The Fourth

Patty and I hung with her family at Sunbanks Resort on Banks Lake over the weekend.

Let me just get it out there - we've been there once before on this same weekend and it's not my happy place. It's a little crowded.

But that's just me and I did my best to shut up and meld. From what I could tell, everyone had a great time, so as I said, that's just me.

But anyway, this is a bike blog and so of course I brought a bike. To my delight though, so did a bunch of the gang. I'd done some online mapping and as if I had a clue as to what I was doing, and the first two to misplace their trust in me were Patty's sister Heather, and brother Bruce. And even though we didn't accomplish the killer loop I'd promised, we managed some epic climbing and bagged some killer views.

It got a little rough and so on the way back, we had no choice but to seek out a rehydration station.  Enter the Electric City Bar and Grill.  $3.50 pint Irish Death's and I am not kidding.  Killed every last bit of pain.

So that was Saturday.  On Sunday, the big group was ready to roll.  Unfortunately, the massive power in my legs torched my chain before we even got out of the resort parking  lot.

Fortunately, I was once again righteously packing a chain tool and managed to cobble things back together.

No sooner had we started to roll than I got distracted. Ever since the Honey Badger Vid came out, I've been hyper-aware of snakes, and especially the manner in which they die, and so this caught me eye and I was compelled to share.  It was killed by a car tire and got off comparatively easy, IMHO.

The big group, rolling hard and proud . . .

The big group, posing all serious . . .

The big group, off-road, hamming it up . . .

The big group, re-visiting the hydration station . . .

The big group, on the verge of full re-hydration . . .

Gratuitous shot of a couple of my nephews, back at camp, downing their own cool ones . . .

I hadn't quite gotten my fix, so on Sunday afternoon, I headed out solo to do some exploring.  I'd mapped 3 different loops and I wanted to prove out at least one.  That there road turned out to be my best chance of making it happen . . .

After climbing like a bastard, I finally got to the top.  All indications were that this was gonna be a lovely 5-mile, thousand-ft descent.  And that's how it started - the roads were smooth, fast and wonderful.  The scenery was stunning . . .

And then I got to the point where I was supposed to change roads, according to my GPS.  Except that there was no road there.  I stopped and looked, rode past where it was 'sposta be, rode back past it.  Did about a 100X zoom on my GPS.  Shit.  This was the spot, for sure.  Looks like there was some type of road there at some point, but not what I needed at this point . . .

Super telephoto reveals remnants of the road I should be riding.  But it's not rideable, and I won't be riding it . . .

Damn, it would have been so great to loop back to Banks.  But still, the riding and scenery were rad.  Gratuitous shot #2, on the backtrack . . .

I'm pretty fascinated my the geography/geology of this area and so for me the scenery is pretty spectacular.  And while there's probably not enough riding to warrant a trip down for that sole purpose, there's definitely more than enough to justify taking your bike if you're going anyway.