Tacky to Nasty

Heywood arrived home after a long 48 hours at work, eager to hit the trails for a few hours. The weather forecast called for a possibility of rain but if one were to look out the window you could not tell. Clear skies, crisp cool air, and the smell fall. What a glorious day it appeared to be! So Wood lubed the chain, filled the Camelbak, pumped the tires up to 42 lbs and started riding to the trailhead.

The terrain conditions started out superb. Kinda tacky from the rain Auburn received a few days prior. Heywood was able to take most turns at a pace much faster than normal. The tough technical descent, no problem. The climb along the Confluence Trail which usually requires a dab or two, aced it. So far this ride was flawless in the eyes of Woods. While approaching the top of the climb, a few small drops started to fall from the heavens but he was able to make it to the top and hit the first few double jumps before the cats and dogs came out to play.

Someone with a Doppler radar decided it would be funny to put a red colored storm cell right over the trail Heywood Jablome was riding. The trail started getting real sloppy and mud was flying all over the place. When looking down, Wood realized he had the wrong tires on. The WTB 2.55 LT is great in the hardpack but gum up pretty darn fast when things get swampy. Not the tire of choice in wet conditions. With this tire in the front, traction was very hard to come by. While attempting to ride up an off camber rock with a drop off the side when whamo! The front wheel slid off the rock and down the little drop. Wood broke his fall with his ass/hip area and came sliding to a stop. When he looked down he noticed to things:
His new Smarty SL Crank Brothers pedal had snapped.
Wood’s shin appeared to have a grapefruit mounted on it.

This disappointed Wood to no end. Shouldn’t pedals be able to take more than one big crash before breaking into a thousand pieces? Second, why was there a large fruit on his leg?

Wood managed to limp his way to the Chef’s house where Mrs. Chef gave him some counseling that will probably do no good. The Chef eased Wood’s pain with milk and cookies and things are all good.