Mammoth Day 2 Riding August 30th! Rental Bike Time for Me!

Well, let's 1st start with last night! What a lovely evening! The only thing missing were my other chicka's: Leah, Susan and Wendi.
We went to the Village for dinner at Lu Lu's. An enchanting evening shall I say?! After a wonderful dinner and lots of Red Zin, we all went to the concert in the Village which was outstanding! They played all my favs: Cream, Stevie Ray Vaugh, Hendrix, just a small, really good band. We all stayed for about 5 or 6 songs until it just got too cold outside.

So this morning, we added a few more riders to the usual clan: Jim H, Hugh, Brian and Joanne. This was J's 1st ride and her 1st ride on her new full suspension bike. We decided to start off with Off the Top to Beach Cruiser. The board at the gondola stated the winds were 30-50 miles per hour, so i was a little nervous. Sure enough, it was a bit hairy for the first quarter or so of Off the Top, but yes.....I held on! I just love that trail, I know it is long, but it is really fun and great to practice those fun speed bumps and tight switchbacks on!
So I will say that J did absolutely awesome her first run! More to come on her!

Then on the 2nd run, we decided to do Brake through, 7 Bridges, a tiny part of Flow, then Shot Gun. Gosh I hope I got those right! So we are getting off at mid station and myself and Charlotte start riding down the stairs to get to the main pole where we all meet. We turn around and see J right behind us! I looked at Charlotte & said, tell me that isn't the new girl who just rode down those stairs that took me 2 years to get the balls up to ride down! Sure enough..............da wench! She just followed us and rode the stairs down! We decided right then and there it was pretty close time to throw the newbie girl off the cliff! NOT! At least not today! Sorry J, just messing with ya! Outstanding job! I am so proud of you! You are such a natural!! Can't wait to see what you do tomorrow!!!!!

Soooooo, more to come STILL on J!
So, ok, then we are on Brake Through, and there is 1 corner that has a few speed bumps before it and a good size tree root drop right into a sharp, pumiced filled switchback. So I stoppped for a second to let her know what was coming up and of course to walk it if she felt more comfortable. Well........wouldn't ya know the little wench rides through it soooooo smoothly.........then.........rides the switchback like it was nothing! Ok, I;m done venting! Just kidd gurl! You were amazing! If you only knew how good you really did do!

So we then got to 7 bridges and I just needed to really focus on myself. The old 1st big rock with a drop, (remember that Leah? You rode that the very 1st time we were at Mammoth, you were the only one to ride it!), well, it is gone now and they put a small, short, steep bridge/ramp instead. Well.......those of you who ride with me know how much of a silly mental block I have on bridges, so I was still terrified and didn't ride that stupid little bridge, but some how managed to ride the rest of them out of pure terror following Charlotte. Charlotte definetely has made me a better ride this trip. She is just like following Leah, they are both committed to riding everything on the trail, so I just need to suck it up and follow them and do it!
Then we split up again. Myself, Dennis, Charlotte and Jim H went on a small part of Flow and Shot Gun and Miyuki, Brian and J rode Big Ring I believe. This was my best run yet on both the small section of Flow as well as Shot Gun. Both my feet STAYED clipped in the entire time. I added a tiny bit more speed this time to make the bigger drops on Shot Gun a little easier and it worked. It went very smooth for my and I barely skid this time. Must have been the Korn and Ozzie I was playing on my Ipod on the way down. I know, it is driving everyone crazy now that they can't talk to me because I am wearing my Ipod, but you all will have to admit, it has completely relaxed me and I have been riding 100% better!

So then it was time for lunch at the usual place in the village. It was starting to rain during lunch, so we were wondering if they were going to close down the gondola;s, but the rain stopped.
So the Huck, Norm, Bob and Hugh did their thing, Brian and J did their's and Charlotte, myself, Miyuki, Jim H and Dennis decided to go one more time to 7 Bridges. Just before the start of 7 Bridges, Dennis asked what was all over my legs? Then he looked at my bike and saw that there was oil every where! The shock had blown out! I told him I knew something felt wrong because I felt like a trampoline on the bike and I kept getting tossed forward. So we decided to go ahead and do 7 bridges to get back to the repair place at the Adventure center and Charlotte and I would close out the run with Trail home to get there.

Well, I was sooooooooo tired at that point, 4 runs is a lot for me and they are long runs, so I was beat! I didn't ride 7 bridges well at all this time. I let this one guy really frazzle me. He passed me really quickly around a corner just before the steep ramp and it just really scared me because I was trying to focus on just riding through that section. Then his buddies were so close behind me their tires were bumping mine, I wanted to just get off and knock their blocks off, but being the lady that I am, and being that they were...oh I don't know........twice as big as me, thought I better pull my amateur ass over and let them go by. They could have handled things much better, but oh well, they ended up getting lost, so HA!

At that point, we finished the ride, took the mid gondola back up to get to Trail Home to get to the repair shop. Do you have any idea how long that freekin trail is? OMG! I was done and I was getting bounced everywhere. I was giggling most of the time, so it was ok. So we get to the repair shop and they didnt' seem to have much of a clue and called Footloose for us. So we brought it there and they said it would be ready about 11am the next morning. Well, I was pretty disppointed, but at least I would have my bike back! NOT!!!!!!!
A few hours later I get a call from them and they told me that they replaced the seals, however, the shock was done. It is an internal piece that controls the lever and I would have to send it back to Fox. For the 2nd time! Yikes! I KNEW I should have brought my other bike for a back up!! So basically, I will have to rent a bike for the next few days. Huck and Norm were looking for alternative shock options for me all night, but their just doesn't seem to be any. Don't ask me why, a bunch of tecnichal mumby jumbo only they understand. So enough on my piece of !@#$%& shock!

So the evening activities: We had take pizza, wine, beer and J brought Cheesecake for the Cheesecake Factory! We HAVE to get this girl at ALL our functions! She works there! We were at the guys condos and watched videos of Norm crashing, it was great! We also discussed Kernville, so looks like we have another good road trip coming up! Pete and Tamara joined in this evening, so they will have their first rides with us tomorrow.

Well dahlings, I am sooooo spent. Really, really bummed I have to rent a bike tomorrow, but oh well, at least I am safe and stayed ON my bike! I hope all are doing really well and will talk to you tomorrow night on the evening blog!!

Be fabulous dahlings!

Wendy!