{"id":531,"date":"2010-04-27T18:08:02","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T02:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=531"},"modified":"2018-09-11T14:20:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T22:20:21","slug":"forgive-me-father-for-i-sinned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mountainbikebill.com\/blog\/?p=531","title":{"rendered":"Forgive Me Father For I Sinned…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill:<\/span> Forgive me father for I have sinned.\u00a0 I has been over 3 months since I last rode my bike on any routine basis.<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 Jesus! <Skies opens, bright light, booming voice…><\/p>\n

Jesus:\u00a0<\/span> What you say?<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 No, No, No, I didn’t mean you.\u00a0 You know, it was the figure of speech thing.<\/p>\n

Jesus:<\/span>\u00a0 Will you please stop doing that crap!\u00a0 How do you expect me to listen up for you if you keep hanking my chain?\u00a0 This ain’t exactly an easy job I got here buddy.\u00a0 Keep it up and I will fire and brimstone your ass into\u00a0the next eternity!<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 Sorry about that, I’ll work on it.<\/p>\n

Jesus:<\/span>\u00a0 Yeah, you do that.\u00a0 <Skies close><\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 Sorry about that my son.\u00a0 So three months off the dirt.\u00a0 What have you been doing?<\/p>\n

Bill:<\/span>\u00a0 Father, I let myself become consumed with my work so between my work and my family the biking fell to the wayside.\u00a0 I got out shape and\u00a0gained more weight than I would care to mention and generally lost some of my passion for riding.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I also\u00a0drank lots of really good beer that I had not justly earned .<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 What exactly do you mean by good beer?\u00a0 Be careful how you answer my son.<\/p>\n

Bill:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0 Oh, lots of Stone, Pacfic Northwest microbrews\u00a0as well as some good east coast brews.<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 East Coast you say, have you ever had any of the stuff\u00a0 from the Victory Brewing Company.<\/p>\n

Bill:<\/span>\u00a0 Oh My God Yes! (flinched while hoping the sky did not open up), Thier Wild Devil Ale is simply amazing!<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 Je……(Stops mid-word, while looking skyward), Man that is some great stuff,\u00a0\u00a0 Hate the name but love the complex flavor.<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 So anyway my son,\u00a0balance is very important in everyone’s life.\u00a0\u00a0 Without balance, things are just not right.\u00a0 Take you for example, even through the fine mesh and dark shadows of this box, I can see you have turned into quite the unbalanced lard ass.<\/p>\n

Bill:<\/span>Jes….<Once again a skyward flinch occurs>, come on father try not to sugar coat it for me.<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 My son, there is many paths that could be followed, but you must go into the San Jacinto Mountains.\u00a0 There you will not only atone for your sins,\u00a0but you\u00a0may refind the passion you have lost.<\/p>\n

Bill:<\/span>\u00a0 I will go my father.<\/p>\n

Father:<\/span>\u00a0 Oh and don’t pass on the Southridge and Snakeskin trails, those are some\u00a0bitchin bits of singletrack!\u00a0 Now get outta here!<\/p>\n

So bright and early on Sunday morning I went out to Idyllwild for a bit of riding with Bill O’Neil.\u00a0 I knew I was going to suck, but there are far worse places to suck at than Idyllwild<\/a>.\u00a0 We did do the semi-slacker thing and left a vechicle down near Hurkey Creek and then drove up into Idyllwild to start the day with a run down the South Ridge Trail.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There was still some snow up top which was quite a treat.\u00a0 Just enough to look pretty.\u00a0\u00a0 Right out the gate I knew this was going to be a pretty cool day as the conditions were as good as I have ever seen it here.\u00a0 Just the right amount of moisture in the trail to create that magical balance of traction and speed.\u00a0\u00a0 Good Stuff.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We did not drop much elevation before the snow patches were gone and we were left with the sweet flowy goodness that I have long loved in this area.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Oh yeah I did suck.\u00a0 I was huffing and puffing on all but the slightest of climbs.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The springtime action is in full effect in many places around here.\u00a0 After tooling around in the May Valley area when took the Missing Link trail down towards the race course.\u00a0\u00a0 After Missing Link we decided that it we needed some more May Valley action so we took the most direct way back up into the area.\u00a0\u00a0 We climbed\u00a0Exfoliator.\u00a0\u00a0Now I have\u00a0descended\u00a0this trail dozens of time and it is an absolute blast…going down.\u00a0\u00a0 Climbing this trail is a much different\u00a0story.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I\u00a0was pretty freaking disgusted with what a wussy I had become during my layoff.\u00a0\u00a0One more climb up the fireroad and I would be return to turn mostly downhill back to Hurkey Creek.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Shortly after the climb we ran into some of the natives who were up for showing off some of the bits have not gotten on yet.\u00a0\u00a0 I am always amazed at the high quality trails that “grow” out here.\u00a0\u00a0We were not disappointed but the additional singletrack goodness left me\u00a0completely cooked and fighting off the early warning signs of cramps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When it was time to head for the beer cooler, Exfoliator was indeed more more fun in the proper direction.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The last hill to climb to get up to the top of “Rage in the Sage” proved to me my own little hell as I was cramping badly at this point and was lagging behind the other pretty bad.\u00a0\u00a0 After that it was all downhill gravy and it was soon time to enjoy some properly earned brews.\u00a0\u00a0 My legs hurt but I feel that fire in my belly again for mountain biking.\u00a0\u00a0 Time to go get back in shape.<\/p>\n

More Stuff Like This<\/h3><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Elfin Forest Videos<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t A Week of Meadows, Lakes and Peaks<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Whistle Lake Goodness<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
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<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Black Mountain Shakedown Ride<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n<\/div>