Everything in moderation, including moderation.

Yesterday was the new, or at least re-invented, Fromme Epic. We started off as thirteen, gained a few, lost a few, lost some more... and after twelve hours of riding (and barbecuing) ended up as eight. Here's what we ended up riding, though not in anything like this order.

I forgot my GPS, but no doubt someone will be posting the statistical analysis sometime. Much more important are the fun statistics. The first 5 hours were rated "extreme fun", as we ended up riding a variety of old-skool classics, including this maneuver that I haven't visited in a long time:

This was how I did it in 2009. These days I can apparently get by with 11 inches  less suspension, though my wheels are bigger.  

After we were all suitably excited by riding all the trails on the seventh switchback and the "low" trails, we carried a barbecue up to the trailhead and had a forest fiesta. Passers by were amused, and dogs were interested. At this point and after the next lap we started to lose people... I blame the burgers, though do give the barbecue a rating of "inventive fun".

The afternoon's goal was to fill in the gap between the high-up trails and the low-down trails that we rode in the morning. There are quite a few of these it turns out. Riding the appropriately named Skull and curiously named Lower Ladies after lunch, when you've already been riding for 6 hours, on a hardtail, is interesting. I don't mind admitting that sense reared it's sensible head on a few occasions and I walked down some sections of "classic gnar". At least I wasn't the only one. This period of the ride gained a rating of "mostly fun".

The grand finale was a welcome smooth zoom down Expresso (rated "swoopy fun"), a less-welcome grunt up Baden Powell to Dreamweaver and the new No Quarter climb to Executioner (rated "not fun" for the uphill part), and back out the way we came in. Guillaume and I finished off with a cruise down the Griffen trails to the car. We were going to go to Dairy Queen for some guilt-free saturated fat, but the line was too long and we went home instead.

Then I made an apple crisp and ate everything I could find in the fridge. What a day. Thank you to all of you who made it what it was. Overall day rating - "immoderate fun".

Before: Fresh-faced and full of optimism.

After: Broken shadows of mountain bikers, alone in the forest with only their fears for company.

Fresh orange

Orange-bike enthusiasts may remember that something happened to my awesome (and storied) Orange Bike, and that I did something about it.

But now, after a suitable long gestation... there's this: