It was an awesome weekend! I arrived around noon on Friday as I wanted to set up my campsite before my first volunteer shift and picked a camping spot that proved to be perfect. I will go to the same spot next year. Once my shift was done I couldn't decide whether to have a beer or go ride...so I did both! First the ride, of course. The trails were crazy packed, though compared to the rest of the weekend it was just the beginning. As it was supposed to be my rest day I only rode for about 90 minutes and then headed for my campsite for the promised beer.
Friday and Saturday evenings we had multiple bluegrass bands and free beer. What beer I drank was mainly my own as I am picky ;) Friday night was FRIGID for tent camping, and I learned my "30 degree" sleeping bag...isn't. I hadn't taken any spare blankets and should have - I was so cold that my legs cramped bad for much of the night - especially when I got up to go to the bathroom. This happened 3-4 times on account of the New Holland Poet Oatmeal Stout that moved from my cooler to my stomach :o My feet didn't really thaw out until NOON on Saturday, but Saturday was a fine warm day and Saturday night was warmer than it ever got on Friday afternoon!
Saturday I had several shifts I volunteered for, but I made certain there was a nice break between them so I could go play. We had bike demos Saturday from Trek, Giant, Cannonadale, Niner, and several other vendors where there such as SRAM. I would have been interested in checking out a small FS Niner just to see what it felt like, but the vendor didn't have the FS version and I wasn't interested in riding a hard tail. Pretty sure my neck and back would hate me for that. I had a great time tooling around on my mountain bike and just having fun with it for some time, actually lost track of time I was on it.
Saturday evening I had "fire tending duty" for the two community fires next to the live music stage from 8-10 which was fun. I roamed around visiting friends, had a good time watching mountain bikers who had imbibed too much beer (many were convinced we would get stormed out today), and all around had a great evening. I've always been struck by how NICE everyone is at this event, also at the other mtb events that I've helped out in the past.
Everyone was dreading the weather, massive storms were predicted last night through today and every time someone checked the weather it was something different. There were huge winds last night but no rain. Everyone breathed a partial sigh of relief. Major winds started kicking up not too long after 500 riders set off this morning, a few sprinkles but the winds proved to be the rule for the day. A few riders had stuff falling down in front of them :eek: By the end of the day all made it back safely, and the trails now have more features than yesterday! If I were considering riding after I was finished, and I did, knowing the trails had a lot more litter from the winds made me change my mind. I crash easily enough on my own, thank you very much.
The routes today were from 25-100 miles, with live music at each SAG and there are musicians who play in the woods at key places. Some of them really get into it and dress up for the part ;) Most of them are bluegrass musicians, and probably all of them. The further routes take riders well outside of the park to other areas so the riders get quite a tour of the area, it is very scenic and there are TONS of single-track available. Some of these trails are not always open, and indeed today a portion of the longer route took riders through a state forest where they have never been allowed to ride before (double-track in this case).
Next year I am going to register and ride as far as I can - right now I can ride about half of the trails in the 25 mile route - they range pretty wide in difficulty. This is also a major fundraiser for the Hoosier Mountain Bike Association and the proceeds go back into the our mountain bike trail system. Trails aren't cheap to build or maintain... We had people register and come from all over the country, and each year there are more participants. I thought it was pretty cool that I either knew, or at least recognized, many of the riders :) It is a great way to touch base with old friends and make new. I know have a few more riding buddies if we can get our schedules together ;)
