Camden

Last week I mentioned that I was heading over to the Camcen Snow Bowl for some course recon for next weekends race. I already know the trails well but I wanted to see if there would be any new sections and, more importantly, I wanted to figure out the right gearing for riding that bitch on a single speed. The 20 minute opening climb makes it impossible (or at least stupid) to run a high gear considering how much time you'll lose while needing to walk some sections. So, for the day, I started to roll out with a 32/19 half expecting to need to change to 32/20 before I finished the climb and sure enough, but after a short warm-up I decided to make the change before the climb and I'm glad I did. At 32/20 the hill was just climbable for my sorry ass this year and I was able to clean 99% of it which is roughly what I can do on a geared bike because there are a couple of steep, tricky sections that you have to really be on top of to clean.

Once to the top, I got to business enjoying the ripping downhill. They've done a good job cleaning up some of the scary steep sections and build some sweet bridges over swampy areas.

Good stuff. About 2 minutes from the bottom of the downhill, while dropping into a wooded section after crossing a ski trail something happened and before I knew it I was launched over the bars and hurling towards a nice rock pile. Initially I stuck my right arm out but, thankfully, pulled it back just in time to do a semi textbook shoulder roll. It probably would have been text book if my feet weren't tangled up in my bike causing my both legs to take direct hits for the rocky terrain.

Initially I thought that I was pretty damn lucky to not have hurt myself but as I laid there I began to realize that I hurt really freakin bad. Maybe bad enough that I might not be able to get back up. It kind of freaked me out since this is the same place that Marcy totally blew out her ankle about 5 years ago but I didn't have the benefit of a riding partner with me to help me out so I struggled to stand and gradually was able to right myself. Both legs hurt like a son of a bitch but at least everything seemed to be working. So after waiting a couple of minutes for the pain to subside a bit I got back on the trail and did one more lap just to make sure the trail knew who was boss...