Two Wheel Blogs

I've only been a mountain bike rider - any kind of mountain bike, let alone a fully rigid single speed 29er - for a number of months. Sometime this fall or early winter will be my Karate Monkey's 1st birthday. In all that considerable period of time, with the enormous amount of trail experience I've accumulated, I've never seen so many people walking bikes up steep trails as I did at the Ouachita Challenge.

There are four primary reasons for the hike-a-bike:

1. The trail is too steep
2. The trail is too technical
3. The rider is too tired
4. Any combination (including all) of the above

At the Ouachita Challenge it's usually choice #4.

This one was taken, I think, on the ascent of Blowout Mountain. The Ouachita Challenge cue sheet I cribbed together from the Ouachita Challenge web site and didn't even take along with me, let alone use, described this section of the trail thus:

Head up Blowout Mtn on the Ouachita Trail. It's 6 miles of steep, rocky and difficult terrain to the top and into the Aid station #1 at Fiddler Creek

I thought as long as I was struggling along pushing my ~30 pound Karate Monkey up Blowout Mountain on a narrow trail between trees and over rocks and roots I might as well also fumble in my jersey pocket for my camera and see if I could get a self-portrait of me gapping the rider behind me.

Speaking of other riders... To the last person out there we enjoyed the company of every one of them. I think many of them thought we must have been crazy to be doing the Ouachita Challenge on single speeds - crazy in a good way. We heard plenty of good natured barbs referring to our lack of gears. One guy said he had a spare cassette he could lend us. Personally I thought not having to choose which gear to ride in at any given point of time made the day a lot less mentally taxing.

Maybe that's why single speeds appeal to me. I don't have to be too smart to get by on one.

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