The Saturday Ride 10/4

It is a cool northern breeze, shorter days, incredible sunsets and brilliant colors starting to fall. It is pumpkin patches, college football, the smell of the grill and tons of porch time. It is the same coffee you always drink in the morning but for some reason it tastes better with chill in the air. It is arm warmers, knee warmers, DeFeet gloves and shoe covers.  It is your jersey pockets filling up as the sun gets higher in the sky. It is one of the sweetest times to be outside. It is October.

We headed up north for some MTB action. With the first cold snap I always get the urge to be in the woods more. A great group showed up to tackle Slaughter Pen and Blowing Springs. I have never done Blowing Springs before. Needless to say I was grinning ear to ear most of the ride. I appreciated seeing some new faces in the bunch and catching up with some old faces as well. The Bentonville MTB scene has it going on.

The meet up spot 21c Museum Hotel.

Dropping into the Pen.

A big thanks to Jake N for putting us on a great route.

The bike path connects all the phases.

Slaughter Pen has a bunch of these features.

The occasional mechanical.

Jake N still looks asleep.

Regroup. Time to shed.

This run was sick. I don't even remember the name.

Bike path over to Bella Vista. 

Tunnels & stuff.

Then back to trail riding along this bluff.

Some pretty technical ups and downs.

Feeling 13 again.

Narrow at points.

Ozarkia.

Kudos to Bob N. for throwing himself into a challenging route. 

A great group of mixed levels but easy going guys.

Too much fun.

I've been hearing about Blowing Springs forever. It lived up to the hype.

Good times in good company.

Random (photo credit Jake N.). We noticed an older lady falling at the Bentonville square. At first she looked bad off. My good buddy Ian H a RN jumped in to save the day. But also notice Superman with the assist. It was like he came out of nowhere. "Faster than a speeding bullet..."