NK Ride Report

61.9 Miles of asphalt, pavement, dirt, sand, loose gravel... you name it, that's what my man Karlos (The Naked Indian) cooked up and threw my way this past Saturday, and I loved every minute of it.

First, I gotta send a shout-out to Karlos for hosting this event. It's not often that we come across a person such as NI who is gracious enough to organize a ride like this; free of charge! Beyond this, in an effort to ensure that each participant had the opportunity to "rest up" (and party a bit) after a long hard ride, the man opened up his home to old friends and new friends alike. Although you wouldn't know it buy speaking with Karlos, or by reading his blog, it was apparent that a great deal of time and effort went into planning and bringing this thing to life. I haven't known Karlos very long, but I consider myself a good judge of character, and its clear to me that the Naked Indian is not one to complain. "Thank you for being such a gracious host my man!"

Although the actual start time for the ride wasn't until after 9:00 a.m., for me the journey began at 5:00 a.m., as I awoke early to make final preparations for the long drive over to Deltona. Shortly after 6:00 a.m. my man Ryan (Tread29) arrived at my place, and we hit the highway; we arrived at the rendezvous point with a few minutes to spare before the riders meeting at 8:30 a.m.

The ride began at a more brisk pace than I had originally expected. Ryan and I had planned to set an easy 10 m.p.h. pace and to not follow the lead group; however, it didn't take long for us to realize that the group had other ideas for the ride pace, and so, in an effort to not spend the entire day trying to find our way back to the starting point, we abandoned our original plan and did our best to stay with the group.

The first 8 miles or so were a bit... misleading, as they were plotted mostly along asphalt roads and concrete sidewalks. I specifically remember thinking to myself, "Man, I can do this shizit all day!" well, that nonsense faded away as soon as we hit the first off-road sandy section of the ride. It was as if I had blinked and two (2) riders had fallen off the back. A new friend, Jonathon (FACTORe) had been off the saddle for a while as the result of a nasty crash (with multiple injuries), and the sandy somewhat uphill section had taken it's toll on him. The other rider was Morrison (Treadlight) who made the decision to drop back and ride alongside his friend to the end; and he did!

15 miles in (or so) and I was feeling great. My ass had just settled into that "sweet" spot in the saddle and I was still with the pack and riding strong. I should mention that one of my favorite parts of this event was riding alongside and conversing with a few like-minded riders; individuals I've come to admire. And what can I say about riding with the Harvster; what a cool guy! If memory serves me correctly, at this point we were back on asphalt and trying our best to negotiate an intersection currently under construction, whilst trying to avoid traffic. "Big Ups" to my amigo Marcel (SandPine) for taking it upon himself to get the middle group organized, and for offering up sound advice, "try to resist the urge to go fast, there's a lot of ride left." Once we cleared the intersection the group re-formed and soon Karlos rode by me and said, "Luis, this is a good time to eat, we're about to hit a tuff section that will surprise a few people." Man am I glad he reminded me to eat because the next challenge was a sandy uphill section which served up a hot plate of pain; my legs went from feeling good to fatigue almost immediately. I dug deep, though, and kept a quick cadence. Before I knew it the pain was over, and I had made it through, but I had fallen further back than I felt comfortable with... or so I thought.

That deep sand section had owned me for a while there, and as a result my spirit had been somewhat broken, as I feared that I'd been dropped and that it was not likely I would not ride with the pack again. But wait... just as I hit a dirt road section of the ride, I saw the group (way) up ahead. My legs had recovered a bit, so right then and there I made a decision to drop my own personal hammer and to make every attempt to reel-in a few of those lead riders; my efforts paid-off. By the end of that dirt road I had caught up with the front again. A right-hand turn followed by a short section of single track later, and we were alongside a railroad track where it quickly became clear that we would soon be pedaling through boulder-sized often loose gravel. Just before following the group along the railroad track I turned to look for Ryan, but he wasn't there. Apparently, I had become so self-absorbed in my effort to catch the pack that I had dropped my riding buddy. So, I told Karlos and Marcel that I was going to wait for Ryan and then work with him to catch up again. Ryan was not very far behind, as I caught sight of him at the end of that dirt road sooner than I had expected. I waived him down, and by the time I turned back to look down the railroad the pack was out of sight... damn!

That blessed section of railroad seemed to go on forever; too long, in fact! Soon Ryan and I decided that we must have missed a marker somewhere, and failed to turn off the loose gravel. Continuing along the railroad just did not seem like a viable option, so after looking around for a better path, we decided to cross a dry ditch and climb over a high embankment so as to reach a nice paved section of trail running through some sort of park. A machete would have come in handy as there was some super-dense brush and vines growing between the embankment and the pavement. It took us a few minutes, but we finally pushed our way through this jungle. Once we hit the bike path we set a fast pace and set out to catch up. Fortunately, the group had stopped just ahead for a non-planned sag, and so we were reunited with the pack again. Nice!

Once again we hit the trail as a full group, and this time through a nice twisty single track before reaching another section of asphalt which would lead us to the planned lunch sag destination. Somewhere along Orange Camp road several of us missed a marker (again). This little mistake added (approximately) 7 - 8 miles to my ride. So, we make a U-turn and head back to the intersection we had blown through; finally, we reached the lunch sag. Angelina's turned out to be a cool little place with a good atmosphere and some really cool people. I took full advantage of the sag; drank a mandatory brewski, rested my legs, and refilled my water bottle and camel back. Soon we were back on the road.

With nearly 1/2 the distance to cover remaining, we set out as a group again and stayed that way until Mike and Rob put the hammer down and road out of site; no one would see them again until the end of the ride. The rest of the ride took us through some really cool back country roads, and also some leg-punishing sandy dirt roads. Through it all I was able to maintain a good pace and also avoid cramping. I won't lie, I was TIRED, and the last few miles took all I had left to complete. Thanks to Marcel, I was able to overcome the (mental and physical) fatigue, as he sat back and road in the last few miles with me.

The NK was both great experience and a real challenge for me. This was my first 55+ mile ride, and it gave me a great opportunity to experiment with many things I will need to fine tune if I am ever to achieve any success in endurance mountain biking events. It was a real pleasure to ride with so many cool people, and I look forward to mixing it up with these guys in the future.