Pre-riding the Hammer Head Loop

After dinner tonight, my mom, dad, and I decided to get on the bikes and pre-ride the 25 mile course for the Hammer Head endurance race on May 7th, hosted by goneriding.com. Dave (the race promoter) had posted the map for the course on the website earlier and we were eager to check it out. In fact, when we got to the trailhead near our house, we noticed that Dave's truck was in the parking lot (the only one there besides us) and tell-tale signs (literally) of him were all over the trail.

Unfortunately we only got to ride 15 miles of the trail because we got a later start than we hoped and ran out of daylight. Also, I missed the trail in one place where new trail has just been cut, and when I tried to go off-trail and cut back over to the new path, I fell over into a cactus plant or thorn bush and got needles all over my legs. It hurt really bad and my legs were bleeding. My mom had some band-aids in her backpack and that helped a little bit, but it kind of took some of the fun out of the ride.

So just a hint--when you ride the new section of trail, beware of the cactus plants and thorn bushes!

One good thing did happen though. On the way back through the single-track, my dad bet me a dollar that I couldn't beat him to the top of the land-bridge. Well, I faked him out coming out of the woods and onto the rock road, and then I took off and beat him to the top. He said I cheated, but he gave me the dollar anyway.