So...over the weekend we decided to check out this skills clinic offered for free in downtown Richmond on the Buttermilk trail. We saw the post on Cycling Central VA, and Dynamo thought it would be excellent for me to go and learn from someone else other than him. You know how you never believe what your spouse tells you to do is right?!? I'd been wanting to check out the trails downtown, but wasn't sure if I was ready for the technical sections. This clinic was a great opportunity to take it slow, get some instruction on how to tackle the obstacles (what line to take, etc), and meet other riders.
We were so busy that the only photo we got was of this train tressle, which we parked under. I'll do better next time, I promise! I did learn a lot and truly appreciate Courtney's time. It was nice to see other riders and meet new people. I was very pleased. I tackled just about every obstacle she took us on, and even if I didn't make it all the way through it, at least I tried. I made it downhill on the rocks and roots, but uphill was another story. I do feel much more comfortable with roots and rocks each time I ride. I even went down a couple of steep, rocky sections at the clinic. It felt good on the bike. MUTT and I are working well together! I am much more balanced on the bike and feel like I'm getting the handle of how to shift my weight and when to do it. We completed about 4.5 miles at the clinic and then had a little break before meeting up with our friends Rachel and Clay at Pocohontas.
So, we rode a little bit of fireroad from the top parking lot to the green trail at Poco...
We were so excited that Rachel and Clay wanted to ride with us! Rachel has only been out on the trails a couple of times and had bad experiences each time (we're talking broken pinkie finger here!) so we'd been trying to convince her to try Poco. We didn't want her first experiences to leave a bad taste in her mouth because mountain biking is super fun.
She did FANTASTIC!!!!! And, I think she had fun this time! I hope she'll want to come back and ride with us again!
We did run into a little "friend" on the trail (Mario, I think I'm winning in the snake tally)...
Good thing Dynamo was the leader! He simply stopped and put his hand up to stop me and said, "You may want to stop there." He was so calm unlike me when I see these things! Argh!!!
This snake was not in any hurry. We sat and watched him slowly slither over to the log on the side of the trail. Rachel said it was about as fun as watching paint dry! It's just amazing to me how most of the snakes we see are not afraid of us or in any hurry. I guess they're used to people out there!
Here's another pic...
So, that was about all the excitement we encountered at the park. It was fun and we had a lovely time with our friends! It's funny to have two "Rachels".
Oh, and we rode the red section off the blue trail at Poco during the week last week. It had lots of whooptie doos and logs! Check out these pics...
2 comments:
Sweet! I love your enthusiasm. We need to get together and ride. I know I keep saying that. Perhaps this coming weekend?
You and those snakes. I ran one over during the mountain bike race on the 14th. Poor little fellar.
THANK YOU THANK YOU for taking me out riding!! I did have so much fun and can't wait to go again. It was the perfect combination of coaches- one up front to tell me what to expect & how to handle it, one in the back to tell me how I did and what to change :).
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