Sunday, February 21, 2010

Fogelsode #16: Big Hills and Fast Jumps

Max, David, Christian, and I got invited out to a spot that I had no idea existed!  After a long mission of getting lost, seemingly endless freeways, and techy dirt roads, we made it!  The guys that invited us took us on some shuttles to show us the trails they had built.  When we got to the top, we looked around to see nothing but rolling hills with a trail snaking down into the abyss!  It was like being on another planet!  We dropped-in and were immediately overcome with jumps, step-ups, drops, hips, step-downs, wallrides, and roadgaps all woven throughout some crazy highspeed single-track!  I probably went the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike out there, so it was a blast to say the least!  We seshed the trail many times throughout the day, and then checked out a new zone.  It was a massive hill into a smaller hill that we saw as a potential hip step-up.  We grabbed the shovels and quickly dug in the lip.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work quite as we imagined, but it was still fun nonetheless!  We weren’t able to get the speed to clear to the backside of the hill, so everyone just kind of landed on top of it.  You were going so fast that it felt smooth anyway.  After that, we checked out a cool little jump that the local guys made.  It was a lip carved into a small hill, that you could easily clear to the backside.  Everyone threw down on that until the sun started to set.  We made the best of the light and seshed a big hip and this “dirt skatepark” type line that they built inside of a big sinkhole.  I had never seen anything quite like that, so it was rad getting to ride something so unique.  At the end of the day, they showed us a canyon gap that they had made.  The canyon was pretty gnarly, being 15-20 feet straight down with nothing but muddy clay at the bottom!  Christian and I jumped across and made it no problem, but soon encountered a new problem—getting back!  We must have rode alongside that canyon for over half a mile until reaching something that looked possible to cross.  It meant getting muddy, but we were so desperate to get back that we didn’t care!  Sure enough, when we got back to the jump, we found out that there was a place to cross a few yards in the other direction!  Knowing that, we hit it a few more times, loaded up the truck, and called it a day!  I just want to thank Bert and all those guys for inviting us out there and for showing us around!  It was a great time riding something totally new!

Enjoy!

 

-Jack