It's day three of the Doug and Adam ride all of California trip. Turns out I'm in awful shape and it's making Adam kind of grumpy. Adam's mood is directly correlated to his heart rate and apparently I haven't been riding fast enough to get his heart rate up. In his defense I'm riding really slow, almost embarrassingly so.
We're currently squatting at a buddies house in San Luis Obispo, which is a richer warmer version of Missoula that has traded skiing for surfing............this place rocks. Mountain biking along the coast of California has been quite a treat. Santa Cruz offers butter soft single track with large hips and stunts integrated into the trail, while San Luis is more exposed and rocky; think 100 Mt. Jumbo's in every direction, all lush and green, and you'll get the idea.
Today we met with a British fellow who offered to show us some local trail. The top of our first climb left us with two options: 1) Go down the fire road we had just climbed or 2) Blast down some super hair ball rocky single track/erosion path to the fire road below. Of course only a fool would descend the fire road so we pointed the ridgid 29ers down the sketchy path and held on. About half way down I started to lose control and hit a rock all cattywhompis, sending me into the brush. Not two seconds later Adam comes blazing by me, bouncing around like a rag doll. Anyone who knows Adam knows he can climb like a homesick angle. Unfortunately his descending prowess is akin to molasses in the freezer. To say I was surprised would be an understatement and as I watched him get close to the fire road all I could think is either he just got really really good at descending or he's completely out of control. As the last three feet of trail dropped straight vertical to the road it became apparent the latter was true. It's an awful sight to see someone go from 25mph to 0 in two feet, and watching it happen on a road full of football sized boulders only heightened the experience. Adam hit the road with such force that it cracked his helmet in two and made mince meet of his left arm and hip. I'm really surprised he got up and that neither he nor his bike suffered any catastrophic injuries. This is a warning to all of you out there, even the most calculated careful people a.k.a Adam Jensen, can be influenced by the primitive subconscious powers of the stupid button and fling themselves down a rocky slope for no apparent reason. There is no explanation for a man who normally descends in total control to suddenly try some Wade Simmons shit down a trail no ridged bike has any right to be on, let alone at the foolish speeds he was hitting. It just goes to show the stupid things men will do if given a goofy contraption (bike) and a steep hill. Personally, I'm kind of glad he fell because now he's really sore and has something other than my slow ascending to complain about.
Doug Dale
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