> I just felt like throwing something out into
> the abyss that is know as the rinkworks forum.
> Does any of you like to bike? Regularly? Share a
> tale, would ya?
>

O.K. I will.

A few years ago, I went on a bike hike with four friends (at least they were friends at the end of the hike).
The hike was organised by a girl who was attempting to get her Queen's Scout Award. She had no prior experience on a bike and accordingly the hike was set to only cover about 40 km (25 m) per day over four days.

What she didn't count on was the fact that we had to cross two mountain ranges.

The first came almost immediately, and the other four of us who were quite familiar with bikes steamed ahead, waiting at every flat section, leaving just as she arrived. Towards the end of the day, I was feeling that this was a little mean so I stayed with her most of the time from then on.

The second day was fairly uneventful, but the third day...

It rained. Not really heavy, but heavy enough that my glasses were useless, and without them I was almost blind: street signs could not be read at further than ten metres.
The worst part was that that was the day that we had to do the second mountain range, on dirt roads, with corrugations.

The three other guys were in favour of calling their parents and calling the whole thing off but the organiser of the hike couldn't. This was her last chance and without this hike, she would fail. I sided with her and convinced the others to continue up the range.

On the way down the other side of the range, my brakes, covered in mud and starting to wear thin, were almost useless. By holding them on to their maximum extent, I was able to keep my speed steady at 30 km/h (20 mph) but there was a "T" intersection coming up and no way to avoid it.
I was faced with two options: jump off the bike, a certainly painful experience or stay on and risk a car coming the other way as I took the corner.

I took the corner, cutting across it like I was Mick Doohan (except on a push bike). It was the scariest thing I have done in my life.

We got through but we were wet and so was most of our gear. My airbed had protected most of my clothing but everything on the outside was covered in mud.

We camped under cover and rode home the next day. It was sunny and we dried out well (a little too well for the chocolate I had in the top of my bag) but we had definitely enjoyed our time, even with the adverse weather.


> I remember that there was not one ride that
> I didn't finish before the rest. Well, those were
> fun times.

I didn't finish first, but then, I think we would have got in trouble if we had all straggled in at different times, the goal being to promote teamwork. None-the-less, we did have fun.

I had to ride home after that too.

lada(missing the good ol' days when a four day hike was funded by his parents)dada