Mountain Biking Madness

Today I met up with Alex, Jason, Ryan, and Shawn at Alafia River State park. I ended up riding about 15 miles of trails. (Sandpine 2.5mi, Rock Garden 3.5mi, River Loop 7.6mi and probably at least another 2 miles of Multiuse trails)

The map if you choose to follow along is here:Maps of Alafia


I led Alex and Ryan down Sandpine until the cutoff near bridges. About that time Shawn and Jason finally made it to the park and we met up at the parking lot.

From the parking lot we headed back out the multi use trails and onto the Rock Garden. We road Rock Garden all the way to the harder options (the blue loop at the end of the rock garden section. While Shawn and Jason (the feerless wonders) handled these crazy climbs and drops easily, the rest of us ended up walking them...At one point I do believe Alex watched his borrowed bike fly off the trail into the bush. When we finally found the exit. From here we rode back to the lot and chowed down a few powerbars and then headback out, this time we took the first two options on the River loop and then headed back again to refuel and relax.

At this point Alex decided to hang back and relax (this was his first time out MTB and he was on an old Mongoose that really wasnt up to the task.

The dynamic duo headed out to do North Creek while Ryan and I headed out to do all the sections of the river loop. After this we returned to the parking lot so Ryan could head out, and so I could get Alex to go back on the trails again. After fueling and making a pit stop, Alex and I headed back to the river loop. Unfortunately Alex got a bad cramp about 1/10th of a mile in that had him in agony for a few minutes. After resting up a bit, we continued on.

Nearing the end of the second leg of the river loop, Alex got his first OTB experience, courtesy of a pair of roots that at his 26er's and spit him out over the handlebars. He dusted himself off and on we went. At the end of the trail we took the cutoff and headed back to the trail.


In conclusion:
This had to have been one of the most fun days out on the trails. This was the first time out with the Kenda Nevegal on the front, and it is leagues better than the specialized Fastrak LK that I have on the factory front wheel. I also got a pair of biking shorts this week (with the awesome padding in the right places) and between it and the Chamois Butt'r I had and have no bottom pain from the ride. I also picked up a riding jersey as well, the pockets on the back are terrific. Also, nothing beats hanging out with all the guys doing something we all love.