Douthat Finally, Part 1

Finally after 2 previous years of trying to make this event I finally made it this year. And it was a blast. But really for me Douthat started Thursday as I left work for the WF Night ride. Got out moderately early and put a 6 mile warmup in, then intending for a pretty mellow group ride we laid down at 12 mile casual ride. OOps. Unfortunately we had a rider on the un-sanctioned fast group go down with a compound fractured arm in the early part of the Boy Scout trail in Accotink. He's doing well now but will be off the bike for 3 months.

I bailed from WF Early to go home and prep food/gear for an early'ish departure to meet my ride to Douthat in Man-ass-ass. I got my potluck dish ready and hit the sack a bit late around midnight. Woke up at 7:15 ate some breakfast purchased a few final items, packed the cooler, loaded the car and headed to meet about 15 minutes late. We ended up leaving Manassas at a bit past 9:30 and we rolled solidly arriving just over 3 hours later in Douthat State Park. Hit the campground setup the tents and as we were putting our sleeping bags in El Jefe rolled up. We helped him setup and by 3 we were bored and decided to hit a quick ride even though it was stoopid hot (93'ish). So we climbed up out of the campground up to the trail head for mountain top/mountain side. After a quick discussion we hit mountain side! A bit in and I mishit a gullied turn and fell back/down a gully. Suck. Got back on and caught up with Dave and Jason who were waiting and wondering where I was. We finally crest mountain side and have a nice view. Off we go to brush hollow. Descend a bit then blam! Flat on the rear. Ugh. I change the tire and right as I get the new tube in and start to pump the guys ride back up.

And Mr.Murphy shows up - My new spare tube apparently has a pin hole leak to start with. Jason loans me his spare. In it goes. Pump it up. Way up. And off we go. A bit of a switchback climb to the overlook. Another Great view northwards. We roll on and start the quick and epic brushy hollow descent. Damn fun! Meet up with the guys at the bottom and start rolling some little rocky stuff, stream crossings mostly. Blam! ARGH! Outa tubes and don't feel like patching. Start pushing the bike. Catch up to Jason and Dave near the swinging bridge near the road. I send em on and push back to camp. 2 miles later MOBL rolls by and sag wagons me the last half mile back to camp! My garmin track till my 2nd flat, Here!


Turns out lots of people had problems on Friday with flats. I know I talked with several other people during the weekend who had 2 on either Friday or Saturday. I used up all my patches and had to borrow some from Jen B to finish patching Ssturday morning.

Camp that night was a blast, we hung out, talked bikes, riding places, and had a good time. I passed out in my tent around 11:30 or so. Put my headphones in and was asleep even with being in one of the central camps in 20 mins or so!

Saturday was a better day :)