The last time I was at Raccoon it was foggy and I could barely see a hundred yards. This time it was a beautiful day.
Hirsch. Chastain in the background. I'd never met him before. Cool guy.
We all stuck together until we got to the Small Intestine. The fast guys took off there and I hung back with my dad.
We stopped at a north-facing overlook for a while.
Chattanooga has some unique geography.
My brother's bike felt awkward. Lots of little differences. The bars are a little further forward, the bottom bracket is a little closer to the ground, the tires are looser, but the most painful difference was the seat. He rides an SLR. Apparently it fits him, but it does not fit me. I spent most of the day standing.
The trails at Raccoon are great. Poster-boys.
And they never get boring.
My dad's been riding in Dallas for a while now, and he's apparently forgotten how to ride on rocks :) He sketched a few times, and finally went down on the Laurel Branch trail.
Mark broke one of his eggbeaters. Since my pedals were on John's bike, his SPD's were available. My dad had recently bought new shoes and cleats and his old ones were in his toolbox. Mark's cleat bolts were stripped though, so they did some crazy thing like take an eggbeater off Chastain's bike, put it on Mark's, put the SPD on Chastain's bike and put the SPD cleat on his shoe. Or something like that. Complicated. But it saved their ride. What are the odds of something like that working out?
We all arrived back at the trailhead at almost the same time. My brother was wearing a blue jersey that I didn't recognize, even though I'd seen him in it earlier. It was odd.
Post-ride we ate at Sugar's Ribs. They have goats. They also have really good sausage and cornbread. I played Free Bird on the jukebox. I will eat there again.
Then I came home and watched LSU lose to Old Miss. An unbelievable loss. One for the record books.
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