oh what a feeling....

Nearing the top of Blanchard,
still some snow to contend with.
Had a couple of those this past weekend. Again the pilgrimage to Bellingham for the Sunday excursion. Brett and I left early, Craig could not make it. The group would be small again. Small groups tend to cover more ground with less stops. The route started with a trip across town and towards the top of Galbraith, on down the backside we went. Soon we had a bit of road to contend with, but not before rolling by some young hucksters who had this to say to Brett in unison as if they had planned it "sweet Beard dude" in that drawn out I just smoked a bowl drawl. I was immediately reminded of The Big Lebowski, and "the dude" except for the rest of the ride we referred to Brett as " the beard". The beard abides. I guess you had to be there. The plan included heading out to Blanchard and one of the greatest descents around. This would include a few hike a bikes and a little snow. Lets just say it was a very slick day. Around the front of Blanchard and back out to our nemesis, we revisited the " sick joke" climb from last week. I must say that my legs were feeling a bit more there, this week than last. At the danger of waxing and waining poetically, Some days you fight the bike and don't really feel connected and other days it is just you are one with the bike. This was more one of the days where I was connected with my bike. We waited at the top for a bit to catch our breath and then headed out the same as last week. This is where I get that feeling, all day I had been complaining about and wondering if something of the bike was cracked, it just felt not as stiff as usual. Well to make a long story short we are at the bottom of a double track descent through the trees when Kevin looks at my fork and claims the ride to be over due to a large crack in the crown of my Pace fork. We slowly take the fire road to the bottom and pedal our way across town. Turns out I was a few centimeters away from a face plant. thanks Kevin, the hush hush trail might have put the finishing touches on the fork and added a bit of a hospital bill to my day. Instead we had a 40 mile ride with just a touch over 6 grand in climbing. It was a good day. We are set to step it up again this week. We are starting to show signs of fitness.
" the beard" abides

a bit of blow down of the way up

Bad picture of a bad crack, everything has a life span.
just glad we found it before it was too late
back to the steel matching fork for now