July 4th Ruth Ride

Hi all! Bill here, back from Ruth. Boy howdy, did we have a good ride on Saturday the 4th, but before I tell you about that I'd like to tell you about the 15 mile Friday afternoon ride Trinity and I took. We went up in the hills above Clayton's and Trinity and we met an older husband and wife, Mike and Carol Swaner, shooting guns in the forest that said they knew Joe Tomich and was familiar with the club. Kinda nice to make that connection. They told us they'd try not to hit us as we rode away.

We left them and Trinity took me to another road that turned into a quad trail, and then ended in what can only be described as a rarely used foot path that traversed a steep slope. Well, there was no sign to tell us not to, so we shrugged our shoulders, gave each other a "what the hell" look, and took off down the trail. And it turned out to be quite the feat, much to my dismay. I now call it the Death Trail because we were traversing an extremely steep slope and the trail was merely a blip 4 inches wide, covered in slippery dry leaves and loose gravel. Double Black Diamond stuff, in my opinion. One wrong move and whoosh! Your bike would slide down the slope into the void of Deep Hollow Canyon. You can see how steep it was in the screenshot below.

So our hearts were pumping, and Trinity rode the trail like a goddamn TE300 mountain goat, while my 500 EXC kept trying to slip down the slope, despite my best efforts. I had to pull up the rear tire about three times as it would keep losing traction and slip downhill, scaring the bejeezus out of me. We eventually slid over some terrain and said to ourselves we are committed to whatever and wherever this trail takes us. No turning back now.

At one point, the trail took a steep turn downhill and I knew this would be trouble. Trinity was at the bottom giving me riding tips like a father teaching his son. He filled me with a warm and fuzzy feeling of confidence, so I slid out of control down the hill only to hit the hard right turn way too fast. I laid the bike down and slid three feet off the trail downhill. I was extremely lucky as there was an oak tree there to stop my bike's momentum. Trinity and I dragged that pig back uphill so I could continue. Exhausted from fear, I continued.