On Friday, Kelly and I went up to Northstar at Tahoe and rode the lifts up to do the downhill runs. This was a big step for Kelly as she's still a bit timid about mountain biking. We stuck to the long, easy (green) fire road trail - rode it 4 times. Each time she got better and more comfortable riding down. Picking up more speed, letting off the brakes more. She even cleared the sections of gravel and babyheads without issue. She had a really good time and I think that picked her confidence up to get out on the trails some more.
On the last run, I peeled off to do an intermediate single track run. Pretty interesting with the hard tail as there were some wicked sections with rocks, roots, and burms. Not having much travel made it a bumpy ride and I bashed the crap out of my cranks and chain rings. I cleared almost everything - one spill as I came up hill on the single track, with bowling ball sized rocks embedded and a sharp turn. I cleared the front wheel over one of the rocks, but smacked the bottom bracket and basically went straight down into a near face plant. All in all though - it was a blast! Would love to run that again once I get the Blur built out.
We did some rafting down the Truckee river the next day. That was fun, too!
