White Devils, Poop and Squirrels

Richmond today was a BLAST! The weather was ideal riding weather (partly sunny, mid-50's) and the trails were in fantastic shape. I love when it has rained just more than 24 hours prior to a ride. The slop is usually dried up by that point and the traction is perfect. Met up with DJ and his friends D and A. We did the whole shebang at the James River State Park. This has to be one of the best city located rides in the nation; it was featured in Dirt Rag maybe a couple years ago. It is both a good work out with some short, but lung-burning climbs and plenty of technical trail features or "TTF's" as the hipsters say (the PC way of referring to stunts or obstacles that could cause bodily harm). I stopped and snapped this nice shot of DJ blazing down one of the many TTF's to be found.

The first thing I noticed upon getting out my camera in parking lot was this boxcar perched above on the trestle with this prophetic graffiti. Each item was represented during the ride. Talk amongst yourselves if you think there is any deeper meanings here. Not likely, but you make the call.

The fact that this trail system is in the middle of the city to me is badazz. It just goes to show whats possible when a group that many might think are miscreants, kids, or both get together and make something like this happen. The local chapter of MORE http://www.richmond-more.org/home/ works on this and other trails in the region all the time. They are seriously dedicated to keeping mountain biking on the map. This a dream for me to have a user group like this in southeast Hampton Roads. We have the EVMA, but their focus is across the bay in Hampton Williamsburg and Newport News. Granted we have very little in elevation down here, but that never stopped anyone especially those groups in Florida. I will keep commuting up across the bay to those places and RVa for now. Phew, I am beat.