I finally took Noah to Snowshoe! After doing really well racing Massanutten (regaining his confidence after a 1.5 year hiatus) and my saving enough money to go ($300 for a weekend trip is a lot of money when your wife is still out of work), we finally made the trip.
We arrived on Friday night, after a stop at the Pioneer Days carnival in Marlinton where we came face to face with the W. VA redneck stereotypes. We set up camp, watched Life Cycles and then crashed. I woke up with the sun, as I tend to do when sleeping in a hammock that faces me toward the sky, packed up camp, freshened up, and then drove down the mountain for a delicious breakfast at subway.
Back at the parking lot, we suited up in our body armor and checked our bikes over before heading to the trailhead. We wanted some flow for our warm-up run so we took the first black diamond trail (turns off of cupcake..don?t remember the name) to Judi-Chop to the flow section (Ninja Bob >Missing Link>Power Line). Noah kept up just fine, even through the rough stuff at the top. He was hooting and hollering all the way down the flow trails and had a perma-grin on his face when we got to the bottom.
The rest of the day Saturday consisted of too many runs to count down just about every trail on the mountain. We rode Pro-DH, OG, Quick Draw, Lower Hairball (stupid scary when it was somewhat slick on Saturday from Friday?s rain), and a bunch of runs down the flow trails. The boy was riding so fast and smooth..it was a delight to follow behind him and, after a few runs, I wasn?t having to brake to keep from running into him. Noah had a few minor spills here and there but nothing more than just sliding out in the mud. He did take a nasty spill at the bottom of quick draw and had to bail into a creek where his hands broke his fall. He complained of a sore wrist but rode through it without much complaint. We also played on the Basin side for a bit and, while hitting the drops at the top near the lift, noah was approached by some tween girls who asked him to hit the drop for them. He styled the big drop and came back up. They asked if he ever gets hurt and he said?verbatim, ?well, sometimes. I crashed earlier and hurt my butt?.but don?t worry, it?s still cute.? I nearly fell out from laughing so hard! That?s my boy!
A nice dinner followed by a ninja camping spot led us to Sunday morning. We suited up in our armor again, a bit slower than on Saturday as we were rather stiff and sore, and headed off to the trail. We rode all morning but around lunch time noah took a NASTY spill coming into a tall/steep chute. I haven?t seen him crash that hard ever?but, after a minute or two of diagnostics, he said he wasn?t seriously hurt, just sore and a little apprehensive. We finished that run and he sat out for a while. In the meantime, I made due on my goal to hit the trail gap near the top. Drew Barringer coached me through it and then took some vid of my first attempts. I cased the crap out of it on my first run but hit it butter-smooth on my second. I did a fast run with some friends and came back to noah. We did one last run so I could get some pics and videos. I wanted to get more footage but I didn?t have access to a gopro this time and we were both so spent that just sessioning some spots for footage was getting scary.
The ride home was filled with talks about the trails, the spills, the tween girls, how proud I am of him, and how badly we want to go back. I had such an amazing, no, epic time with my son and I know that he had a blast as well.
ok..enough typing. here are some pics and a vid i slapped together of the minimal footage we got.
heading back up for another run
tired and sore sunday morning
finally hitting the trail gap
noah was working on his "tweak" off of every jump
steep berm on missing link
booting a nice little kicker at the bottom of power line
happy kid
'twas a good day
awesome trip!
We arrived on Friday night, after a stop at the Pioneer Days carnival in Marlinton where we came face to face with the W. VA redneck stereotypes. We set up camp, watched Life Cycles and then crashed. I woke up with the sun, as I tend to do when sleeping in a hammock that faces me toward the sky, packed up camp, freshened up, and then drove down the mountain for a delicious breakfast at subway.
Back at the parking lot, we suited up in our body armor and checked our bikes over before heading to the trailhead. We wanted some flow for our warm-up run so we took the first black diamond trail (turns off of cupcake..don?t remember the name) to Judi-Chop to the flow section (Ninja Bob >Missing Link>Power Line). Noah kept up just fine, even through the rough stuff at the top. He was hooting and hollering all the way down the flow trails and had a perma-grin on his face when we got to the bottom.
The rest of the day Saturday consisted of too many runs to count down just about every trail on the mountain. We rode Pro-DH, OG, Quick Draw, Lower Hairball (stupid scary when it was somewhat slick on Saturday from Friday?s rain), and a bunch of runs down the flow trails. The boy was riding so fast and smooth..it was a delight to follow behind him and, after a few runs, I wasn?t having to brake to keep from running into him. Noah had a few minor spills here and there but nothing more than just sliding out in the mud. He did take a nasty spill at the bottom of quick draw and had to bail into a creek where his hands broke his fall. He complained of a sore wrist but rode through it without much complaint. We also played on the Basin side for a bit and, while hitting the drops at the top near the lift, noah was approached by some tween girls who asked him to hit the drop for them. He styled the big drop and came back up. They asked if he ever gets hurt and he said?verbatim, ?well, sometimes. I crashed earlier and hurt my butt?.but don?t worry, it?s still cute.? I nearly fell out from laughing so hard! That?s my boy!
A nice dinner followed by a ninja camping spot led us to Sunday morning. We suited up in our armor again, a bit slower than on Saturday as we were rather stiff and sore, and headed off to the trail. We rode all morning but around lunch time noah took a NASTY spill coming into a tall/steep chute. I haven?t seen him crash that hard ever?but, after a minute or two of diagnostics, he said he wasn?t seriously hurt, just sore and a little apprehensive. We finished that run and he sat out for a while. In the meantime, I made due on my goal to hit the trail gap near the top. Drew Barringer coached me through it and then took some vid of my first attempts. I cased the crap out of it on my first run but hit it butter-smooth on my second. I did a fast run with some friends and came back to noah. We did one last run so I could get some pics and videos. I wanted to get more footage but I didn?t have access to a gopro this time and we were both so spent that just sessioning some spots for footage was getting scary.
The ride home was filled with talks about the trails, the spills, the tween girls, how proud I am of him, and how badly we want to go back. I had such an amazing, no, epic time with my son and I know that he had a blast as well.
ok..enough typing. here are some pics and a vid i slapped together of the minimal footage we got.
heading back up for another run
tired and sore sunday morning
finally hitting the trail gap
noah was working on his "tweak" off of every jump
steep berm on missing link
booting a nice little kicker at the bottom of power line
happy kid
'twas a good day
awesome trip!
