Big River Mix

• Place: Hopkins Hill Parking Lot
• Trailhead: West across the road
• Riders with OMMB: Tom, Taco, Jeff
• Miles: 10-ish
• Weather: cold
• Temp: 26-34
• Trail Conditions: great... frozen solid and fast.  negligible bits of snow and ice puddles
• Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets:  from what I saw, there was a Whoops and a Yikes by Tom
• GPS Track:

Notes: Tom lead us on a great variety of trails from the Hopkins Hill lot. A mixed bag of tight technical single track (I See Dead People), flat out trails (Big River Expressway), winding whoop-dees (along the Cardi Rd), some blacktop (the Cardi Rd), stream crossings (near Tarbox Pond), some climbs (Elephant, etc), and great descents (as that is a given ;) ).  The ride was quite entertaining, with Tom showing us some unique ways to endo over a few different rock-overs...and NOT get hurt!   I think he may have had some circus clown experience in his past (or maybe some strange desire to become a rodeo clown).  And Taco demonstrated how a stick in the rear derailleur can become a puzzle of fun when it snaps the hanger and twists the derailleur in a manner that takes over 30 minutes to piece back together.  I know we had at least two engineers in the group, but that didn't help us, requiring a "cheat" to finish the job (had to pop a chain link and feed the chain back through the derailleur, I'm still puzzled).  Taco made up for this setback with a great story about Mama Bear and the Three Cubs...have him tell you sometime.

Tidbits: Lessons learned...carry a spare derailleur hanger (and a chain tool)!  Be careful when riding with Taco (hence his nickname, it's not the food), I see a pattern.  :)  

Oh... and those bears...

Happy Trails,

OMMB