North Forked...

So this is how it went down. We parked at the trail head to North Fork Mt trail on Smoke Hole road. We headed out the road in search of North Fork Mt and some sweet chunky single track. After loads of ups and downs, including the final 3.5 mile grunt, we arrived at are desired destination. Everything was going smooth. At about 4 miles in John Weber and I decided to stop and regroup and wait for Carothers and Mandi to catch up. Mandi came rolling along shortly after we stopped. She was enjoying North Fork a lot more than in years past thanks to her new dual suspension ride, but she also made a commit about how sketchy the trail is and how it would be a horrible place to get hurt. So we waited and we waited no sign of Carothers. So John decided he better head back and look for are long lost com padre. After a few minutes I got a little anxious and decided I should head back also. I rode back about five minutes to find John and Carothers walking back out the trail and Carothers bike was no were in sight. Carothers had crashed and tore his bicep muscle on his left arm! Once he accessed the situation he abandoned his bike and started walking our direction.

After a little pow-wow we decided the best thing to do would be for John and Carothers to hike out to Redman trail and down off the mountain back to the road. John tossed me his keys. Mandi and I were to rail out the trail to the end and arrive back at the car before they did and drive to meet them. Well that is not exactly what happened. We railed all right, but you can only rail so fast on North Fork trail. We rode steady, conservatively but definitely not tentatively, the last thing you want to do is ride tentatively on North Fork trail. The name of the game is commitment. There are some big moves up there and you do not want to go at them half way. We bombed the last exquisite downhill off the ridge and arrived back at the car about two minutes after the boys got there. Perfect timing. After John and Carothers got back to the pavement Carothers was able to suck it up and ride.

What an event full ride. It was a gorgeous day with some nice cool temps and wonderful cloud formations. Hopefully Carothers bicep tear is not as bad as he thought and his wife does not bitch at him to much.

Peace, JOEY.