Trail Rider Magazine

Crisis Averted Romaniacs is always trying to take from you; your focus, your energy, your will to press on. It distracts you with stunning scenery, aacks you subtly and consistently throughout the day or in an all out assault via uphill, downhill or gnarly terrain. I crashed along some ridicu- lously easy trails by being distracted by the scenery around me. It also rewards you in equal parts with some of the best riding in the world and by a feeling of true ac- complishment as you ride something you never thought you would. Aer descending through the stunning alpine terrain, the trail dropped into the woods for some more fantasc sin- gle track. Looking ahead about 40 yards, I could tell that the trail dropped off and angled towards the right. What I didn't pick up on was how sharply it would transion into an off-camber corner. Aer about 30 miles of riding, I was sll in aack mode and going a lile too fast. Coming into the corner, I saw my fate almost immediately. I tried to scrub as much sped as I could, but it wasn't enough as I lost tracon and slid off the side of the trail, the bike rolling over unl it got hung up on a lile bedrock out- crop, which was a minor miracle. Regard- less, I knew I was completely screwed as eight feet of slick, 50-degree slope sepa- rated me from the trail. Ordinarily if you slide off the edge of a trail and down a slope, the preferred method for geng yourself out is to e a wheel to a nearby upslope tree, li the opposite wheel above it, e it off to something to prevent it from sliding back down and repeat. Here, there was nothing to e off to, just that 50 degree slope of damp grass. As fruitless as I thought it would be, I tried pushing, pulling and tugging it to the top. It was pointless. Eventually I realized that about 15 feet to the side of me the slope was less steep. It was also buried under a large pile of small trees that had been cleared to make the trails. If I could clear the downed trees and get the Husqvarna onto the gentler slope, I could eventually pull the bike to the top. It surely beat ming-out here (kind of like houring-out back home). All I needed to do was clear 30 or so 5-inch diameter trees—so I got to work while all those riders that I worked so hard pass went by me. Several of them fell above me but none joined me in the abyss. Some- mes slower is beer. 20 minutes later I had the slope cleared but at the cost of a lot of precious energy. And then Karma paid me back for yesterday's goodwill. Nate (I regret not geng his last name because I would have put him on the cover), a GasGas rider from Spain, saw my plight and said, in a thick accent: "Today, I will give you some me back." Nate parked his bike and helped me get the Husqvarna on the gentler slope and then back onto the trail, saving me a least a half hour. I thanked him pro- fusely. I then pulled along the side of the trail and rested for a few minutes, draining my camelback. Fortunately, I was close to where the TCP support crew was waing. When I got started again it was back in to the woods for some loamy single track that dropped steeply from the top of a mountain to the base, a two or three mile steady descent with a few areas that required some bulldogging. Regardless, it was so rewarding and a true accomplish- ment when I safely reached the base of the mountain and September/October 2014 11 Romaniacs

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