They Live By Night...

For this week's TNS, we took advantage of the dry streak and hit the dirt, amassing at Wakefield for a quick night ride. DT, JonnyB, Jason, RickyD, and I met up in the far parking lot and headed out on the usual route. Technically, this was my first dirt ride of the year; the only other time I broke out the Inbred recently was for a little snow ride in February, and I was jonesing to get back to it.

We took off with Ricky "I-smoked-Ned-Overend-on-a-recent-group-ride" D leading the way. About halfway through the ride, Jason's lunch decided it didn't want to take an eventual dirt ride of its own and tried to bail out the way it went in. I think he tends to amp it up a bit more when Rick shows up; some kind of competition thing going on there (or is it compensation?). He left the rest of us to finish our ride while he found a secluded spot in the woods to do a little gastrointestinal spray-painting before cutting back to the cars. Probably more than you need to know, but hey, the ride was pretty average and I have to fill some space around the pix (note to self: turn on the f&$%ing red-eye reduction already!).

Trail conditions were surprisingly good. I've deliberately avoided the local trails so far because of the amount of rain we've had this winter and also because we really haven't had any extended below-freezing temps during the day, which means the ground has remained moist for the most part. Hasn't stopped a lot of ignorant individuals from riding anyway—including some who should know better (you know who you are)—as evidenced by the ubiquitous frozen ruts I saw on a couple of night rides near the end of last year.

Ended up with about 8 miles or so overall. The only other interesting thing is that DT rode my fixed Karate Monkey. Pretty much his first taste of what 29 is all about. I think he might be a future candidate for that burgeoning genre, since he rode well and tackled most of the obstacles he usually does, despite the Monkey's low BB and corresponding penchant for pedal banging, and the fact that the frame was a little too big for him.

Afterwards, JonnyB, DT, and I had a beer in the lot and talked with Ricky and Chris before heading over to Bazanno's for some grub. Next time I'll have to get some action shots, though if you know Wakefield, you know that "action" isn't exactly the operative word. 70 degrees tomorrow, might have to hit Colt's Neck while the dry run lasts.