My First Gambrill/Shed Ride

I recently went on my very first adventure at Gambrill State Park with Vince, Chris, and Darren. The drive up was interesting. It was completely fogged in which made me really excited. To me, it just brought back memories of living in the mountains so I knew this mountain biking adventure would be more of the real deal.  While following Vince to the parking area I saw a human outline walking alone the side of the road in the mist. As I passed, I saw it was a Monk. No joke, he had robes and everything. I even verified with Vince to make sure I was just not seeing things. 

Our fearless leader, Darren, in the mystic fog

The ride was a blast. Darren was our fearless leader and led us on a great route. Darren also apparently led himself on a epic journey but that was after I bailed to meet up with friends. I was not really sure what to expect. I have heard these trails are very technical. I tend to build stuff up in my head so I was somewhat expecting to completely get my butt kicked. It was very rocky and there were some nice technical climbs and rocky descents which were just great fun. Challenging but not demoralizing. I have a feeling I have not been on the demoralizing trails yet.  I felt like a pinball going down a lot of it. I'm definitely rusty but that kind of stuff is not very forgiving so it makes you get back on the ball fast. A lot of the time I just laughed my butt off at myself. I had a nice hanging endo which thankfully didn't end up as it could have. I also got cracked up because I have forgotten the sounds of mountain biking. What are the sounds of mountain biking? Well, yeah you have brakes squealing and chains rattling and things like that. However, I'm talking about the sounds you hear when you ride last of the people ahead of you in technical rock gardens. It's often something like, "AHHH #$%!" or a tire slipping out on a log or a rock making a BRRAAA noise, or AHHH, and then KAPOW (I'm bringin' out the Batman words) as you crash into forest. I made a lot of noises myself. But it was just seriously funny because most of the time I heard it ahead of me as I was coming into it so I was like, "oh great this might the big one". I was complemented for having no major wrecks but that's just cause these guys have not seen me in action long enough. The thing is, is that I don't crash often, but when I do it's quite spectacular (or I have at least impressed my company that have witnessed them). I don't think I'll disappoint in the future.  

 I'm all about Gambrill. I love the fact that there seems to be some good technical trails that you can get to that does not involve insane climbing (like Pisgah).  I  haven't gotten to ride with a group of mountain bikers in ages. I thank Vince, Darren, and Chris for taking it easy on me and letting me join for such a fun adventure. I can't wait to go again!