Last Saturday brought a glorious ride on the famed Downieville Downhill. It was my first time there and I didn't really have any preconceived ideas about what to expect. While waiting for the rest of our group to meet us at the trailhead I started to feel a little anxious. Everyone else was strapping on full armor and they were wearing a full helmet instead of the standard mountain biking helmet. It only took a few minutes on the trail to understand why. The trail was rocky and brutal.

Even though I was grossly underprepared (relatively speaking), I had a lot of fun. I took one fairly good spill and a couple of smaller, less significant ones, as well. The wound on my leg is still pretty noticeable and is just now beginning to show bruising around the wound. To me, the trail seemed to be almost like an amusement park ride. There was a lot of scenery that was so spectacular that it almost seemed fake or staged. There were a lot of dangers that seemed strategically placed throughout the trail. The main difference between mt. biking and a theme park ride is, of course, that you always magically turn at the last second to avoid danger on the theme park rides. When riding a bike there is no guarantee that you will not die. All things considered, it was an excellent ride that included a total elevation decrease of over 4000' in about 14 miles.

I took the day off from biking today so that we could go for a little hike. Emilie, Chase and I did a quick little hike up around the Whites Creek area. We hiked from the parking area to the Dry Pond/Mt. Rose Wilderness fork and back. I didn't measure the distance, but would say it's around 3 miles if I had to guess. Chase loved it and I got a good workout.