(Cont’d) By the time we had 4x4ed up there in my poor van and were ready to drop in the sun had set and dusk had taken firm hold. It was Shredhards first time and we rode it completely blind so it was interesting to say the least, a giant gongshow of drifting by feel down wash, tight, technical turns over a steep gunmetal landscape with black trees whipping by our heads. Our whoops of glee, cries of fear and howling brakes had all the dogs of Juniper barking too. We survived Blue Flag with our hearts in our mouths and then rode across Juni, shaking our heads and laughing while reminiscing, to finish the ride on Razorback. By this time it was getting dark(!), but thankfully in the open grassland with the light clay trail you could aim for the lighter brown glowing streak and hope you were still on the trail. We actually pinned it for the first half which was ridiculous. It was an exercise in looking as far ahead as possible and trying to perceive where the trail was going next, which was super good practice for racing but resulted in a few zigs where we should have zagged, some off trail escapades, some high speed collisions with invisible tumbleweeds and some mysterious glowing dust clouds tasting of sage (ask Shredhard). As our sight started to fade and the trail became more dished further down the trail things got progressively more sketchy. As soon as you were off the middle of the groove you would be fighting blindly to stay upright, and I had a few near death experiences that ate up my unrealistic confidence and resulted in us pulling back the reigns a bit. When we got to the bottom it was 8:54, 25ish minutes after sundown. Rediculous! But what fun!
So I will now attempt to put the bike away for the next 5 days to finish up finals with Law on Thursday, but see how long that lasts. Might do a quick lap or two tomorrow night haha.
Peace and Love.
J
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