Friday, December 5, 2008

Crack Cocaine On Ice In the Dark

Dec 4, 2008. It's 9pm. The temp is 30 degrees and I'm sitting in my truck at the EQ parking lot with the heater blasting as I fiddle with my night riding gear. I don't want to get out until everyone is ready to ride. Anything to keep the legs and engine warm.

On one side of me is Jon. He is sitting in his car, helmet on, ready to ride. On the other side of me is Kenny, Racer and Chucky. They came up from the UC to ride the new Crack Cocaine trail(Suncrest downhill).

Despite the snow/rain from earlier that morning, we are banking on the trails being frozen and rideable.

Tony rides up and stops next to my window. Time to go. As we make our way out of the cars, Brandon and Aaron roll up bringing the group total to 8.
Tony takes one look at Racer's bike and says something like "Dude, does he even have a cog on that thing? It looks like his chain just wraps around the hub". Racer is running an 18 on the back.

The pace up Clark's is brutal. Somehow we make the mistake of letting Chucky lead. Even going half speed, Chucky is fast. I'm starting to see stars. Just when I'm about to peel off and drop back, I notice we are already at the U-Turn. I don't even recall riding half the trail.
At the top Chucky says "that's what happens when you drill it like that. It's like being on drugs."

We make our way around Suncrest, past Sam's back yard. (Sam has cut a trail from the single track up to his backyard.) I would later find out that Sam was watching us from his window, kicking himself for not joining us on the ride.

We arrive at the downhill in good shape. No mud and no mechanicals. Those of us who have ridden it before have a big smile on our faces. We know what's ahead of us. We are about to experience that high that only mountain biking brings.

Riding Crack Cocaine at night, on frozen dirt is a trip. I highly recommend it.

We would finish the night with breakfast at the Village Inn. It's always fun to swap stories and laugh over pancakes and eggs.

And yes.....I went to bed "dirty". Too tired for a shower. Maybe I'll buy Rachelle some clean sheets for Christmas.

8 comments:

South County Ciclista said...

New sheets for Christmas. Good idea since I always sleep dirty as well. Thanks for showing me around the Draper area as it is one of my favorite places to ride now.

KanyonKris said...

Hardcore. I thought ti would be muddy so bailed on the idea. Of course I would have been waay off the back or had to start a half hour early. But I still want to ride that trail. Maybe tomorrow.

Jonnie J said...

Good times Ricky. I got a serious head cold going today....no doubt induced by a heavy hit of crack laced with ice. Sleeping dirty isn't that bad.

Anonymous said...

i am sad. and a total wuss.

Anonymous said...

I read somewhere yesterday that you were going last night...I wish I could have joined you, but was home with the kiddies. I'm absolutely loving that trail too, although the lure of that trail with that fun little step-up gap on my squishy trail bike is too great that I haven't ridden the trail on the ss yet. Are you guys hitting the step-up on your rigid ss's? I'll probably be out there early tomorrow am.

KanyonKris said...

Double hardcore! I can say that now after riding Crack on Saturday. And you guys did that at night?! The steeps and (most) corners wouldn't be too bad, but the stunts would be wilder and those deep gully dips would look like bottomless abysses, I imagine. Fun.

seth said...

I live in sandy but am not sure how to access the new downhill trail. Where does it start and end?

Rick Sunderlage said...

KK- It's a great night ride. No big deal.

Seth- check out VH1blogs.com. there is a good map of how to get to it. It starts at the very West side of Suncrest near the bridge.