The Quadfecta!

Ninja says, "Happy Memorial Day!"

Cannonsburg State Game Area, Cannonsburg Ski Hill, Luton, and Merrell trail. Four great trails around the Grand Rapids area, all of which offer something a little different to the rider. Completing all four in one day has been dubbed the Quadfecta. I've never ridden more than 2 trails consecutively before and when I heard some friends were planning on riding the Quad on Memorial Day.... Of course I jumped right in!

Danielle and I met our friend Evan at Riverside park at 7:15am in Grand Rapids on our bikes and started pedaling towards the State Game Area. It was a little chilly Monday morning, so I was wearing arm warmers and knee warmers... which quickly got me overheated! I don't know what I was thinking when I popped them on in the morning-- I must have forgotten I was going to be pedaling on my bike or something!

Steve Bartzen joined our group at the first trail and we jumped right in to riding! The State Game Area is my favorite local trail hands down. There are some logs, some drops, it flows and you can get going pretty fast, and there's some roots and rocks to climb over. I always feel like I come out a better rider when I ride this trail. We were finished with the State Game Area before I knew it and we were off to the Ski Hill!

The Ski Hill is alternatively my least favorite trail in Grand Rapids. I'm really glad we hit up this trail second in the quadfecta instead of last, because I don't think I could have mustered up the energy to ride up some of the climbs! The Ski Hill has some long climbs, and now that there's a new section, it's got some really bumpy and sandy spots. I heard Danielle yell ahead of me something about sand, and was able to shout back to her, "What sand?" just before hitting a sandy turn that made my bike stop underneath me. I went down. The Ski Hill is actually a really great trail, and the reason it's my least favorite is because it just makes me work so hard. I really do need to ride this course more often.

I was feeling pretty beat up after the early morning and these first two trails. We finished the Ski Hill just in time before I bonked, and I was able to inhale some shot bloks before we started riding out to Luton. Cruising on pavement after climbing single track seriously feels like you're going 100 x's faster than you were previously going! It was nice to have a little break between each trail to get my heart rate back to normal!

The fun part about Luton is that you can roll through a lot of the trail like a roller coaster. I really like riding my single speed at Luton because your momentum carries you through a lot of the trail and you can just sit back and enjoy the ride. I did have to keep reminding myself that I wasn't on my single speed so that I would pedal through the corners instead of just coasting through with a silly grin on my face! Danielle yelled something out to me while riding and I couldn't tell if she said "PEDAL!" or "METAL!", but whatever it was, I took that as a cue and started pedaling!!

The ride from Luton to Merrell was pretty much uphill the entire way. There were more cars out on the road now with mountain bikes on their racks, and it was cool that people were waving at us. I love our little mountain biking community here in west Michigan! When we rolled up to Merrell we ran in to Brian Buysse, one of the new mechanics out in Ada. He had just taken the shop's Cannondale F29 demo out for a couple laps and was getting ready to head back home. We tipped him off that we'd be at the Rockford Brewing Company in about an hour and hoped that we'd see him there!

The crew after Merrell. This kiddo was so cool he had to be in the photo!

Merrell rules. It seriously rules. The fact that I can say this after riding since 7am means that this trail really rules! This is another fun trail on the single speed, but today I was really happy that I not only had gears, but that I had a suspension fork and was on a carbon fiber bike. I'm not used to feeling so good after so much single track. I seriously could not stop laughing while riding Merrell. I don't know if I was just really happy that we were nearly done and on our way to some beer, or if I was bonking in a really weird way. At the top of one of the hills, you can choose to go down two different ways to connect back up less than a mile down the trail. We chatted for a minute up at the top about which way we should go when Danielle shouted, "Girls down Siren, boys down Phaser! One, two, three: GO!" And we were off and racing! I don't think I've ever ridden Siren as fast a I did just then. I was pedaling my brains out and we were both shrieking and laughing the entire way down! In case you were wondering, we won!

The ride to the Rockford Brewery was all downhill and I was so excited to sit down and to claim my reward! Brian was there waiting for us and we ran in to a bunch of friends who had ridden the White Pine Trail to Rockford from GR. Like I said before, I love our cycling community here!

The babe locking up her bike outside in the Twin Six jersey wound up being Jenny Scott!

The ride home down the WPT was intense. I was seriously so giddy from riding my first quadfecta, and having a few ciders from the brewery probably didn't help. I know I say this a lot... but I could not stop laughing!!! The whole day was hilarious and I just can't put in to words how funny it all was! From being made fun of by some teenagers, to Danielle getting fishing line caught in her cassette, it was a riot the entire way home. By the end of the day, I had gotten a little over 65 miles in on my mountain bike. Can all training rides please be this much fun??!

Fishing line in the cassette?! Where did that come from!?

What a good Memorial Day! I'm so appreciative to have riding buddies like Danielle, Evan, and Steve! They're all a million times faster and more skilled than me, and it's great to get to ride with them! If I would have tackled the trails by myself I would not have pushed myself so hard. Thanks for waiting for me, friends!

Sunday Funday.

Other bonuses of the Memorial Day weekend? I went to a bonfire with a surprise keg of KBS, B and I took our kayaks out on the Rogue River, Ninja helped us get the garden at B's mom's house ready, and my best friend got my face tattooed on her butt. I think I honestly had the best weekend ever!

What, you thought I was going to post a picture of Emily's butt on my blog? :)