I woke up early (for the weekend) in anticipation of a day at Raccoon Mountain. This has got to be my favorite place to ride this far. Tommy and Moran had ridden yesterday and were already up there waiting on me. I got there about 11:00 eastern time and we hit the trails. It was a little chilly at first, but I quickly warmed up.
Moran kept trying to tell me about a jump that he wanted me to do, and when we finally came to it, I saw what he was talking about. It was a small drop so I decided to be the guinea pig and try it out. This was still early in the ride and I swore I was going to jump off of some things today, but I decided to start off easy. I rode off of it a few times and then jumped a couple more. Tommy decided to hit it also. It was a nice start to a long day of playing.
We continued around and came to a jump in the trail. Everyone had their chance to hit it and we all were jumping pretty well. I was really surprised how much comfortable I had become with leaving the ground. A couple of months ago, I was scared to death to jump anything and now I am just trying to keep up with Tommy. Next we came to the balance log. It is a little higher than 
the ones at Oak Mountain, but the transitions on and off are so gentle, it is much easier to ride (also that it is about a foot wide). We circled around an hit Lower Chunky (this is considered as difficult, but is just a little more technical with some short steep descents and climbs. The trail also is on the edge of a decent drop, so there is a 
danger factor if you fall asleep and ride off the trail. We found a rock to ride down and then found a jump right below it. This was my first chance to fly or fail. I spent a little time scoping out the landing area as well as my line across the rock. The landing had a good transition, so even if I was going slow and dropped my front tire I probably would have been ok. After a few deep breaths I headed for it. I was just going to ride off of it the first time and it felt incredible to land smoothly. After doing it once, I must have jumped off of it about 6 or 7 times getting more comfortable each time. I finally had my fill and we rode on.
There is some new trail that is not on the map yet, and I led Tommy and Brian around this and showed them some nice rock riding. It was decently technical with climbs up and down from rocks. I love this part and feel like I really accomplish something when I negotiate it correctly. Moran said it reminded him of Moab, and he has about talked me into a bike trip there for my bachelor party. I rode down a large rock 
(for some reason they didn’t want to do it) as well as finding another jump. This is a nice drop where the trail just drops about 4 feet. I swore I was going to ride it this time as I was too scared to do it last time. After a few more deep breaths I headed toward it and just went. It felt great and the bike was definitely performing wonderfully. I climbed back up and did it 3 or 4 times before we headed on.
I feel I have to mention this as this is my first wreck. I was hopping a tree and some of the transition on the other side had moved away. When I came down my front tire was against the smaller log and I had to jump over the handlebars. The bike just fell over to the side, but I had to take a moment to mourn the loss of my unwrecked bike.
I could tell Moran was getting tired and Tommy was hungry, so we headed up to the overlook and stopped for a little while to rest and to get something to eat. They decided they were going to skip the last few sections of the trail but the next part was not to be missed. The direction we were going it was a long fast singletrack that was mostly downhill. It had lots of little humps in the trail that could be jumped. The trail flowed extremely well and we could carry a lot of speed. I had forgotten about this, but really enjoyed this part.After this they cut out on the road and said they would wait for me at the car. I told them not to, as I didn’t know how long it would take me to finish. I continued on and came to a section labeled ONE WAY, do not enter. I thought that was odd, so I kept going and a short way I saw another sign as the entrance. Well I headed my
happy self down the trail to check it out. There was a small drop, so I assumed that was what this was about. I kept going expecting a few more drops and soon saw a sign reading “Caution, Jump ahead”. I saw some people down the trail so I asked how high it was. They said it is not high, just long. They told me to just come on down but get some speed. I was a little confused, so I went down to check it out. I can’t believe they told me to just go. They were not going to do it, but I think they wanted to see someone try. It ended up being a gap jump across a small creek. I am not ready for this yet, and it really looked like the take off ramp was not high enough. I decided I would save that for next time and headed on around. Next the same guys were ahead again and told me there was a 3-4 foot drop ahead. I rode up to the edge and decided I would do it. They said they hated the sound of breaking bones and headed off.
Here is where I really made my mistake. Every other jump, I had been checking the landing area and walking my line to make sure I knew exactly where to leave from and what angle I should go. I never even walked to edge to look over before jumping. I headed for it and jumped off. Right before I hit it I noticed there were some rocks to the left. I tried to correct and when I landed I went right and caught the edge of my handlebar on a small (1”) tree. I tried to recover, but hooked it with my thigh and my bike and ended up falling over the tree. All I got was a bruised ego and some small scratches on my thigh, but wrecking my bike again was the worst part. I certainly learned my lesson to look before I leap (that was a poor joke).
I finished up by riding up Megawatt. This part of the trail finished me off. I could tell I should have carried food with me as I had ridden about 5 hours by this point. I also ran out of water about 3 hours ago. I was in granny gear but was determined not to be beaten. I had to put a foot down a couple of times on the rocky climb, but swore I was going to ride it. The last section up to the visitor center is pretty steep and I grannied my way up it. I had a huge smile on my face as I got back to the car from such a great ride. It turned out that they had waited on me and I let them download the pictures I took while I packed up so they could look at them. I even ate at Krystal with them because that is where they wanted to stop. I have not eaten at a Krystal since college (about 10 years ago).The worst part was the drive home, but I am already looking forward to our next trip.
All my pictures are Here: http://picasaweb.google.com/grundcm/RaccoonMtn2_10_2008
Hopefully I can get a copy of Brian's also and will add them
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