I have today and tomorrow off the day job so I figured I would get some good rides in. Well Mike talked me into getting up over an hour earlier then I do for work so I could meet him at the trailhead by sunrise so he could get a ride in before he goes to work.

We hit up Peaks View with our fingers crossed cause we had a good bit of rain come through over the weekend. It has been sunny and windy the last couple days so we were hoping it was dried out. We were wrong. It wasn’t the worst I’ve seen, but it was still pretty sloppy. We decided to stick to the Bowl-a-Rama trail with the hopes the constant ups and downs would keep the mud pits somewhat limited.

I kept the gearing in the mid to high twos in order to get a good workout. I can really tell my balance is getting better. A couple of the rooty climbs I came to a complete stop and was able to standup, crank hard and keep moving. Ride was cut short though. The end of Bowl-a-Rama ends with a longer descent and a creek crossing that puts you right at the base of about 30 yards of very rocky and steep terrain. When I started up the descent I shifted down a little late and the chain caught just as I cranked down hard and I snapped it.

Now I am usually pretty good at doing a quick back pedal if the chain sucks as to save both the chain and cranks, but this happened so quick that it snapped almost as soon as I felt it catch. Suck suck suck. Ended up walking the bike out of the woods to the paved trail then pulled a Napolean Dynamite and held onto Mike’s pack and he pulled me to the parking lot. Oh well, we have some SRAM chains so I am going to run by Bikes Unlimited today and get them to put it on for me.

Supposed to rain today so I am probably screwed for riding tomorrow as well.