Highland

see video below: it's not done but I thought I ought to post something. I'm not so sure about the music, but I wanted to incorporate girl talk somehow, so some feedback on that would be good (comment)


okay it may have been a week ago but I was still riding threshold in my head for at least three days...

Highland is far away, like 7 hours if you pass all the grannies in vermont. It's also worth it.

On the way up we split up the drive by stopping at Skidmore for a girl talk concert. I hadn't listened to any girl talk, but someone said dance party. The opener was pretty bad, so we prepped with a quick safety meeting, I felt much more ready for the dance party. Music was good, he never let the beat drop, but skidmore was a strange atmosphere, and they cut the music for a bit because too many people were on stage...any way, fun time.

drove some more, to rutland...

woke up and hauled ass to highland. lots of lift lines sadly, but we paid our dues and got the goods. Riders are Andrew, me, and Hayden. Colin came too but had a sprained ankle from Lehigh...but he got some sweet footy which is going on the blog tomorrow.

there are two races, one on the easier trail eastern hemlock, and one on the crazy trail threshold. we rode on both, threshold is the most fun ever.

Hayden busted a wheel about halfway through the day, but got it repaired in time for a couple of runs at the end. After he got back on the mountain, we decided we should hit a trail called NE style. It's a smooth trail with HUGE berms and great tables and big drops. We were ripping along until suddenly Andrew is running out of the woods telling me to stop and keeps running to get medical assistance. Some dude had crashed on a big wooden g-out...a steep roller.

He was ko'd next to the trail, unnerving raspy breaths, blood...well, details aren't really necessary. I talked to him (he didnt hear...) until med folks arrived. They did a great job prepping him to get out of there, a helicopter was there within 10 minutes. he came to as they strapped him onto the atv.

He went to dartmouth. we heard word of brain swelling and 10 hours of facial reconstruction surgery...but we're all hoping he's okay.

So that was out last run...I think we were all a bit freaked out by the whole thing. it was creepy to see someone so messed up on the side of the trail.

I was starting to have some doubts about racing...threshold is a super gnarly trail...but we put the past behind us, rode the pump track a bit. Grabbed some grub at the local pizza shop, then back to the mountain for some good live music, a campfire, and a good nights sleep in Leo's circus tent.

Sunday: more practice, then racing. I dont remember exactly what the results were, but I remember that Hayden did awesome in Cs on eastern hemlock, Andrew also did pretty well on eastern, I barely missed top ten on threshold, and couldnt keep my chain on on hemlock. My goal recently has been to quit crashing during races, and so far I'm doing well. Speed is increasing as I get my arm strength back and my practice up...no rush.

No crashes, lots of great riding, less lift lines on Sunday. Fun. We got plenty of riding in and called it quits, then hauled back to ithaca. I passed all the grannies, andrew had a hard time keeping up.

Andrew said:
Some corrections:

Bullshit I couldn't keep up. My car just can't pass 3 cars up a hill. Then I drove a little too fast and had a little too much fun on this twisty single lane road for an hour, and had Dave in my sights. Then according to the nav system, we thought we had a shortcut through some town, and were rejoicing when we got onto the highway and no Dave. Then, after 20mins of driving, we see him in the next town and pull up next to him, ready for a race. Then I made promptly made a wrong turn, said fuck it and found gas, then was led astray by the nav system again.

So yeah. My ego is intact.

Also, the pizza we had was really good. Twice.

Racing threshold was absurd, I did not make it down successfully, twice. Highland in general was like the as of yet unplayed next level of a video game.