With Vince, Zach, and I planning a morning start at Lake Hope I wanted to be up and as ready to ride as I could be.  I had plans to take a long underwear top to stay warm but in the confusion of packing up and getting ready I didn't even get it out of the drawer.  Instead I throw on my bibs, tights and sweat pants and hit the road.  I made a quick stop to pick up some extra water and some protein (beef jerky) at the cross-roads gas station on the way out of Athens to help fuel me on my ride.  I knew it would be a long day if I went on only my bowl of cereal.

After rallying the jeep through the hills I arrived to a full lot at the Hope Furnace, and I imedately thought "The Spoke Junkies are here"... I usually get their emails letting me know where they are riding and I always notice when they visit Lake Hope so why on this Sunday had I not noticed the email.  I didn't think anything of it since they were all on the trail already and we shouldn't have any problems riding.  There are enough trails for everyone to ride and the probability that we would ride the exact same ride is well not worth my time to calculate (I may throw a figure up there later...).  Even if we did ride with them it would have been fun.  Right at 9 Vinny and Zach roll into the lot and I can see they are both ready to get at the trail.

Zach a friend of Vince's had some misfortune while riding at Lake Hope earlier in the year and thanks to the lovely bike shops in Athens would be without a ride if it hadn't been for The Green Monster (for those with monster legs).  I let him borrow the SS and warned him he may be in for a little pain but gave him the option to switch out the rear cog from a 16 to an 18 tooth to make the hills a bit easier.  So after some quick parking lot repairs we got on our way.

Our first trail was the Hope Furnace Trail around the North side of the lake.  This was a good fast warm-up with Vince leading the way and setting a solid pace I was content with following today, I get to lead when I ride solo so its nice to see another tire in front of me besides my own.  Zach did a great job keeping up and after getting used to the riding I think he started to like it.  With our first trail out of the way we came to the base of Sidewinder and faced with a our first decision.  Sidewinder or road?

Sidewinder was dirt and the tires were fat so we ended up riding up sidewinder for a fun time.  Every time I ride it I think back to that Spring day when I first rode my mountain bike there.  We made good time and with plenty of rest breaks we pushed up to the top only expelling about 90% of our energy.  Vince lead about 90% of the way and Zach never let a gap form between us which for that trail on that bike is pretty amazing.  We got to the next major trail intersection and decided that we would go with the more fun of the two route of riding Wildcat Trail.

After ripping down Wildcat and explaining some Matrix algebra on the way we ended up down in the valley where we ran into our first group of other riders.  I let our a "bikes up" call to alert the oblivious riders that others were on the trail but still managed to startle them when they passed us.  An older rider tried to let us know we were probably heading the wrong way since the trail they had just come down was pretty steep, but little did he know that he was in for far worse of an uphill.  In fact we had spent more time coming down the hill he was about to ride up then it took us to ride up the hill he just came down.  I'm sure they made it just fine they looked to be enjoying their day on the trail.

At the top of Wildcat we hung out around the Trailhead to recover some when a large group of riders came off of Copperhead.  This was our chance to find out who these people were.  I asked if they were the Spoke Junkies and was firmly informed that "No we are CAMBA" to which I though ...You came all the way from Canada?... But after one of them finally braved up to talk to us "locals" I realized they were not saying "eh" and were actually from Cleveland (like I'm supposed to know/care what CAMBA is).  Anyway we chatted with a really nice guy who was riding what looked like a purple Gary Fischer 29er, most likely a supercaliber/excaliber or something along those lines.  Some nice bikes were in the mix and I could tell there were some tired riders.  We said our goodbyes and headed on our way back to the cars via Bobcat/Harbon/Hope Furnace to make it back to the lot.

Bobcat and Harbon were a blast and as we made our way closer to Hope Furnace Zach took the lead and well took off.  His gearing was perfect and he was flying, I had to work pretty hard just to keep up and just as I was about to crest a hill Vince comes tearing past me to take second position.  Immediately I knew "it's on!".  All three of us pushed through the fatigue of riding 15 miles 2 days in a row and you would have though it was a gold medal race for the olympics.  At least I thought so.  With the end growing near I knew I had to make my move so as we approached the last bridge a group of hikers on the other side Zach and Vince step off their bikes and I jumped off threw it on my shoulder and ran across the bridge tore past the hikers and barreled down the hill scaring a dog on my way.  Which I found out later was Bryan and his wife and their dog...  Sorry I was that @$$ who recklessly took up the trail, but I had full control and really only took up like 75% of the trail lol... Sorry Bryan.  Apologies aside I ended up racing myself to the finish and I'm sure it was all in my head but I could swear I tasted some gold when I opened into the field marking the finish.  I grabbed a few pictures and we headed home from some Jimmy John's and farewells to the couples.

It was a great weekend and I am happy that I could spend some time with Vince and Timarie.  Hopefully I will see them again soon and I'll bring the bikes home next time for some Miami County riding.

Willis out!