Holiday Weekend

Had a nice long weekend with the holiday and rode each day, that was cool.
The rides I did on Friday and Saturday weren't long rides, about an hour or so on each day, but quality rides with good ups and downs, with plenty of technical sections to keep you on your toes. Both rides were with Craig which was nice, we rarely get to ride just the two of us and he's loving that Moment. I now believe that I need more travel than the 5.5 that I have back and front, I'm wanting to go faster and my BLT isn't able to stay stable with my progression. But I have to wait a while, save some $$$.
Sunday though was the long 4 hour ride that I was looking forward to. My friend Emma is back from holiday and I must admit it was good to have another female on the ride. The other three riders were Craig, Eddie and Baird. We put in above Ward and rode a lot of "secret" single track, we saw only one other rider and met the guy building trails up there on his dirtbike. We politely suggested a few more switchbacks in the hill climbs, he understood.
There was a nice rain off and on all day while riding, it felt like the NW to me. We ended up in a drainage, and had to ride through some shallow streams, many wet rocks to challange our climbing skills. We found even some more new trails in this drainage and couldn't ride them to their ends because of time constraints, we'll be back...
I was feeling pretty good all day, climbing and descending with confidence and strength. It was the last mile of downhill that almost did me in though, I hooked a low tree limb with my right arm, which stopped me dead in my tracks, the bike lurched to the left as my arm stayed in place held by the branch. I can't beleive I didn't go flying down the hill to my side with my bike, but I kinda just came to a very abrupt stop. My upper right arm looks pretty scratched up and bruised, my elbow pads didn't help me out on this one. Eddie had nailed this same branch a few years ago and it sent him flying down the hillside, I won't forget this branch, though we don't ride this lonely little trail in this drainage too often.
It's amazing how much trail is in BC that is off the radar, it's very cool to be out there and see noone else and have epic trail to ride so close to home.
The bikes were a dirty site after that ride, with all the water and muck and mud a long the way.
It was all so worth while, that type of riding is so much more fun than any kinda racing there is out there. Just being out with friends, riding hard, exploring, it's really good stuff. And it doesn't have a entry fee or hundreds of other folks to get around and away from.
There's plenty of time for that in the fall/winter/early spring when you have to ride the public trails lower down.
We'll see what this week has to offer.
Hopefully my chest will loosen up and I'll have some new tires to rail on, yeah!
Till then, park and ride!