Rowdy Saturday

I am not sure how but my wife agreed to give me the morning on Saturday til noon. My friend Chris had asked me to ride National with him, and not just the normal bit of national, all of it. So with 40 miles under my legs this week but feeling good, I was not going to have my YT since it's in the shop getting the Sram Guide levers replaced. It seems rams third party internal parts distributor goofed and screwed a lot of peoples brakes. I grabbed the Trek and was fully aware the abuse the bike was going to take on this ride. Rigid and SS is just not something you see on the trails other than Desert Classic. But with that said, I can pretty much ride anything on that bike and was welcoming the challenge as long as I could do it without breaking the bike. It was a smooth ride up the road to Mormon and onwards along National. I was not missing my YT at all, I actually cleaned everything on national as I do on my full suspension except the first ridge. It was clean all the way to Buena Vista and to the towers we went. With a nice breeze and the sun just hitting us it was a mellow moving and quite a nice morning. Passing the towers and then a sweet descent to Telegraph Pass. It was nice to have the company up there for sure, it's been a long while since we rode last. We hiked a bike up the hill and then it was up and down wonderfully open pristine ridge top single track. Time was closing in fast and the plan was to Ride National to Bursera, but my time window was closing in. We talked it over and I shared with him that we could drop one of the red trails down the mountain and that we weren't missing anything by riding more of national. Luckily he agreed and we had three options, all red and going down the mountain fiercely. We opted for Lost Ranch Ruin and rolled the dice. it started of as barely a trail and didn't change much from there, it dropped a steep winding section and then around a corner into the abyss. The trail was just barely a goat trail at timed hugging the loose mountain side. I maintained control of the bike almost completely but this was probably the most gnar thing I have ever ridden. I stopped a few times to assess the trail and make sure Chris was alright. Sure enough he was right there and we hit the valley floor and I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief. Now safe trail ahead of us it was onto Pyramid and then a little pavement and Desert Classic. It appeared we were both feeling great and we charged the trail hard as the worst was over and it was one fun pedal fest to the finish line. It was at this point I was tremendously happy with my fitness, I had plenty in the tank after a brutal 3k ft climbing and 3 hours of heavy riding. I feel crazy for saying it, but I wish it wasn't over. That was absolutely amazing! Put an absolute beating on the Trek, wonder how much abuse it can take, but so far so good.