Another Kettle Weekend

That's right, none of us can resist the siren call of the trails at Kettle Moraine. It was another beautiful day with beautiful trails. This weekend it was the usual crew of me, Cale and Jeff from Chicago, plus some fresh meat. Elizabeth came along and tried out her new Voodoo (a very nice bike!) on new trails (previously it had only been tested on the river trails in Milwaukee). Her main man Jon came along, borrowing Andy's Specialized, and I loaned the Motobecane to Emily, who came up from Chicago. The last of the crew was Matt, also from Chicago, who was riding a colorful single speed. We also ran into Gary, who was out for the trail work day that REI was hosting/supporting. Gary rode with us for a little while before getting tired of our antics and taking off for the parking lot. He said he was tired, but we know what's up.

Anyhow, after collecting everyone in the parking lot and getting all the bikes set up, we were off. I was pretty weak from the cold I'm getting over, but luckily it was a pretty laid back ride. I did alright, but noticed that I was getting that acid feeling in my legs after climbs. Speaking of the climbs, though, I held my own. 'Ol Bypass Hill proved a little difficult, though. It was soft from the rains, and I was a little wobbly on my pins so I wasn't doing so well the first few tries. The third attempt sent me straight into a bush, and that's when I decided to stop fooling around. On the fourth try, instead of starting out thinking "Well, probably won't make it" like I had the other attempts, I decided to buckle down and think positive. I figured out I was worrying too much about the loose soil and not looking far enough ahead, so this time I set out with the recipe for success in my head. What do you know, it worked! Who knew all you had to do was envision success! Although after the ride when I tried envisioning myself finding and eating some chocolate cake, it didn't work as well.

The rest of the ride was pretty low key. Some of the guys would ride ahead then stop and wait, then I would pull up, and we'd wait for the rest. It was a nice way for all of us, new to mtb and not, to do the full loop without killing it. Most all of us did the Full Monty, I think, even Emily, who was new and riding a single speed. Matt also had some tough gearing, but it didn't hinder him much. He also had a star moment when we begged him to ride the log of death. On one side, the trail. On the other, a pretty good drop off and a pack of mosquitos waiting to feed upon prone bodies. I'm going to put the video of it up on my flickr soon: http://www.flickr.com/photos/snaks/