dressed up alligators

so i took the mud bike out. i didn't know how bad the trails would be so i hit the paved path for about 12 miles and then turned into the mesa. the usual entrance mud. i've seen it muddier. wow. way better in here than i ever would have imagined.
got to the lake bypass and huh? no mud. YES. rode down to racoon alley. okay, muddy. but i would expect this, i mean it's essentially a creek bed. the entrance climb to the mesa off of raccoon alley was pretty slick. it's root filled and kid of steep. i ended up walking it. i was far from being discouraged. not even close. rode over his bridge no problem.



and came across this:



the chainsaws will have to come out for this bad boy.

i was amazed at the conditions of the trails. the trails were fine. the roots, rocks and logs were slick as all get out.

i did a log slide on this one and ended up crotching the toptube.



i didn't do one of the bridges. it comes off of a little downhill with a funky turn and has rocks in front of it. i was weary. and rightly so. i put my front tire on it to roll up to get to the other side and it slid out. the off cambr section after that bridge was pretty slick. it has a lot of little finger roots too so i walked it. but really i never had to walk again until this rooty climb.
there were only two super wet spots. by 420 and the usual water runoff spot on the outer leg. but that's muddy even when it's dusty.



it's steeper than it looks. i rode down it fine, but climbing out, it was super slick.

my bike and me. yep- that's it. some mud ride. i would have killed for this look after this past saturday.