Over the bars and into the woods

Lovely. One way to describe the feeling of weightlessness one feels as their body takes flight over the handlebars on their bike. Even more lovely is that this happened on the first drop of the ride. This would not be my first foray into the dirt today. What was really amazing is that while I did get ejected from the bike, the bike landed perfectly upside down - seat and handlebars and stayed this way.


Not me, but you get the idea...

We had decided earlier in the week we would try the tougher trails first. I elected to do rollercoaster, one of the more difficult trails in Alafia. We rolled up to the first drop, a 5 or 6 step staircase of pain. Shawn, Jason, and Rich (the more adventurous and more experienced) went down no problem. Then it was my turn. From what I could tell I was doing great - I made it down the first 4 or 5 steps and then physics took over. Mistake #1 - I was not behind the seat. In downhill drops and staircases, you have to literally have to get your body behind the seat to put enough weight on the back to prevent the over the bars scenario. Mistake #2 - which may or may not have occured - locking the front brakes. I assume I did this as a gut reaction to the falling sensation, but who knows. Alex told me that I looked like I had cleared it just fine, but said at the bottome it was like something grabbed the front wheel and flung the bike and myself over like the worlds worst pendulum. I am pretty sure that everyone in the park heard the words "OHHHH F@@@CK". I took the hardest shot to my left knee, in nearly the same spot I did the first weekend I had my bike. The last wound had just healed. My gloves protected my hands, helmet scratched a little, got a nasty raspberry on my leg from where it caught the handlebar grip, and I got covered in dirt. Uggh.

This was not what I needed to start my adventure on one of the toughest trails I had ever attempted. With my confidence gone (and I apparantly took Alex's too) we continued down the trail. I had a lot of fun on the trail and had I not fallen off, I probably would have loved it and attempted to do more of the drops. I did ok the rest of this trail until I got to a spot dam near at the end. Coming up a steep climb I did great till I hit the summit. At the summit I caught a large rock with my left pedal and lost my momentum. I tried to balance it out, but alas, on my ass I was. Timmmmber! Pitched right over on my side, laughing the whole way down.

Finally we exited Rollercoaster and went back to the picnic shelters to cool off. It was already in the 90F range. My "moisture wicking" jersey was basically a hot wet towel at this point.

The hardcore guys decided they were going to go run North Creek and Rollercoaster again, Alex, Ryan, and I, decided to do Sandpine, Rock Garden, and the River loop.

We had a great time on those trails and running low on water, we headed back to the camp to relax and to refil our drink bottles.

We decided to run one last pull throught Rock Garden, then we called it a day.

I also had forgotten to turn on the GPS, so by the time I realized it, I said forget it.

Distance covered: 14.8mi + fire roads (probably another mile on these)

Roller Coaster:2.2mi
Sandpine:2.5mi
Rock Garden:3.5mix2
River Loop: 3.1mi

Map of Alafia, courtesy of SWAMP


Alex sent me his GPS based route (notice the difference from the stated mileage vs what the GPS sees since it gets lost in the forest)

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