As most of you know, I’m a pretty avid mountain biker. This year I, urbanbigfoot (as I’m know in the mountain biking community), was lucky enough to be invited on a trip to Arkansas for a week of trail riding on some pretty amazing trails – one of which is Womble – an IMBA Epic. Though I’m excited as hell, I have to admit, I’m a little nervous as well.
Brett and Jason are the organizers of the trip. They’ve been venturing down to Ouachita National Forest for the past 10 years, and they have this trip down to a science. They send out a recommended packing list and provide useful information like trail names, miles we’ll ride per day, elevation we’ll climb per day, etc…and emergency contact information – just in case we go missing in the back-woods of Arkansas.
Since I’m the ‘newbie’ this year, I want to have all my gear in order so I don’t get a ribbing from the other guys. I’ve tweaked and tuned my bike – it’ll ride like a dream down there. I’ve packed most of my gear – like my tent, sleeping bag, pillow, poison ivy block, poison ivy wash (this shit grows mad down there), riding gear for 7 days, shorts/shirts/undies for 7 days, power bars, gel fuel for energy, electrolite drinks, BEER…the list goes on and on. But thanks to Brett and Jason, I didn’t have to think too hard on what to pack – they did that for me.
The trails are really going to test my riding skills. I consider myself a strong rider, but I don’t have a ton of experience riding over rough jagged rock…it just doesn’t exist around our area. My technical skills are leaps and bounds better than they were last year at this time, largely due to the extensive amount of training I’ve put in this year. I sure hope it pays off…
We start our adventure on Friday…just three short days from now. I’ve already got a case of poison ivy on my leg…nothing severe, but enough to make life a little uncomfortable. I think I picked it up last week riding, but maybe at a trail work day…who knows? On top of poison ivy, I’ve also come down w/ a cold. I hope Anna’s homemade Veggie-Beef soup will get me over that hump. Other than that…I’m totally ready for Friday.
I’ll post up some pictures from the trip, and probably some cool video (most likely of my crashing). So come back in about two weeks to see how the trip went. I’m betting it’ll be AMAZING!
