12-6

Its been almost 2 years since I’ve done this ride, which to those who do not live out here seems shocking.   The problem with this ride is that whichever bike you are on, its the wrong one.   The Heckler is a slow, gas-guzzling Hummer on Hawes.   And like most Hummers anywhere near a 4WD road, totally underutilized.   This afternoon i rode the Blur with Alex and with confidence on the gnarliest Hawes has to offer:   up Mine trail in reverse, up the cliff, up all the rock lines including the new one at the base of Upper Mudflaps, up Upper Mudflaps, to Alex’s new line called The Elevator down into a granite face near the Las Sendas fence, then down the Las Sendas straircase.   Conversely, I’ve ridden the Heckler exclusively on the last 10 Pass Mountain rides.   It makes Pass Mountain a fun ride where bleeding has become an exception to the rule, something I never said the 50 times I’d ridden Pass Mountain on the Blur.   When you ride both trails all the time, on the right bike close to home, combining them seems just plain stupid.

But a few enduro pals were planning on the big epic for Saturday, and the logistics of my weekend were lining that up to be my only chance for a big ride.   Everyone else bailed, so I did laundry and dishes and a few household chores and set off with a clear conscience at 11 by myself to enjoy the prime of the day at my own pace and get some headspace, after a stressful week presenting my new product idea to our CEO among many other heavy end-of-year work meetings.

Going solo let me dictate the route, and skipping National this week left me craving gnar.   So it was going to be the Heckler, with a stop in NRA for some jumps, and the return down the Tower trail dropin.   Other than 5 or so miles of pure XC on Hawes, the route favored the strengths of the Heckler.   Except for the flats in the beginning.   And the climb out of the pit and up the wash to Pass Mountain.   And the road climb to the Tower dropin.   And the flats to get home.   Come to think of it, i was still on the wrong bike for half the ride, and strapping and shedding my pads along with raising and lowering my seat left me craving a Gravity Dropper.

I moved steadily, and finished in 5 hrs.   My mind wandered and relaxed.   Few revelations came from the ride, but a soothing aeration prevailed.   One project during the ride was to create a route to tack on Bulldog Canyon and make this a truly huge day, as well as decide if that would be a Heckler or Blur ride.   I was blown at 4.5 hours, the epic would be about 7: advantage -Blur.   4 hours of the ride would be the chunk of Pass Mountain and Bulldog: advantage Heckler.   I drank a lot of Jack two nights before, and didn’t really prepare my body, which was worth at least an hour of fatigue.   I think it will be a Heckler ride – going slow beats bleeding.

Another memorable stretch of the ride came leaving the NRA pit and heading up the brand new connector trail to the road.   It gets you about another mile up the road, and its nothing special, much like Big Rock and Wildhorse.   But it was so new, with only flags and a few tracks to mark it, i immensely enjoyed the natural and holistic way the trail unfolded for me over the terrain.   It was indeed well-plotted.   How awesome to grab that experience before it is gone!!!

Pass Mountain, the road climb rolled off me solid and steady.   The Tower dropin still felt scary and new, and i got all that i did before and chickened out on the one slot that i did before.   Its all good, now i know there is only one thing to fear, and hopefully next time i will approach it with more enough poise to hit it.

I missed this ride.