Shred the Red

   

 .....Well that's what the t-shirt said at the local bike shop anyway. This past Memorial Day weekend the family and I headed north to Cuyuna country to ride the sweet trails just out of Crosby and Ironton. We were joined by CJ, one of Super Y's friends, and his dad Chaz.

walking up some of the larger hills 

  The weather was iffy and called for a chance of rain all weekend. The rain held off on Saturday and Sunday and afforded us a weekend of prime trail riding. Saturday we didn't arrive until mid afternoon but still got in a couple hours of riding in the Yawkey Unit. My boys  headed straight for Bobsled and proceeded to run multiple laps as fast as they could.

Crash at high speed, they still don't know how to use the front brake

He made it with out help 

  We didn't ride there at all last year but they sure remembered the fast, swooping, banked turns of that run. Lynn and I did mange to pry them from Bobsled long enough to show them Grizzly, Skip, and Timber Shaft. I was amazed and frightened at times at how well they were able to rip those trails. It was great to actually go for a real ride with them. None of them are as fast as their old man, yet, but it won't be long before G Man is going to have to wait for me.Later that evening it was the usual campfire, pigging out and game playing in the campground.

  The next morning started a little on the cool side so we waited for it to warm up before heading out on the trails en masse. We left Portsmouth Campground to ride the bulk of the trails in the Mahnomen Unit. We stayed mostly on the lower trails along the lakes to make it a little easier on the youngsters. After a couple hours of riding snacking and stopping to collect rocks and sticks G Man and I broke off from the group. He was getting tired of riding slow, or riding ahead and waiting, so he and I moved to the more difficult trails where we could spread our wings a bit and fly. Fly we did, we blasted down Sand Hog, Screamer and Chute before tearing through Sidewinder on our way back to camp. I was a dream come true to see my boy haulin' ass down a MTB trail.

2 liter bottle half filled with water  on top of a piece of PVC and compressed air ......Rocket 

all sugared-up

  After our ride I headed back out onto the trail with Chaz to burn off any unused energy and just get some more riding on the fantastic trails. Sunday evening, after dinner and s'mores the rain finally came, forcing us into the tent for an early night's sleep (9:30pm). Monday was cold and cloudy, no one was in a mood to ride so we packed up and drove home.  So concludes another great weekend with awesome kids, wife and friends... hope to do it again soon.

The Gang