great training for me. Not being a really strong rider the ss really challenges me on the hills. My goal for this week is one day of ten "crash free laps" laps on the Stumpjumper. That will be a total of 40+ miles.

Of course after ride it was time to clean the one speed steed. After all, a clean bike is a happy bike.

Saturday's ride was going to much the same...
Five hard laps, this time on the Stumpjumper. I went early in the morning and although the dirt portions were dry the grass was still pretty wet. Half way through the third lap I was flying downhill at a pretty good clip. At the bottom the trail turns rather sharply left into the woods.
Mid-way through the turn my tires lost traction on the wet grass and I went sliding. Fortunately, I picked a good spot to wipeout. Just grass and dirt, no ROCKS. I hate rocks.
I left with only minor flesh wounds on my knee, hip, left side (same side I fractured the ribs on back in June) elbow and shoulder, and only bled a tiny bit. It did take me several minutes to get myself re-oriented, free a jammed chain, and get my sore ass back on the bike.

After finishing this third lap I noticed that my headset had come loose and I decided to just call it a morning, go to the health club to shower and clean out my wounds.