Tonights group ride was sure a good one. Heading to the shop coming north on 36, I drove through torrential downpour and grape sized hail to get to Lyons. By the time I got to town, I could see dark skies to the SW and blue skies the NW. Always being the optimast, I banked on no more rain and got ready to ride. We had a crew of 6 strong tonight. A few of the usuals plus the addition of Mr W. himself! He was in from Winter Park for the next couple of days and decided to ride with the crew.

The skies had calmed and the roads were drying up. We decided, despite the mad rains that had just hammered town, that we'd head to Hall Ranch. Heck, it's usually about perfect after a rain so what the hey. We climbed through the rock garden successfully. There were bits of sloppy section, but the rocks were dry and the trailbed was, for the most part, firm, so we carried on. We made a quick break at the top bench. Rolling onward, we only made it a few hundred yards before the trail turned into an ultra quagmire of sticky mud. Yuck. At this point, we realized that our better judgement had failed us so we turned around. The descent back to Hwy7 was a blast though. The rocks were dry and the dirt offered more traction than it ever does when it's dry. We didn't see a single soul on the way back down, so that was good.

After the Hall fiasco, we rolled around town for a bit, including connecting all the ghetto singletracks around town. Fun stuff .

The ride was top notch, even though conditions weren't.