How lonely the Heckler was getting, stranded in the garage! Fortunately Bob took up my offer for a fun Hawes tour with some suburban freeriding, a Sunday pace with beer and sessioning. Bob is awesome to ride with cause he loves riding just about anything, and he always rides strong. Some discussion over what bikes to take led to a new motif for Hawes:  

big bike all-mountain Sunday-pace shredfest.   The route was up the Las Sendas road, climb Tower Trail the hard way, then a long play-filled descent down to the river, down TRW to my little jump pit below Red Mtn Park. The vast majority of the climbing would be on the road, and make great warm-up and warm-down, with enough calories burned to justify a trip to EBF Mesa.

tada!

We both attacked the steep Las Sendas line. Bob pushing for air, and me dropping in from the right down the nasty face.

I hoped to get the camera to catch Bob hitting the staircase, but he was too fast right behind me. Stupid capable riding partners! The Las Sendas staircase remains off the internet. Then we tried Alex’s rock, tentatively named The Beetle since it looks like a VW to me, going down this time. Up Upper Mudflaps enough to get a 10-second jump filled run-in, but it still remains uncleaned going down. No pics were taken.

Down, down, down, down, down to the bottom of Las Sendas and my little play pit. Actually showing it to someone is cool, you put into words the runs and trials that only existed as ideas in your mind:

• the climb up the center of the mound
• harder climb up the wash side
• hardest climb up the substation side
• run down the spine
• impossible run up the spine
• point-and-plunge with jumps down the substation side
• 1-3 foot jumps and climb out of the wash down the wash side

Quite a lot of fun for a 100 yd area.   I had the jump into and climb out of the wash clocked as a 45 second sprint!   We had some beers and then Bob upped the stakes attempting to clean the mesa, which I have never tried.   I once 5 years ago saw a guy jump a big bike off this and fly 30 feet.   Beckie and I were walking Kila after riding Tour De Farm and feeling like pretty little XC\roadies.   I’ve since never had the inclination to try.   It looks like the jump into Holbert Pit but maybe steeper, and was hysterical watching Bob throw his bike up it to climb it.

a little film I call Bob’s Angst

My laughing was really nervous laughing he might just kill himself. And sympathy laughing.   I know how Bob felt pissed that he worked so hard to get up there but just wasn’t ready to try it. His first line down was his stepping stone, still rather impressive to ride that when you’ve never seen it done, and get a feel for the slope and for landing pointing down. That inspired me to go up and hit the little line. It was not that hard if you did all the skills right – jump smooth, point downhill and stay dead center on the fall line, and abandon any inclination of using the brakes until easing into the bottom. Abandonment is a weird feeling, and it crosses over from skiing, the intellectual part of it. Having confidence for it on your bike is still hard for me, but this was a good step. For Bob, it was a great step. He hit the big line right after.   It wasn’t the prettiest, but he got it done.   Unfortunately i did not have the camera ready.  

On the way out we stopped by the new drop I found. I needed to step up, and after watching Bob jump it, I decided it was my turn. It was just like Bob’s vid, I approached and found something I didn’t like, approached and got my panties bunched, etc,   in a series of babysteps. But I did hit it on the 3rd try, flying about 5 feet further than needed and nearly getting thrown off the back on the landing.   It was good – it told me that jump is easier and I don’t need to pump the takeoff so hard.   No pics were taken.

Then back to the house via the church steps…more playing and coolness etc…no pics were taken.

We concluded that this route must be offered soon as a party or bbq or something that will hopefully include hooliganistic trespassing on the Red Mtn Ranch Golf Course (leaving no trace, of course). And we absolutely have to bring guys like Sam and Tim who like to video