Rocked Out - Thursday

That was epic (BTW, results are up there too). I didn't get to ride it, but just promoting the thing was an epic event. We arrived at RB Winter State Park late on Thursday afternoon after taking literally all day to get up there from Center Valley with a short stop at the farm to load up poppa Kuhn's truck and another to pick up the camper from Kris's brother - this promoting stuff really is a family affair.

At this point I'm a bit stressed because there are about 70 miles of trails and dirt roads to mark and I'm now down to 2 hours of daylight on Thur and the day on Friday to get everything done since the race goes bright and early on Saturday morning. I have to get something done. I grab the Lupine Wilma and a battery and figure the first loop is less than 20 miles and is mostly double track and roads so no problem. I may want those lights for a little visibility on the road but shouldn't really need 'em.

Its amazing how much time it takes to put up a few arrows. You end up doubling back a lot to make sure the arrows are in a good spot or just to mark a spot you may have thought didn't need it originally. And somehow or other it ends up starting to get a little dark while I'm still on the top of the ridge. No worries, switch on the Lupine and away we go.

Except I grabbed the wrong battery from the stash. I grabbed the one from my work commute that didn't get re-charge time yet. I see the red indicator on the remote and I'm begin thinking..."I think the red light means I'm about out of juice. I wonder how much I have left? I wonder how long that little red light has been on? This descent is awesome, technical and rocky and the first time I've ridden it in 10 years. Oh, my lights just went out. Sweet."

There is nothing quite like riding a rocky technical descent by brail when you know your phone doesn't work out here and you're not sure that anyone back at camp really knows where you are and you have a 70 mile mtb race to promote the next day. I did the rest of the descent and the road back to RB on nothing but rods and cones - and put up a few more arrows since trail marking for the race should always come before personal safety. And I whistled dixie the entire way back as the boys had seen two bears on their ride two days earlier and I just did not need a head-on in the dark with one of those.