A week prior to this last Saturday I went with Gilbert, Ed, and Mike to Kanawah Sate Forest (KSF) just outside of Charleston WV for our weekly mountain biking ride. For a few months now the guys have been telling me about how they wanted me to go out there to ride (they had been there previously) and Ed, specifically, couldn't wait to read my blog on the trip - so here it is.

After my Mt Wood trip where I ended the day totally gassed and seriously malnourished I decided to be a bit better prepared for the KSF trip. At Mt Wood we rode about 16 miles and the plan, going into KSF, was to do just over 20. Just like on the Mt Wood trip I had a big bowl of oatmeal for breakfast - however, unlike the Mt Wood trip, KSF is only a hour from the house so the oatmeal was still providing energy when we started riding.

The ride started off innocently as we headed down the river-trail away from the parking lot. We rode that trail ad a bit of road for about 2 miles before we encountered the first climb of the day. Barboursville has a couple "longish" climbs that really wear me out but none of them are nearly as long as this first ascent in KSF; fortunately this one was on a fireroad so the soil was well packed and the climb was just a matter of strength and endurance and thus no technical skills had to be brought to bear.

I managed to ride up that first hill a long way before I eventually had to get off the bike and walk it for a bit; even though I had to walk I was pretty pleased with how far I made it. Eventually I caught up with Ed who was having some breathing problems but it wasn't long before he resumed riding and pulled away from me. Finally I reached the summit where Mike and Gilbert were fully refreshed from having waited on me for so long.

I'm going to let you in on a little secret here - I really suck at mountain biking. I have weak legs and poor endurance so the climbs kick my ass and alot of times I think to myself, "man, I hate these climbs." Sadly, the descents are no better. While my lack of endurance doesn't come into play my lack of skill and confidence do. That shit is scary because I know that at any second I could fly off my bike and get seriously hurt and thus I often think to myself, "man I hate these downhills."

At this point you may be wondering why I ride at all and the answer is that as much as I hate both of those parts I also love them. Both aspects of the ride provide me with personal internal challenges. Each time that I make it further up a hill without stopping I have a small celebration on the inside and each time I make it down a tricky bit of downhill I silently pump my fist in exultation. It's a great thrill to overcome my weakness, my fear, and my lack of ability.

Sadly, the first downhill of the day didn't provide me with any victories. Instead I found myself walking my bike over a bunch of obstacles that I realized I could have ridden over. I had built up so much trepidation about this trip going in that my lack of confidence really kept me from enjoying the first downhill in anyway. That sucked because the first climb was a bitch and without some reward at the top it's hard be happy when you reach the second climb.

Before beginning the second climb I ate half of a Cliff Bar "Mojo" trail mix bar. It was so much more edible than a standard Cliff Bar that I think I'll replace my normal stash with all Mojo bars. It wasn't nearly as dry and heavy as the standard bars and I felt much better pretty quickly after eating it.

Our second climb was in the woods and was almost entirely trail based. It didn't seem like a very long climb and I was pretty happy with my effort on it because my legs were already pretty tired. At the top I finished off my Mojo bar and then we did the mid trail which was sort of downhill but a much more cross-country type ride (I really enjoy it, it's all small ups and downs with nice sweeping turns). Once we hit the end of that trail we were at the top of the second descent. I barely remember it but I know I liked it a lot better than the first one. I rode almost the entire downhill and had a really good time with it until, that is, I was faced with the third climb.

Ed and Mike had told me stories of the third climb. Ed, a very quiet guy, supposedly even yelled out in frustration the first time they climbed it because it never seemed to end. They told me that I'd see a curve and think "Oh, the end!" only to turn around it and see another steep climb facing me. Oh, and the final stretch of the hill? They said it's the steepest part of the whole thing. Needless to say I felt mentally prepared for this beast.

I wasn't. I wasn't prepared at all. It's a long climb to be sure. Mike, who somehow managed to pedal up the entire rise said it took him 45 minutes. Maybe that doesn't sound very long to you but imagine riding a bike up one hill non-stop for 45 minutes; we aren't in the Tour du France here; we're just some weekend warriors. That is a big ass hill. It took me quite a bit more than 45 minutes and I didn't pedal up the whole thing. Each new incline change presented me with a new challenge. Heck, some of them were so steep that each tree along the side of the trail served as my new goal. If I could just pedal to it I could take a rest. I walked, I gasped, I pedaled, and I wondered if I went the wrong way a couple times but eventually I found the other three waiting at the top. Well, technically it wasn't the top of the hill but it was the entrance to the third downhill section.

If you have ever snow-skied you will be familiar with the green circle, blue square, and black diamond designations for trail difficulty. The first two descents were probably green circle/blue square type hills. However, the third hill is designated as a black diamond. You can ride about 15 feet in, till you reach a big tree, before you actually drop in to the trail. At that point it gets steep, has a big bend in it, and has some really big rocks that totally obscure the trail. Ed went first and made it look all too easy. Mike followed, and while he had a small glitch, he pulled it out nicely and made it down as well. Gilbert followed and once he reached the turn he dismounted and walked his bike past the massive rocks. I walked with him and still managed to hurt myself by accidentally banging my knee into the bike frame.

Once we were past the rocks, however, the trail became pretty fun. There were a couple of other places were I definitely had to dismount but overall it was a really good downhill until we reached a pretty large jump. As I approached Ed was standing on the top of it and announced that he had "talked himself out of it" while waiting. Remember now that Ed is our most experienced rider so it should have been a good warning to everyone that the jump wasn't in our skill level.

Mike didn't hesitate to bypass the jump and I certainly didn't even think about it. But Gilbert - the guy with the least experience of the group - he gave it some thought and then announced that he was going to try it. We all tried to talk him out of it but he wasn't hearing our protests. He had committed himself to the jump and would not be swayed. He was certain that with the amount of dropoff that his back wheel would have to land on the ground first.

This jump, you must understand, was in the middle of a downhill section so that you would jump at one point and not only would you go up but the hill would continue to go down beneath you. Thus, if you hit the jump fast enough and used the correct technique Gilbert was right and you're bike tire would easily land before your front tire.

The problem here was that Gilbert never had enough speed nor did he pull up on his front tire at all. Therefore, when his front tire left the jump it didn't go up at all it just went down and, because the hill was dropping away beneath him, he fell extra far and flew straight over his handlebars. He landed pretty solidly on his shoulder, his bike flew over him (I don't think the back tire had hit the ground yet) and then Gilbert hopped up and shook off the landing.

Here's a video tape of his effort. Sadly I flinched as he landed because I thought he was going to seriously hurt himself.



When he was fully recovered we asked if he would try it again. His answer - "Sure, I'd try it again!" Just not that day. In fact through Thursday of this week his shoulder was still to sore to sleep on.

From the crash site we had a few more miles to go. Most of it was road and river trail. On the road we had a big hill to ride down which was fun but, as I started to pick up speed, I got a cramp in my left thigh. I tried to drink from my water-pack but it was dry; for the first time I had managed to drink two liters of water on the ride. I took that as both a good and bad sign - good that I was drinking consistently but bad that I didn't have enough water with me. Fortunately we only had about 1 mile left from there until we were back at the car and I could get some more to drink.

All in all the day was far more enjoyable than I expected. The way Mike and Ed built the park up for me I anticipated every downhill to be like the first half of the third - a black diamond. Instead there were good challenging climbs and mostly fun and manageable downhills. I would certainly return to Kanawha State Forest for another ride in the future.

#MyLife