Lots of hours, but not on the bike.

46 hours in the car with the family. To those of you that have traveled long distances with kids know all too well what that means. It was still a fun trip with stops in Savanah, Fort Lauderdale, St. Cloud, Mt. Dora, and finally Savanah again.
































King of the jungle.































I did manage to squeeze in 8 hours of riding in very pleasant, dry weather. I never made it to Santos, but did ride at Markham Park a couple of times. I raced there in 1996 when the trail was new and I lived in Florida, but the trail is now all grown up and extremely fun. I showed up on a Tuesday night and found about 50 cars in the lot...damn. It never seemed crowded because I was told there are about 19 different trails there now. I rode about 10 minutes then got passed by a couple local fast guys. So being the idiot I am I jumped on. These guys were freakin' fast, they had the trail dialed, and a high level of fitness since they are about mid-season down there. I struggled to keep up on what was surely my hardest effort since last racing season.
These trails demanded complete attention, and any slight mishap would leave you with a gap you don't want to have to close. After about 2 hours of complete beating I had enough for one night. I was absolutely riding the only hardtail bike on the trail that I had seen. The two racer dudes that were ripping my legs off were both on full suspension 29s, which seemed to be to popular set up down there. And yes, I wish I was on a dual suspension too for that place. If you ever make it to south Florida, it's worth the short drive from Fort Lauderdale, you won't be let down.