"I can ride that blindfolded."

**Arty50** · 11-17-2008, 02:20 AM

Ok, so all of us have our favorite trails that we ride so frequently eventually we utter the following phrase: "I know that trail so well, I could practically ride that blindfolded." Except you never really bother, cause...well...vision is a nice thing.

Tonight, I got to back that shit up. Tales of a local trail in SLT have been accompanied with words such as "all time" after the recent storms. So I had to get up there and git sum before the snow buried it for the next 6 months. Except I was lazy most of the day and didn't hit the trail head until 4pm. Oh well, time enough for one lap. After a surprisingly quick climb (got damn this Highline fucking rules), I pointed my favorite new toy down the hill and proceeded to rail some of the most luscious dirt I've ever laid tires on. The lower section was off the fracking hook. It's normally dusty and loose as all hell with whoops galore from motos. Tonight it was supa smoov to the point where there was basically no speed limit. When I hit the bottom I was in heaven. I had to go back for more.

Lucky for me, I had my trusty light in my pack. So I spun around and started heading back up the climb. About 1/2 way up, a buddy who was shuttling with the Mrs. and the grom was headed back up to get the 2nd car and hooked me up with a ride the rest of the way. He was lamenting the fact he didn't have his light handy. Me...I was all set...

So I pointed the blue machine down the hill again and was all blissed out to ride this sucker with a nice beam of light...a beam which died about 300 yards down the trail. F#$K. Turn around and take the road back down...or continue on? Screw it, I'm going down. So with no headlamp, no moon, and just a clear starry sky, I made my way down. I could make out a faint path through the woods and just kept following it, remembering every turn, every rock, picking my way down, but rolling ever foward. Where the woods got tight it was tough, but where the trees didn't hang overhead I had just enough of the faintest hint of light to see the ghost of the single track beneath me. Did I ride it as fast as I wished that 2nd lap had been? Heck no. But damn if that wasn't one of the most fun things I've ever done.

**kidwoo** · 11-17-2008, 10:55 PM

I would have stuffed my front wheel into some of those whoops and easily eaten shit about 20 times.

Just because I'm stoopit like that.

**toast2266** · 11-17-2008, 11:08 PM

Thats awesome...I love rides like that. Aside from feeling like a totally epic adventure, it always feels like I'm going unbelievably fast, even though I'm dragging the brakes the whole time and probably going half my normal speed. I think its just the keen sense of danger that comes from not knowing what you're about to hit.

**rotorhead** · 11-18-2008, 11:33 PM

Good call on sticking with the trail. got caught after dark the other night, took the road and almost died on the last corner. If I don't get called in to work this weekend maybe a few more laps are in order.

**Arty50** · 11-19-2008, 07:19 PM

Yeah, that basically sums up my thought process...die on the road or die in the forest.

At one point, I was 3/4 of the way through the longer rock garden in 99.5 darkness and I thought to myself, "WTF AM I DOING?!?!"

Definitely call me if you're free for a ride this weekend. I'm totally down.