Voodoo Juju

Seron's been back on the bike for a while now, rehab progressing to the point where regular mountain biking trails can be enjoyed once again. He had the week off and we finally meshed our schedules for a late Thursday afternoon ride out at Hawes. It was like the good 'ol days, The Burrito Brothers and Team Voodoo / AES ride again!!

I should have known it was going to be one of those rides, when not even two miles into it my front tire started spewing sealant. Twice I had to stop and get the small hole to seal up. Onward, but where to go today? We decided to do an out-n-back on Twisted Sister / Wild Horse since neither of us had ever done that. We cruised over to the bottom of the Mine trail climb and made quick work up to Twisted Sister. TS is really a fun piece of trail, some climbing, some tech, some good flow and a whole bunch of awesome views.

We crested the high point of TS and as I rounded a corner I heard an all too familiar sound, the constant ting, ting, ting of metal on metal. Crap. I know what that is. A repeat from two weeks earlier, only this time it was my front spring that snapped on my brakes. I didn't replenish my spare parts, so I was down to rear brakes only.

The brake drum is NOT supposed to look like that!!

I completely worn the brakepad through to the metal retainer. Oops.

Time for Plan B, continue the ride, but skip the out-n-back and finish the loop via the pavement. I'm not the most graceful mountain biker with both brakes working, so it was wise to skip a return on a semi-steep downhill with only rear brakes.

We laughed it off and continued onto the Big Rock trail. Seron quickly outpaced me and my conservative approach, but when I caught up to him he asked if I still had a laugh left. Why sure....oh no!!

Rounding a soft sandy corner Seron's rear derailleur hanger snapped and sent it up into his wheel. Somehow no spokes were lost. Time to rig a singlespeed setup. It seems like this has happened before??

A dejected, but not broken rider.

Ok, onto Plan C. Remove the tangled bike bits, shorten the chain, remove the chain guide and start rolling. We opted to stay on Big Rock continuing all the way down past the Wild Horse split onto the pavement near Granite Reef dam. By now the sun had just dipped below the horizon. Why are all my rides ending in darkness lately??

Some random rock arrow pointing to who knows what.

While Seron was getting his hands dirty we joked about some of our recent rides where both Voodoos were present. A trend soon followed. Too much trail Voodoo? He had just returned from New Orleans of all places too!! We recalled our first ride as Team Voodoo, then the Tor de 50, Sedona BFL, McDowell 60, etc.....All I know is this guy can't seem to buy a break lately. Hopefully the mountain biking overlords will grant him abundant trail access for the upcoming month before the next round under the knife. Perhaps the ACL will be a sufficient sacrifice to appease the powers that be. Here's to 2014 being smooth sailing my friend, after the next round of rehab of course.

We ended up back at the cars just as it was getting too dark to see, no lights required!! Hawes adventure complete.