Windy night out @ Upper JEM TH rocked the van. Warm night,
Plan today is to get up @ at it to do my wash prior to 10:00 gathering @ OTE to depart to Little Creek.
Made the laundromat & have clean clothes and sheets. Met the owner whom I met back in ’09. He remembered me and commented on the stickie display on my van. Nice laundromat. Clean rest room opened early for my need.
DJ lead Jeff,a guy I never knew his name, 4 brothers from Idaho, and me out to Little Creek. Sure is a treat to ride in another rig going over the bumpy roads. The 4 brothers were a hoot. The oldest was 61 down to late 40s. All had good bikes.
Little Creek is a quasi marked trail system. Rock cairns mark a route over the slick rock w/ lots of moves of step ups and roll overs. DJ is a skilled rider. We rode the same route that Rick and I rode back in ’09 in reverse. I found the location of my fall. I knew it was out there somewhere and had a slight sense of apprehension of riding it. It rode better going our way. I was just so close to going over the edge into oblivion.
Little Creek is slab and broken rock that requires slow churning pedaling: keep your speed up and under control then pedal wheelie up a face. My riding skills are vastly improved over even last year’s ride here. I not cocky, I still keep a conservative ability call but following DJ and Jeff I found that I was willing and able to ride stuff that I would have walked. Great bike and tuned suspension. I did cut too close to a dead branch that ripped a gash in my left forearm. I kept riding as the blood seeped down to my watch band. I told myself if the blood went under the band I would stop and bandage it. We stopped before that happened.
Finished the ride. Beautiful excellent riding conditions. GPS battery died right @ start.
Drove back to Hurricane. Jeff and I made plans to ride the Zen trail down @ ST George tomorrow. I drove to liquor store, its location speaks volumes on Hurricane’s acceptance of liquor as it is way out in the non town toolies , for a scotch resupply. In the parking lot a Hurricane cop was field sobriety testing a woman. Later she was placed in the back seat of a the police crew cab truck,
Next was drive to Washington rec center for a shower. Ran into Ken who works there, we are facebook friends. Clean body on clean sheets. Sleep will be good tonight w/ heater on low. Temp didn’t get to freezing last night.
Drove back and up to JEM TH @ 4200′.