Forgetting Something?

After our super-fun trip to DuPont last weekend, Ray and I were keen to get back to the promised land on Saturday. We hooked up with Brian and my buddy JJ and headed north for some fat tire fun. We got a late start, so we were greeted by sunshine and warm temperatures at the Reasonover Parking Lot. We made good time out of Greenville, even though we didn’t use Brandon’s dirt road short cut.

We all pumped up, suited up and started to discuss our route for the adventure. Most of us were ready to go when we heard Ray utter the dreaded, “oh no!” When you hear a fellow cyclist speak those words, you immediately go through a laundry list of things in your head that you think they forgot. Sure enough, Ray had forgotten his helmet. We quickly decided that it was not smart for him to ride without it. If it was a road ride, maybe, but an MTB ride with rocks and trees and slippery surfaces…not so much. I must say, he took it pretty well. I would have been jumping up and down, punching at the air and using every nasty word I learned from my high school football coach. Ray was one class act while facing a lonely, solo drive back to town.

Just as we were putting Brian’s stuff in my car so Ray could go back to Greenville and play with one of his other 2-wheel toys, we noticed a couple guys unloading a bunch of kids from a truck. The light bulb went off. Ray asked if they had an extra skid lid he could buy, rent or borrow. They had one! Not only did they have one, but they had one that matched his kit perfectly! It wouldn’t have mattered what it looked like, because Ray was determined to tuck his locks up under that hard hat and head out with us. They gave him some redneck instructions to put it in the bed of an old pickup truck parked by the back porch at Mother’s restaurant…and don’t pet the dog or something like that. We were stoked…but more importantly, we were riding.

We knew it was going to be an awesome day after the helmet gods smiled on us. We set off on our four hour tour hitting every cool trail we could think of. We rode lots of stuff we love and found some new stuff we could learn to love with a little more practice. I won’t bore you with all the crazy details of jumping off this or bombing down that or carving around here or climbing up there. Let’s just say it was AWESOME!

I would like to propose that all of us join the Friends of DuPont Forest to help support the trail system up there. They do an amazing job of maintaining the trails. Whether you ride bikes, horses or like to walk in the woods, DuPont is an amazing asset to everyone. And, if you’re interested in scoring a sweet new purple helmet for the upcoming season, check out these options from Bell, Giro and Specialized. Or take your chances with the mutt guarding grandpa’s truck out behind Mother’s restaurant in Cedar Mtn.