He who hesitates is lost.

On august 18th some friends and I headed up to Deer Valley to ride the lifts and ride the mountain. It turned out to be the worst bike trip, nay the worst trip I have ever had.
I will leave out the minutia and focus only on the big disappointments.

We left St. George at 4:30 on friday afternoon and after a multitude of stops, some necessary, some completely useless we arrived at the condo in Park City at 11:15pm. The condo was nice, I ended up with a double bed all to myself. I think the other guys know by now that I am a primadonna about my sleep and were being kind. Over the years I have realized that I need two things to ensure my happiness and overall well being.
1.) Earplugs. Never leave home without them. Some of the "dudes" that I ride with like the TV a little to much. A couple of years ago I had to ask them to turn it off at 2 am. Maybe I am the stick in the mud.
2.) Tylenol PM. Just in case the earplugs aren't enough. I also don't sleep well in strange beds, which is good for Sarah.

I awoke on saturday morning to rain. Lots of rain. The lifts don't open until 10 so we decided to go get breakfast and see if it cleared up. We went to Squatters cafe, I have been there in the past and it was good. This time however was a different story, all six of us were extremely disappointed with out meals. I guess Squatters only knows how to do dinner.
The rain never let up so we decided to go down to Salt Lake and try out a new freeride area on I street in the avenues.

Here is Duane, the birthday boy showing how real men do it.



Me riding Johnson's bike.






And finally the shot that ended all the fun.


In this shot I am going way to slow. He who hesitates is lost. Right below my front tire you can see an area that has been dug out, I failed to clear that area with my rear tire and nearly came to a complete and abrupt stop. My chest pounded into the handlebars knocking the wind out of me and I proceded to fall/plummet down the rest of the decline and wad up at the bottom like a rag doll.

The worst of my numerous nagging injuries is the right knee. It was reconstructed back in 02' and has never really been the same. Two of my compatriots had to nearly carry me back to the truck. I hate hurting myself when I do something stupid.

So, writing this nearly a week later my mt bikes are hung up, my left wrist will be another 2 weeks in healing and my knee still hurts in a very special way.
I don't believe there is any permanent damage and oddly enough it stops hurting when I ride my road bike.
I have no plans at this point to ride dirt any time soon but I added another 100 mile roadie to my list of things to do.

Please no comments about how a 36 year old guy should be more careful or maybe your to old, etc. etc. etc. Sarah has already said it all.