Here in New England, the day light is fading fast. It is getting pretty dark around 6:30-7 already. So last night, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get home and ride before it got dark so I charged up the batteries for my lights. At about 7:30 I left out for the Cranmore access road for 3 reasons. 1) A sweet, sweet downhill in the Red Tail Trail. 2) I wanted to punish myself a little bit. That access road is steep in some parts and going give me a quality workout and 3) I wanted to hear the screams of the Cranmore Ghoullog. If you aren’t familiar with what the Ghoullog is, it is a little halloween event where they try to scare the hell out of you. They have a little maze set up on the bottom of the mountain and some on the top. I would imagine it is a nice little set up by looking at the pictures and the money they dump into it. Anyway, I did the access road to hear the screams of the people, and boy were their screams. After about 20 minutes of hear coyotes howl (I imagine it was just a tape being played over and over) and people scream, I got a little weirded out, after all, I was out in the dark woods all by myself. So, I hit play on the ipod, got the death metal cranking and started the pedaling. Moral of the story? There is nothing like a good, 2 hour night right. I got home around 9ish and was completely pumped and just stoked on how much fun it is to ride at night. If you have never done it and are a big mountain biker, I would suggest getting yourself some lights and head out.
Today was spent watching PSU whoop up on Purdue in football, followed by some hiking with the dog and bleeding of some brakes. Usually some sloppy brakes don’t bother me so much, but having hardly any front or rear brakes coming down the entire Red Tail Trail was a bit unnerving, enough for me to come home and actually do a little maintenance to the bike. After getting some HUGE bubbles out of both brake systems, I will feel a little more confident about riding down hills from now on.
I think tomorrow, the Campster and I will hit one of the local 4000 footers (a mountain over 4000 ft tall) to get her a good workout. If I am feeling good afterwards, I will head out on the bike…maybe on a night ride. Who knows….
