On Friday afternoon, LC and I were able to make it out for a quick little jaunt around the woods before the skies turned to water. It's a short technical romp and it hit the spot. Or the Flux rather. The Spot would've been a little more capable ride for the technical bits, but that Flux is quite the climber. I wasn't prepared, however, for the quick handling of the Flux, as I've been spending time on the 5Spot lately. Just a hair overturn on a fast twisting descent made me clip a tree with my bars. I thought I had pulled it off, but the tree I clipped aimed me right into another, larger tree, which I hit squarely with my right shoulder, knee, and shin. Luckily, the shock to my body was enough that the endorphins running thru me kep the pain away until we were well on our way back down the hill. By this time, the occasionally spitting skies had turned to full on rain. The dry sandy climb on the way up kept getting better as it got more saturated. The timing ended up just right - we rolled back to the car just as the rocks were getting slick and the skies were really dumping. It wasn't quite as bad as Tuesday night's Hall Ranch ride.
Prepared to ride fully enjoy the Solstice by riding til dark, we, instead, got stuck in the rain on top of Hall. Rain is a pretty common occurence, but we decided it best to remove ourselves from the premises when the lightening started to come. Not lightening that you see on the horizon, but more like, blinding flash of white light followed by a crack of thunder milliseconds later. Not good. Good thing the Antelope trail was close by, and we were quickly down from the mountain.
A couple of major lightening flashes (one that temporarily killed all the electricity in town) later and we were back at the bike shop, dripping wet and cold. That ride was cut a little short, but it was a still a great ride, though. The only thing missing was the hike a bike, but we'll make sure to work that in next time.
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