Rockhopper cont...

I had a purty good time riding the mtn bike on the maiden greenbelt ride.  So much so, I went out and bought one of my own a couple weeks later - a Specialized Rockhopper.

First real ride on it, Muz and I left his crib and headed to the Barton Springs trailhead entrance.  We rode for about 2 hours.  Lots of fun lemme tell you.

Second ride - I left my place and headed back to the Wildflower Preserve greenbelt (GB) entrance (intersection of Repub of TX and Travis Country).  My primary goal w/ this ride was to explore the diff trails in the immediate area.  I was relatively successful, figured out where several shorter trails led.  But I did not make it down to the Barton Creek bed.  I did however manage to throw myself over the handle-bars of my bike (about 10 ft).  To add insult to injury as I headed home, I hit root at a slow speed, came to an abrupt stop, and fell off to the right side of the bike.  The first fall hurt like hell; the second, was just sorta embarrassing.  Oh well, crashing a mtn bike is just part of the learning process I reckon. 

Third ride, I took off from my place thinking to look for another trail entrance, but after riding for a few min, I decided to head back to the good ole WP trailhead entrance.  No wrecks the first half of the ride and I made down the the creek bed. The WP trail intersected w/ the south bank of Barton Creek, and I could not decide which way to go.  Thought for a min, and I decided to head East. As I was riding next to this...rocky wall (which I presume had been washed out over the years from high waters), I lost control when I hit some rocks.  Before i could hit the brakes all the way, I came to an abrupt stop when my rt shoulder hit part of the rocky wall that jutted out.  I can now confirm that the shoulder does not function well as brake.  Who knew?   I had to get off the bike for about 5 min to walk the aforementioned lil mishap off, cuz I felt nauseous for a few min right after.  Once I gathered my faculties, I decided to head west instead (heh!).  I rode for about 15 more min and then decided to head home.  A decent 2 hour ride, but the last hour really sucked cuz my freaking shoulder was a throbbin.  Once I made it home, I washed up the wound, cleaned up, and treated myself to a good 30 min of ice pack time.  Good times.

I do believe I need to be a little more risk averse on the bike in the future.  Let's see how this plays out...