Two Wheel Blogs

I met up with a nice group for a night ride last night.

We held a nice pace as we completed a lap at Binder. Not too fast, and not too slow, just fast enough to stay warn on a cool night. Yes, I do mean "cool", not cold, not warm, just perfectly cool for an October evening. No one was breathing hard, or pushing it, we all just enjoyed the quiet woods for a nice ride. It was a cloudless night and when out of the woods, you could see every star in the sky.

I guess, I am not used to riding at night yet (especially with sunglasses on for protection). Did I mention that the ride started before dark, and I was wearing shades for eye protection?

At one point I am weaving between some cedars in a particularly dark section of trail, and while enjoying the silence that you find among dense cedar trees, I pounded my shoulder into one of those trees. I did not slow down or crash as I bounced off, but I did wonder if that knot on the tree that I hit actually had some remainder of a branch that pierced my arm. This little bump hurt very badly and the pain persisted for the duration of the ride. I stopped at one point to wait for the group to come together and checked it out...it appears that there was in fact a branch, but it did not penetrate me, it just poked hard and glanced off tearing a little flesh on the way...no major injury.

At another point I was going way too fast down a dark hill. There are 3 trees that a rider must navigate through and the slightest swerve is necessary to zip right through. I did not get the swerve right apparently and I rattled through those trees like a pinball. I tore my leather bar tap, and rammed my hip into a tree leaving a nice abrasion and a bruise (not as deep as the one on my shoulder as evidenced by the bruise color this morning). Once again, I did not slow down or go down.

I think I will declare these encounters as "not crashes", but rather "high speed tree dabs". Sounds good to me.