Rainbow Lake Ride - July 3, 2007

This was our biggest gang yet for a Tuesday ride. There were six of us. There were me, Jenni and Nina. Nina brought her two friends Linda and Lynn (probably spelling her name incorrectly). This ride was a blast and it is hard to remember all the funny and cool things that happened. I will try my usual routine of story-telling and see where that gets me. I'll start with riders and their bikes.
Linda was riding her (I believe it is a Specialized) hybrid with 700c wheels. Lynn was riding an 80's vintage Specialized Rockhopper (I think it was a Rockhopper). These two women rocked. Their bikes were of excellent quality but neither were really appropriate for the rough trail we rode. It didn't matter a bit. They ruled.
Randy is a physicist visiting from Oregon determined to ride as much as humanly possible during his ten days in Idaho. He was rocking his Marin Wolf Ridge. Go Randy go!
Here's the gang at the lake. The weather was fantastic.I must say that this trail was no smooth easy ride. There were very steep sections. There long sections of deep powdery dust. There were plenty of downed trees across the trail. There were rocks and roots and stream crossings. Not to say it was a grueling hell ride, but it was challenging for any novice mountain bike rider. It was also very fun, and there were lovely picture perfect bits of trail like this one:
It was while riding through one of these gorgeous meadows Nina burst into song, ala Julie Andrews and The Sound of Music. "The hills are alive with the sound of music!"
Jenni nearly fell off her bike laughing. Nina rocks.
Randy rode the most powerful steed among us and drove it with impressive abandon. He mounted up and attacked terrain the rest of us hiked. Occasionally he would crash with spectacular impacts audible from great distances. He was definitely the most skilled, experienced and courageous of the group, and I never saw a scratch on him.
Jenni rode with great skill and excellent judgement. Everyone handled themselves very well, except me. I made an idiotic decision that plagued my ride.
I decided to install my brand new clipless pedals on my mountain bike right before the ride. I removed the flats/clipless pedals that had served me very well on the 18 mile Little Ski Hill Loop ride. Turns out the springs on these new pedals are much tighter than on my other pedals.
Even adjusted to the loosest setting, it was hard to click my shoes on, and once on they wouldn't release! So I fell over and scratched my elbow (said some words rather loudly too). I fell over three or four times until my little brain became frightened of my pedals. I rode with nervous feet, scared a cleat would lock down and not release. When you make stupid mistakes and suffer miserably as a result, people will often tell you that it was "a good learning experience". Yeah, I learned alright.
When I find the washer that disappeared when I took off my old pedals, I am putting BACK ON my old pedals. I am going to break in my new pedals on next Tuesdays road ride!