Team Cavaliere 'Stage 1'

After my anaerobic Tour de France-ish sprint up the road I was still ten minutes late for our scheduled rendezvous at high noon. Soon my breathing became less labored and we exchanged pleasantries... how's Charlotte?.....good......how's Huntsville, La Jefa, and the Little Man?.... good, great everything is good....Let's ride! So it began from the East Overlook at high noon.

It didn't take long for all of us to realize the the riding was going to present the chance to work on some bike handling skills. The trail was wet, the rocks and roots were wet and slippery, as if that is not enough all of this was hidden by a thick coating of soaking wet leaves. Yes, this is going to be interesting. Given these conditions we started off slower than we would have if we would have been able to see the trail or any of it's hidden surprises. We took the loop all the way around the lake by passing "The Small Intestine" on our first go. Rich was the first to stack it when his bike washed out from under him on a very sketchy rock section. And just when we were almost back to the parking lot Becky decided that Rich would not be the only one to get his uniform dirty and have a story to tell so she decided to perform the same stunt only with a log crossing. Upon arriving back at the parking lot Becky had logged us in at ~16.5 miles. Everyone wanted more.

We decided to ride back out and pick up "Small Intestine" and come back on the trail a different way. Well "Small Intestine" delivered as it should offering up several more miles but all in about a 10 sq. ft. area. The only flaw in the many miles of trail at Raccoon Mountain is evident on this trail. At one point there is a tight switchback on very little slope which is a mere two feet from another section of trail. If you go into the switchback a little hot, which you will, and there are leaves on the ground, there will be, it's a forest, you are quite likely to just keep going onto the other section of trail. This in turn will bring you back to the same switch back again, which will be like the part in the Blair Witch Project where you just keep passing the same place over and over again and can not make any progress and are eventually attacked, gored to death and then eaten by a ravenous deer. Anyway I alerted Becky and Rich to the sharp left turn and obviously saved them from being lost and possibly eaten in the woods. We eventually finished up the trail that looks like a bowl of spaghetti on a map or I guess it could be construed as diagram of a part of the human digestive tract either way we were done with it. On the way back we took a different section of trail that just happens to have a log ride on it. Fun. Yeah, a ton o fun if you have the skills. It didn't take long for me to start loosing a little blood from my lack of skill on wet slippery things you ride above ground. So there we all have hit the ground or in my case a log skinny and then the ground, so we can go home now. We ended up with ~24 miles finishing around 3:30 or so. Not bad for a day in November with a forecast 80 percent chance of rain. Let it be known if there is ever a decision to ride or not ride.....Pedal Damit.

I forgot to mention yesterday that La Ruta de Los Conquistadores finished up on Saturday. Cycling News has some bland and to the point coverage of it here.