Some details from Day 5…
On my way home from four incredible days of riding in South Lake Tahoe, I made plans to stop by Grass Valley to visit my cousin and her family.
But first, I needed to sample some of the singletrack along the way! Found something interesting on the Trailforks app, just off Highway 20, near Harmony Ridge, so decided to give it a go.
After ten miles of dusty beginner-ish trails, stumbled across something awesome in the woods late that afternoon — a hand-built pathway named “Hoot Trail” with over 30 tabletop jumps and nearly as many berm turns descending gently over 1.3 miles through lime-green forest with whispering pines. Pedaled up it to get it figured out, then turned around in giddy anticipation after reaching the summit. First few turns and jumps started out well, then I lost any chance of getting into flow state due to my over-obsession with some failed technology, in this case the GoPro Karma Grip gimbal.
Fortunately or unfortunately, I captured the entire sordid ordeal and put it into this video:
First thing to notice is that the trail I expected to be awesome — Zipper — turned out to be a “total snoozer,” as DT would put it, due to the off-camber turns on the 20 or so switchbacks. Had to scrub all speed to make it through them without sliding out, which killed any chance of getting into the flow zone…
Cut to the Hoot Trail scene, and make sure to listen for the many times I had to substitute the word “freakin”‘ in the edit room for the f-bombs I was dropping anytime the gimbal would screw up again…
Needless to say, I had let technology detract from, instead of enhance, the experience — kind of a double-edged sword for all our high-tech toys…
Oh well, the day overall ended up a net positive NeuroAdventure on the Dopamine Scale, since I had such a great time visiting my cousin and her husband and kids (and their cool pupper Drake, not Duke…)
And there’s always tomorrow for another chance to find the flow!
NeuroAdventures 