Tape sabotage

Well, another beautiful evening for a mountain bike ride. We assembled in the parking lot & started on our 2nd chicky mtb ride. We had 4 ladies in attendance. Sorry I forgot the camera so no pictures here.

Before we started to ride, we noticed Angelia's bike looked a little different. " Hey, what happened to your bar ends & your kick stand?" Apparently Skippy gave her too much grief about the bar ends, so off they came along w/ the kick stand.

Upon closer examination, I noticed an excessive amount of electrical tape wrapped around her grip shift on the left hand side. What in the world? Apparently Angelia's husband didn't want her to have to focus on shifting gears..so he affixed the gearing so it remained in the "granny" gear all evening.

Anywho..after a good laugh about the electrical tape, off we rode. We did two laps around the beginner loop. Very smooth. Everyone cleared all obstacles, switchbacks & hills w/out a hitch! All shifting was working smooth,...well except for Angelia's b/c HER BIKE WAS TAMPERED WITH SO SHE DIDN'T HAVE TO SHIFT!!!!!!

We checked back in the parking lot for late arrivals, but it was to be just the 4 of us. Since the beginner loop gets old..I asked.."who wants to try part of the intermediate loop?" Is it hard? Is it scary? Nah..we'll be fine. So off we started down the first part of the intermediate loop. We rode the first downhill which was mostly smooth..a few bumps here & there. The left hand switchback gave a couple of the girls a bit of a fit...it was quite a sharp turn at a funky angle. A little scary but not bad. On we rode until we got to the large bridge before the first climb. Uh OH..are we gonna climb THAT? I started up it just to test my knee. I decided we would save this for a future ride. So we turned around and headed back up the climb. Once again everyone did an awesome job negotiating the roots, rocks & turns. We ALL DID THE RIGHT HAND SWITCHBACK ON THE WAY UP! WE TOTALLY ROCKED!!

Up we climbed. Jen led the way follwed by Moe, Angelia & myself. Angelia started to tire about 3/4ths of the way up. She dismounted only once, pushing a mere 50 feet before getting back on and cruising up the to road. Way to go! We rode back to the parking lot. Angelia was kicked..but a real trooper. Jen, Moe & myself decided to do the beginner loop backwards for our final lap. What a trip. Things are waay different going that direction. Once again, everyone negotiated the trails like pros. Another fun evening was had by all. Maybe we'll try the int loop again. See ya next week!