|   Florida ride report (& Disney vacation!) | radair
Feb 13, 2002 9:07 AM | | First off, mucho thanks to MTBIrv for being tour guide and setting me up with a bike for the day. The bike had the same cockpit/controls as my own, so it was a great fit, although I was instantly reminded that it was a hardtail and not my Heckler. While I expected riding in Florida to be flat and sandy, the Razorback MTB Park (near Ocala) was anything but. In fact, I was quite amazed at the steepness of many of the drops they send people down - there must be some serious carnage on a bad day. I wouldn't take my kids riding there anytime soon.
Cynthia's many photos of the day are here, while I only got one of her :^( dropping down a very steep hill. My lame excuse: I was going to take more shots on lap 2. Really!
The riding was quite amazing, as most of the park is located in/adjacent to a lime rock quarry and the trailbuilders made maximum use of the topography. Although there are no really long climbs, there is very little flat riding - a constant up and down, with some really steep drops. And there aren't just a few of them - each 10-mile (according to the odometer) lap had 30 or more eye-opening, butt-behind-the-seat drops. There were also some fantastic high speed bermed turns and twisty singletrack. The soils had a high clay content, and with some recent rain were slick as snot, which made some of the climbs and descents quite interesting. Still great fun.
I did a solo second lap and came back to meet Pisgahboy and Denise, who were holding down the ground at the parking lot. Pisgahboy (Andy) should be a stand-up comedian - he had more one-liners in a half hour than I've come up with in my lifetime. Unfortunately I had to pass up the post-ride meal and comedy hour, as I had another 3 hour tour back to Vero.
I survived the Disney epic which followed. We actually had a blast on the Aerosmith rockin' roller coaster and the Tower of Terror at MGM: G-force rides not to be missed. A final shot of the family (I put my best maniacal Jack Nicolson face on and tried Jive's recommended uppercut, but the bodyguards threw me out) at the Magic Kingdom. |
| So that's what that drop looks like. | MtbIrv
Feb 13, 2002 10:15 AM | | It's certainly steeper than it looks and with no run out, it took me a LONG time to get the nerve up to ride it. Now, it's easy. ;-)
Glad you were able to come ride and I'm very pleased that you had fun. I wish it had been a little less slick that day... I woulda done another lap with ya. |
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