Prairie View in the Snow

On Sunday, I thought it might be fun to try being a bi-athlete. What swift change of heart for just one day, don't you think? But it's true! Mountain bike riding AND ultimate in the same day.

Fall league was first, Pi vs. other people. BP, Topper, Robin Bauer, MAC and friends. It was a really fun game and gorgeous fall weather. Poor G'OB got injured on my nasty IO. It was a little longer than I might normally throw that, but he pointed, so I tossed. He made a fabulous rolling grab, but tweaked himself in the process. Sorry Greg! I was really impressed with Heath's (aka five seventh's) D on Robin Bauer. It was an exciting battle of the fasties and Heath played some serious defense. I was reasonably happy with my game despite missing a d by inches (curses) and throwing to Jeff's d and not Jeff (more curses!). I nearly forgot, a final highlight was hack, both post game and ghetto halftime hack with a bottle cap.

Prairie View and it's view of Barrier Lake is beautiful that is time of year. We rode up the switchbacks for an hour and a half or so. They are both gradual and gruelling. It's actually pretty flat for how much elevation you gain, except for the little kicks we needed for the corners. The pics are from the lookout, just before the hike-a-bike. The hike-a-bike was muddy and I found it quite difficult. Leanne must be using a lot of Joanne's goatcream, because she just seemed to fly up there. I felt like I was trying to climb a mountain with a dead body on my back.

The singletrack on the backside was seriously fun. It was technical, rooty and SNOWY! And you thought wet roots were slick. Try snowy roots. Wear a helmet when you try. It was blast, although all three of us had woah/eek/shreek moments. I had one Moab-ian "Cool, I just rode something I might not normally because I couldn't get off".

I had a riding first. Never before on a bike have I ridden into a deep puddle and had to peddle like crazy to push away the ice layer that I had dislodged from the top of the puddle.

And then..."the Bridge Incident". It was this little bridge over a creek, wider than some stuff in Fernie two weeks ago, but too narrow to put your feet down once you've started. Did I mention there was snow on it? I basically fucked it from the start, went in on wobbly and somehow made it to the other side, having hugged the outside inch of the thing. Seriously, so close, and it would have been a dodgy landing. It's okay though, I was wearing my bubble. I wrecked it for Treena too, who watched me nearly kill myself. She said something like "Well, I'm not going to ride it NOW." I sat in a snowbank on the far side in a little mini I'm-still-in-one-piece dance of joy...you probably had to be there.