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MY FIRST EPIC RIDE

By Tripat Sandhu
1:45 am, night after the ride.

It’s kind of funny how the whole thing happened, actually. I had dropped by the store on the way to work on Saturday evening to pick up some new gear when JF casually drops my first Epic invite. I am on my way to a midnight shift so I naturally say “Sure, if you’ll hang around for half an hour so I can get here after work.” I wasn’t entirely serious, but JF said sure, they’ll wait…

So , 8 am rolls around, I get to the store after my night shift wondering if I’ve possibly made a mistake, but I am too tired to work it all out, so I just hopped in the truck. On the ride this day are JF, Gavin, Tenzing, Rodney, Paul and myself. It’s a beautiful day, especially this early in the season, already pushing 20 degrees by the time we get to Ingolf at 10 am, on the way to which I believe JF jumped the truck. Twice. With bikes, dogs and people aboard. Ingolf is beautiful, and rocky. Very rocky. I ride an XC hardtail, the only hardtail on this ride actually. This is not what I was expecting, although I have to admit, I was intrigued in my sleep deprived state of lack of self-preservation as to whether or not I could get my fork to bottom out more than 5 times, more on this later.

I should mention that I had gotten my bike 3 weeks prior to this and only been on one WNR, with a ten year hiatus since my last ride. Next thing I know I’m looking at a two foot drop, which when you’re still trying to get the hang of your first pair of spuds is pretty intimidating, especially when you have accident prone tendencies like myself. I dismounted and watched a couple of the guys negotiate the drop, and the next one, all the while observing Gavin’s very complete analysis and demonstration of technique.

Throughout the day this was the name of the game, anything that came up that was going to get technical or just plain hard was predicted and a suggestion made as to how to deal with the situation by whoever was nearby. I have to remind everybody that by this time I’d managed to get a solid 2 hours of sleep in naps since the previous afternoon when I got up for work, so I was paying particularly close attention to the advice given, even though it may not have seemed like it at the time. I think this may have worked to my advantage though, as I was too delirious to say no when someone would tell me to go ride something I would consider impassable after explaining how they’d do it. Eventually after my chin made friends with a couple large puddles and their associated mud, I got over my fear of endos, they really don’t feel as bad as they look, in case you were wondering, so I just started taking the drops, this is where the ride started getting really fun for me. About three hours into the ride things really started coming together, the puddles weren’t getting me every single time, I was finally being able to unclip before bailing and everything was taking on a weird shimmering surreal quality in the beautiful rugged environment with it’s rocks, lichen, moss and warm temperatures. Speeds climbed drops got bigger and my butt was getting a little sore. Watching JF and Rod just plow over anything under a foot in elevation on their monster Ellsworth’s really entertaining, especially when I tried to follow their line. A hardtail will really make you learn technique though, no forgiveness, so in the end I’m glad I don’t have a squishy bike. As the drops got bigger and the mantra ‘momentum is your friend’ got ingrained in my head, I started getting a little more, um, brave. My XC fork started bottoming out, just a soft bump on the stops though, I’m pretty light. I think I got my 80mm fork to bottom at least 8 times, this without an endo or impalement of any kind.

I couldn’t have imagined a better first Epic experience. The constant helpful instruction and demonstrations from the guys, the balmy temps and the setting made for a perfect outing. At the end of the ride I was a riding things I didn’t expect to be able to ride for at least couple more weeks on my own. I also managed to make it back home in time to get cleaned up and go back to work for another night shift, which is where I am carefully crafting this masterful account of the days adventures.