Lebanon Hills

I hit Lebanon Hills for the first time all year on Saturday with Richard. I forgot how much fun that place is. MORC has put in some new sections of trail and some new expert sections, all of which kick ass. The new "Tedman's Curve" is a technical rock garden with a two nice switchbacks thrown in to up the difficulty factor. At first glance the most difficult section seems to be the initial boulders but the real work is in maintaining enough momentum through the switchback to make it up, over and through the next rock section. It definitely builds the skills. We took 2 laps through the expert section with the only casualty being a flat for Richard. We cleaned all the hard stuff, the only time I went down was on the bridge at the beginning of the loop. Not sure how I managed that one.

We headed back for the lot and did another full lap. I must have been feeling a little to cocky after riding so well, as I took a pretty benign corner a little to hot and clipped a tree with my bar. It sent the bar back into my toptube, pinning my shin in between. That was some nice pain. After straightening my bars we rolled on, hitting the expert section for a final time. We were both getting tired at this point, especially the uphill section after the bridges with the big log step-ups, but again we made it through intact.

The exit trail is a blast. Super twisty, bermed turns with a few rocks and short uphills thrown in. I could ride that all day. There's an Evel Knievel sized log pile, about 6 feet tall that I'm convinced is set up at a jump. The approach is pitched so steeply if you hit it with speed it almost throws you into a backflip. Somehow I cleaned it twice, but those were the sketchiest moments of the afternoon. All in all, maybe my best day of riding all year. Easily the best day in terms of sheer fun.