Andy Gapin

A smart person would realize that if everything was covered in snow and then it all melted in the span of a day, there would be a lot of water and mud everywhere. A smarter person would realize that it would be a terrible idea to go mountain biking the day after all of the snow melted…especially after having this all confirmed simply by going outside for ten seconds.

I am not that smart.

I thought it would be a great idea to go for a ride today since it was in the 60s out. It was the muddiest thing I’ve ever done…at least since the age of like 12. It was basically like a free one of those mud bath things that they have at spas.It was an interesting ride though. I’ve never had less control over a bike than I did today. I’ve also never ridden a bike sideways before, but I did a whole lot of that today. There was absolutely no grip anywhere and some of the climbs were impossible with the tires we had on our bikes. It was like riding a stationary bike at times. The back wheel was flying, but I was literally going no where. By the time we got back to the cars I was carrying around at least twenty pounds worth of mud. During the last little bit before the car, I couldn’t actually clip my shoes into my pedals because there was too much mud there and my tires wouldn’t even spin freely anymore. Flat runs felt like we were going uphill.

It was fun as hell though. And oddly, the only time that I really felt in control of my bike was the biggest, fastest downhill of the entire park. Of course, I did get a whole lot of mud in my mouth on the way down, but it was awesome enough for us to contemplate climbing (let’s be honest, walking) back up to do it again.

Anyway, check out the aftermath in the pictures. The ones of me were taken after I wiped off a bit too.