Is it long ride season yet?

Been an exciting couple of weeks for FT3. The last two Tuesday had the low bro count of just two riders. Me and Fro took on the last of the snow.

then Cap'n and XT picked a fight with a tree. 

I wanted to ride last week, but I had a three day appointment with some mountains.

Of course, the real news is the turn over of one of the oldest bikes in FT3 history, NoHandle's Specialized.

We'll see if he brings his new bike tonight.

Rain chance and quantity forecasts for ride time keep dropping. Maybe we'll get lucky, it wouldn't be the first time. Or maybe it won't rain, who knows?

One

P.S. This is the 10 year anniversary of the blog.

Spring Showers

After a few days of warm sun, the Pollywood region is back under clouds, just in time to set up a small chance of rain showers on our weekly evening ride. If all are timely we may roll out of the lot with lights off. Bring your durable gloves as I suspect there will be a tree or ten to move off the trails.

One.

Blow Down

Three gritty FT3ers faced harrowing conditions last week. Safe in the shelter of the Knott Lott the hurricane didn't feel that strong. One rider was even disappointed at how quickly it passed. 

But, once started rolling, storm damage was everywhere. Deep snow drifts gave way to sweet dirt, and just as your guard went down WHAM another fallen tree. The rallying cry was "Stay Cross" as in "Keep carrying your bike, there is another downed tree just ahead." Of course, that was for the few times that we actually braved single track, as we mostly stuck to riding the road at a conversational pace.

Our ride bed time got pushed up to 9, and we dared not miss tacos (again). So we hurried back rather than going deep. And then Douchebag pulled up a chair and joined us at the Taco Table. Fortunately, he was just sober enough to be coherent and keep his spittle in check. XT even found him to be amusing.

Looks like the snow is mostly gone. So we got that going for us.

ONE

Jock-a-mo fee-na-nay

Pollywood conditions haven't been this particular composition of patchy snow in years.
 

Notice how Bambi crashed on both snow and dirt. My reconnaissance this morning revealed similarly varied snow depths. 

Looks like it's possible to piece something together. Early feedback suggests we won't have enough riders to fill all the traditional Mardi Gras Indian roles (Big Chief, Wild Man, Flag Boy, and Spy Boy) but I doubt we will run into any rival tribes so it won't matter too much.

Last week was excellent prep for tonight. Rain pounded Will and I throughout the whole ride. We toured the dirty steeps of Placerville and then dined at Heyday Cafe.