Sunday, October 19, 2008

Vernal Roundup '08

Since I can't ride due to a cold I'm nursing, I may as well write about riding. A few weeks back, the annual "Vernal Roundup" was held. When all was said and done, we went out on 10 separate rides, logged 300 miles (100 per day), and had 10 inches of rain fall on us (all stats have been rounded up, of course).

Here are a few of the highlights:

Here's my first experience riding over a teeter-totter, which was scarier than I thought it would be. I felt like I was about at the end of the 8-inch-wide plank by the time it started coming down, and then it all came slamming down at once (click on each pic to enlarge):
From Vernal Roundup 08

Red Fleet Reservoir:

From Vernal Roundup 08

Chad paid for this yard sale for the rest of the trip:
From Vernal Roundup 08

A lot of good 1-track in Vernal. Ask the owner of Altitude Cycles for details on how to find it:
From Vernal Roundup 08

When the trails are too sloppy, the roads around Vernal offer some good riding as well (good for a road ride, that is):
From Vernal Roundup 08

As with any group, we were prone to doing stupid things that we would never have done as individuals. Like riding the Rojo trail in a torrential downpour, for example. Fortunately, the stupidest rides have a way of becoming the "kickassiest" (term coined during the '08 Roundup) rides:

A lot of the Rojo trail quickly turned into a river...
From Vernal Roundup 08

... some of which was deceptively deep:
From Vernal Roundup 08

The water on the lens for this group shot pretty much sums up the trip:
From Vernal Roundup 08

The only way to wrap up the kickassiest ride ever is with a sequence shot of Chad headbanging to AC/DC during the drive back from Rojo:
From Vernal Roundup 08
From Vernal Roundup 08
From Vernal Roundup 08
From Vernal Roundup 08

...And you haven't even seen the true highlight of the trip yet. Check in tomorrow for that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a lot of good area to ride. Hopefully I can lay some tread there someday. I have to wonder, did you pull off the "deceptively deep" part? Or did we miss the photo of you in the water swimming?

Aaron said...

If that picture had been taken a second later, you would have seen me on the ground covered in water and mud. So no, I did not pull it off.