8 wrecks, two sheep dogs, and a mud pit

Well we were out of eggs this morning so we suffered through with just oatmeal and fresh fruit for it. I got the bikes cleaned up and lubed, the truck loaded and off we went to the Little South Fork, the same ride Howie and I did as a “recovery ride” on Monday. The boys and I pacelined up the first 5 miles on the pavement, we probably weren’t going fast enough for it to make a big difference but every little bit helps. The boys even each took a turn pulling. Speaking of pace lines, David was drafting off me back to the truck yesterday and like a Tour sprinter took off past me with about 50 yards left and beat me to the truck, the little punk, lol. Anyways, the three of us waited in the shade for the old guys, perfect weather, high 70’s, low humidity, and just a few white clouds in the sky to keep things interesting. A couple more miles up the next gravel road and we regrouped for the final assault on the summit. Another hour later and we were at the top. Where there were just a few horses on Monday, the place was littered with sheep. And a couple of guard sheep dogs. It kind of made sense now, we saw a cowboy heading down the road with a horse and three boarder collies, he must have brought them up earlier. Unfortunately I think the dogs only understood Spanish and somehow asking them where the bathroom was or asking them nicely for a beer was not gonna help, as those are about the only two phrases I know in Spanish. These dogs seemed satisfied that we were not gonna hurt their sheep so we were able to get by without issue. Across the top of the mountain and to the downhill trailhead. David headed down first with me trying to keep up with him, videoing. We saw some kind of deer or antelope bounding across the meadow in front of us at about the same place howie and I saw the elk on Monday. Thankfully all the cattle that were there on Monday were gone so we were able to really fly through the meadows. We started heading down along the river, again I was having a heck of a time keeping up with David. I barely had him in sight as we where going through the section where a fire had gone through a number of years ago. I finally gave up and waited for then next guy to come through to film which happened to be Paul. He was riding like a champ right up until he didn’t quite make a corner and I caught him on film going down, no major damage luckily.
The next classic moment witnessed on camera was David going through a mud puddle that didn’t look too deep, right up until his front hub was about buried in it and he was going over the front of the bike. It was a nice soft slow speed landing, so again no damage done but man did I laugh. I agreed to split any money from funniest home video with him, it was that good. The next issue was more sheep, or should I say more sheep dogs guarding their flock. These dogs were much less happy to see us than the ones at the top of the mountain, one actually took a nip at the back of Alex’s seat. We got through that gauntlet and on to the last section of trail including that killer couple hundred feet climb at the end. A couple more minor spills not caught on tape and we were back at the Beast and headed back to camp.
Howie was having some minor issues with his outdoor modular cooking unit, we were not able to get much of a flame when all three burners were on but eventually the chicken got cooked and it was quite tasty along with more of his famous potatoes. Alex continues to amaze me with how much he can eat, he started with one of two left over burgers from a couple nights ago, then a breast and half of chicken, then a third one, incredible