I have put off posting about Ray's Indoor MTB for the past couple days because i have been trying to put on some weight for when we are stranded inside the dorms from the Snowmageddon 2011. But all was lost because it is now over and it wasn't nearly as bad as some were saying. Although it was enough to cancel all my classes until 11am today and one more class at 1 has been cancelled so i only have one class! Nice!
Now to the drive down there on Friday night. We (me and my dad) ended up going up there with about five other gentlemen. So we packed our bikes in a U-Haul and stuck it behind a buddies F-350. And went on our way in a rented minivan (which, by the way, are crazy machines). With so many interesting characters it kept the ride from having any dull moments. We arrived at our hotel about midnight and went straight to bed because we planned on arriving at Ray's as soon as they would let us in.
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| The Journey Begins... |
So now we are at Ray's. In a few words, it was friggin' awesome.We started out riding the XC Loop, which is about 3/10ths of a mile long. And even though it was short, it had quite a bit crammed in. From a pump track to steep descents and inclines to a few skills things scattered about. After a few laps it really got your blood flowing. Now on to the Skills Section. You could really tell they spent some time designing these areas. There was a Beginner, Advanced, and Expert. None of which, even the Beginner, were even slightly boring. And the only place i really crashed hard was on the Beginner... um yaaaaaaa. So not too proud of that but it happened. To my defense i wasn't riding my own bike. I had just let my dad try mine out so i was stuck with his squishy 26er. So i thought to myself, "How bout i try out the full suspension out on the rocky section by going as fast as humanly possible". Well as soon as i hit the rocks i also hit the only big rock that wasn't set down in the concrete. Now i saw it a spit second before i hit it and slammed on my brakes. Between the suspension compressing, my weight being shifted forward, and hitting the large loose rock, i went over the handle bars (don't tell my dad). It seemed to happen in slow-mo. But it hurt right away. I protected my body with my hands and only seemed to slightly bump my ribs. But my hands.... ouch. They are bruised and i have been unable to grab anything in the past few days. Although the really important thing is that my dads nice expensive bike was uninjured. Thank goodness!.
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| Her Inaugural Ride |
Ok enough about my injuries. Back to the Skills Section. So as you can tell everything there is fun (except for falling) and the expert section is just as ballin'. This was after my whole episode of falling so i really didn't spend a whole lot of time over there because it is usually a good thing to be able to hold onto the handlebars without pain. I did spend enough time to see that some parts of it were challenging but others were quite easy just intimidating. Oh and i saw one of they guys who we went with tearing it up over there. But enough about his accomplishments, my hands hurt...
So that is about the lowdown on the place. You should go. Now. Especially because it is likely a tornado of snow outside right now where ever you live in the Midwest. And if you are lucky someone from Milwaukee is with you to show you all the great places to eat (and order baked oatmeal!). Oh and did i mention Heather Irmiger was there?
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| Got to ride a lap behind her ;) |
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