BAB Mountain Bike Trail Ride

Official Mountain Bike Ride Report for BAB // Bald Mountain--Addison Oaks--Bald Mountain, 14.36 mile Mountain Bike Trail Ride.

Craig “Chief” Drozd, Joe “Lojack” Rosenhauer, Dave Kowalik and I rode the BAB // Bald Mountain—Addison Oaks—Bald Mountain 14.36 mile combination trail and gravel road ride last Thursday. I called Joe to see if he was going to be able to make the ride since he was supposed to be out on his boat tubing with his family and I was surprised to hear that he was already half way there. So I had to hurry and finish loading up so I wouldn’t be late but when I tried to roll my Cannondale Scalpel out of the garage, I found out that the rear tire was flat! It wasn’t flat when I road my 11.5 mile gravel road loop on Tuesday night but it was now, so I had to quickly switch to my Cannondale Killer V700. When I got the parking lot Craig and Joe were already there waiting and Dave arrived a couple minutes after I did. Dave was riding his “backup” bike too (Gary Fisher full suspension) because he thought it was going to be muddy and he didn’t want to get his Specialized “dirty” (just think about the dirt he would have been in on the Potawatomi ride)!

When we started the ride Craig took the lead, followed by Joe, me and then Dave. Craig put on a pretty fast pace, fast enough that Dave got tired of having to slow up for me so he finally passed me and the three of them waited for me at the start of the gravel road ride over to Addison Oaks. I don’t remember who led the gravel road portion because I was struggling to keep up with Craig, Joe and Dave but I think it was Craig. When we got to Addison Oaks Craig suggested that someone else lead so Joe took the lead since I told him I wasn’t ready to crash and burn yet this year and as I took off after Joe I heard Dave tell Craig to give me a ½ mile head start so they didn’t run me over!

It didn’t take but about 3 minutes before I couldn’t see Joe anymore as he was living up to his billing as “Lojack” (as in need a Lojack to find him) or “Rocket” (as in gone like a rocket) and I didn’t see him until we got to the short blacktop section about halfway through the trail. I heard Dave and Craig behind me so I pushed it as hard as I could so that they wouldn’t catch me and for awhile I didn’t hear them but of course they caught me just as I got to the blacktop section where Joe was waiting for us. Craig informed us that he was having front derailleur issues (left over hardware problems from the Potawatomi ride no doubt) so he still wanted me to ride in front of him. Joe took off again but this time Dave gave chase only inches off of Joe’s rear wheel and it wasn’t but about 3 minutes again before I couldn’t see either of them anymore! (Seems to be a common theme for me this year!) Eventually I caught up to Dave on a series of up hills when he threw his chain, but I think he was just taking easy as well just to be sure that Craig and I were still upright and safe, especially since he would periodically catch up to me and then fall back, probably to check on Craig.

When we got to the picnic area Joe was waiting at a temporary “snow” fence that was blocking our way out of the parking lot. Turns out that they had closed off that area to keep people out since they had fireworks set up for a wedding being held there that evening! Joe volunteered to “close” the gate after the rest of us arrived so the park ranger took off. Dave showed up next and headed on to the concession stand to get some water and then Craig pedaled up as another park ranger drove by to tell us we needed to vacate the area but to come back for the public fireworks on Friday night.

I took the lead on the gravel road ride but Craig blew by me and then eventually Joe blew by me and when we got to the Bald Mountain trail Dave blew by me into the trail and the only reason I was able to chase Dave was because Craig and Joe had stopped to wait for us and they had to remount their bikes. We had only gone a short way on the high speed semi-downhill section when I heard Dave yelling “BRAKE” and saw him just able to stop before he would have hit a large tree that had fallen across the trail, large enough that “normal sane” riders like us wouldn’t attempt to jump. Joe stopped behind me but I heard Craig exclaim that he was disappointed that Joe was blocking the way for Craig to “bunny hop” over the downed tree!!! Dave kept the lead until he made a wrong turn and I passed him, okay, I didn’t really pass him but throw me a bone here, at least I told him so he could turn around-unlike his first wrong turn on the first half of the Bald Mountain loop when I didn’t tell him-poor protocol on my part. Since there were only a couple of minutes left to the parking lot I finished FIRST, lame, I know—but at least I rode—unlike some of our other intrepid riders who were AWOL!

Sincerely,

Dan “Krash” Kiplinger

“Embedded” in-the-field Correspondent and Editor-in-chief for the “Official Mountain Bike Ride Report”.