Got up early this morning to ride in Simi with Carlos and Steph. We pull up to the park at the bottom where we leave a vehicle for shuttling the downhill trails and no more than 15 feet away was a vulture ripping apart a poor little bunny rabbit. Seeing how Easter wasn't long ago, I couldn't help but think that the unrecognizable mess of fur and gore was our one and only beloved Easter bunny. But on that note, I guess I'm surprised we had egg hunts this year at all.
Rewind a few weeks... I was working on the pump track doing a bunch of digging and maintenance (dirt therapy) when Steph and I look over and see Mika chomping down on some sort of creature. My first thought was ground squirrel since she's always digging around for them, but as we walked closer we realized she was in the process of eating a baby bunny that she had dug out of it's nest. She had finished it before we could get over there and before we knew it, she went back into the nest she pulled out ANOTHER bunny. Mind you, we're not talking tiny baby bunnies; they were at least four inches long. She must have seen the looks of horror and amazement on our faces and known that we were going to try to take the thing away from her, so she squeezed it hard enough for it to make that high pitched squeak noise (if you've ever heard a baby rabbit clenched in the teeth of a dog, you know the sound I'm talking about... not pleasant or easily erased from memory) and preceded to swallow the furry little guy WHOLE. I can't complain too much because for one thing, there's no shortage of rabbits in this part of the world and two, I really didn't have to feed her much the next couple of days, so she actually saved me some money. As Carlos always says..."It's a recession, son! I gotta pay my bills somehow!!!" Anyway, like I mentioned before, this happened about 3 weeks ago and we didn't notice any fur in her excrement until just days ago. Poor thing's been digesting cottontail for almost a MONTH!
So back to the vulture... I snapped this photo of Carlos leaning out the window taking a picture of one ugly ass bird gettin' his grub on...
Just as I was about to switch over to video, Carlos JUMPED out of the truck yelling I'm gunna catch it! and started chasing the damn vulture. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Watching him chase it around with his arms flailing and chest out... that's why we keep him around!
I'm pretty sure you're supposed to rub a rabbit's foot for good luck, not eat one that had escaped the clutches of the scavenger's claws and razor sharp beak. The vulture reminds me of the Disney movie "Jungle Book" when the three vultures are chillin' on the dead tree. "Whatcha wanna do? I dunno, what YOU wanna do? Doh ohoh (laugh). I dunno. So whatcha wanna do?... I just found that clip on youtube...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGTWmrnPdgk
Turns out my memory's pretty good! I haven't seen that movie in probably 15 years.
Moving on... it's about a 15 minute hike from the top of the shuttle drop off to the DH trails and we spent nearly the entire time talking about riding through poison oak and how it's possible for it to spread so easily. Of course Carlos holds nothing back and tells us how he showered right after a ride and spread the poison oak ALL over his body. Legs, arms, crack, and yes...balls. Steph went on a trail ride earlier in the week and about 2 days later she was covered in the telltale rash and bumps and uncontrollable itching. Armpits, scalp, legs, thighs, and yes... Well, I won't go any further into detail. I've been lucky so far this spring riding the bike trails in Southern California and have only gotten a few small spots on my legs, but even that is enough to actually wake you up from your sleep because it itches so bad. I'm sure my time will come soon enough.
Carlos found this cave and we convinced him to ride down and out of it. Some hikers actually stopped to take video for youtube. Luckily the photo came out pretty good because the descent was pretty weak... Sorry, Carlos. We still love you!
We decided to ride Hummingbird, which we hadn't done on our downhill bikes in years. It was a great warmup run, especially since I was still holding back a bit due to a pretty hard body slam over the bars about a week before on a stepup jump on g-spot. We dropped in shortly after I avoided the Rattlesnakes as I relieved myself and I played a clip of "Three Best Friends" from the movie, The Hangover. I charged down the trail and it turned into a highspeed chase between Carlos and me. It felt so great to let go of the brakes, grab all bars, and charge as hard as you can over rocks and around tight berms and corners. Got to the bottom after playing around on a few drops and had just enough time to reset the shuttle and do another lap on Animal trail. As always, it's super fun and SKETCHY! It's got some great sections that you can't think about. Just hold on and hope for the best.
Steph and Carlos took off for work and Mike's wedding, and I headed back to the house to watch a mindless movie while Tom climbed his "sweet 16" in the backyard. I still feel bad about the time he jumped down from at least halfway up and when he landed he got that awful warm squish through his toes. Mika...why don't you pick up after yourself?! On the other hand I don't feel TOO bad because it was midnight and he was a few beers deep, so that helps makeit a little more hilarious.
I then worked on my bike for countless hours in the garage. Got the bike pretty dialed for the ultra-pedally Sea Otter race, which is next weekend. Changed out the front tire to a 2.5 Maxxis dhf supertacky (ghetto tubeless) and the back to a 2.35 Kenda semi-slick (xc tube). Made some new bumpers for my fork out of my new best friend, rubber splicing tape. Packed the bearings with grease, dialed in the drivetrain and then moved on to Steph's trainwreck of a bike. Poor thing needs more love than anyone can give it at this point, but I did my best to keep it rolling (attempted to true her dented wheels. attempted being a key word...). If only it were possible for mechanics to make millions...that'd be my next pursuit.
Somehow it's 1:30am and I've got my alarm set for 6:30am to meet the crew for the regular Sunday Suicide ride. I can only hope they've got the cooler ready for afterwards. They haven't failed me yet...
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