Brown County Breakdown 2008

WoW Wow Wow! This year was the 4th year the Hoosier Mt Bike Association put on their fundraiser even called the Brown County Breakdown. And this was the 4th time I've taken part. Here's what it is. Only this one time per year do they connect 100 miles of trails that cover 4 counties and include the famous Brown County State Park trails, Nebo Ridge trails, Hickory Ridge trails and Combs road trail. Via horse trials and fire roads these great trails are opened up to mountain bikers who travel from all over the midwest to spend all day on their bikes at the peak of Fall colors to take in the beauty, thrills, and..........SUFFERING!
Can I just tell you I experienced beauty, thrills, fun, joy, fellowship and all but not until today, 4 days later could I remember those good things because all I could recall for the last few days was the suffering! Year 1 I tackled 35 miles, year 2 60, year 3 65, so I knew this was the year to go for the big 100. I had raced a great season and gotten in great cycling shape and the kicker was I had a great teammate to ride with the whole way.
The day started with awesome weather in the 50's. Usually it starts in the 30s and 40s. Jeff and I gave each other a fist bump and said "let's do it!" as we took off from the start. We cruised at a moderate pace through BCSP and reached one of the highest points in the park called Hesitation Point where we saw a really large group of riders hanging out eating and drinking. We thought, "I wonder why they are just chillin' there?" as we crossed the road and headed into the bombing downhill toward the campgrounds. This part was filled with flowing sections with small jumps where we carried speeds around 20mph and also had technical rock sections where you had to place your tire just right and balance at slow speeds. We popped out at the campground happy to see some roads to ride on before it led us to the horse trails and fire roads which were historically pretty crazy. So we downed some GU and drink as we cruised on the pavement. We waved at campers cookin' breakfast and kids playing ball. Then we hit the dusty and rocky horse trails. These things are fast and furious! 20+mph downhills with what we like to call "baby heads" (baby head size rocks) scattered all over the place make for a thrilling ride! But everything went smooth other than a tree limb that was hanging over the trail that smacked me bloodying my lip. As the trail narrowed we realized we were being led down to the secret cabin sag stop.
This was our first rest and were feeling great. We didn't stay long. Just enough time to eat at PB&J and fill up our water. Then we took a mile of gravel road to Nebo ridge. This trail is about a 1.5 mile climb and it becomes an 8 mile roller coaster where keeping your momentum is the key to a super fun ride! We knew that our tendency was to go out too hard so I led this section and intentionally coasted on the downhills and just cruised up the climbs we wanted to conserve energy because neither of knew what was coming in the last 40 mile section of Hickory Ridge. So we finished up the great Nebo Ridge trail and hopped on some paved road that quickly turned gravel until we got to the second sag stop at hickory ridge. There we found another blue grass duo playing so good ol' tunes as we fed ourselves and filled up our bottles. We were told that this next section was pretty remote and was made up of two loops of 15 and 25 miles. We joined two other guys and went for the 15 mile loop. It was really a fun section of jeep roads and pretty flowing single track. When we finished and came back to the sag stop we said to ourselves, "I think we're gonna do it!" With the affirmative we headed out for the last 25 miles of Hickory with a guy we met from Evansville. We heard that this was the toughest section of the day and they weren't kidding!
All I can say is suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer suffer and suffer! It was beautiful and all with the super remote sections of woods and streams. We saw huge pine forests where the trees where taller than I've ever seen a pine tree grow. It was amazing but I couldn't enjoy too much because I thought for sure my legs were going to seize up with cramps or simply fall off! From the SAG stop we rode on a gravel road that just would not stop climbing. It was so steep it even had a friggin switch back! What is a switch back road doing in Indiana anyway? Geeze! When we finally entered the single track trail it didn't give us any time to recover b/c it sent us bombing down into a valley immediately! It's cool to be in a valley except that you know there is nowhere to go but up! And we quickly did have to go up and these ups were steep and they were loooong! There was at least two more of them that I had to walk up. At this point I'm feeling nautious and my legs are wanting to start cramping up. I'm thinking...well I not sure that I was thinking! I was just hurting! From that point on, at about mile 55 it was simply a "suffer fest". There was the joy of the downhill and the road sections but everything else was suffering.
We finally made it out of there and sat for a while at the sag stop to recuperate. Then we headed back toward combs road that I had a history of walking up and cramping up on. I just sat on Jeff's wheel thinking, this is gonna hurt real bad. But when we got there it actually seemed much shorter than the last couple years, that was good. But we still walked up a good part of the trail.
After bombing down Nebo, a wonderful treat, we took the short one mile or so road back to the secret cabin sag and lo and behold they had PIZZA KING! And I think Jeff was a little concerned as I ate about 5 or 6 pieces! It was great. We didn't stay too long for fear our legs would think we were done. And we knew the horse trails to get back to the Mt. bike trails at BCSP were gonna be a test for us at this point in time. So we headed back up the trails soon found ourselves walking again. There were periods of 30 minutes where we didn't even talk to one another we just heard uuugh aahhhh ssshhhcht and foot steps. I was already telling myself, "I will never do this again, never again will i ride this far, this was too far, it's not worth the suffering". But something happened when we got back to the mt bike trails at BCSP. Maybe its cause Im really familiar with them, I know they have so much flow or that we're only 10 miles from the end or what but I had a new surge of energy. There still wasn't much talking but you could tell in the way we were riding we were feeling a little better. We were getting a little air over some jumps and carving some turns.
Finally we fly down the last downhill and pop out of the woods to see the finish line 300 yards away. I'm in the lead and I turn back to look at Jeff as if to say "were here man!" and Jeff thinks I'm challenging him to a sprint finish! And next thing I know we are going balls to the wall on the last 100 yards. I tuck in behind him to get a draft and then 25 yards left I pop out and come up next to him to finish neck and neck! Not sure where that energy came from but I probably shouldn't have done that because I felt so drained I could hardly think straight. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sip a beer. All I could do was shower and lay down in the back seat all the way back to Muncie! I was done! I didnt want to see another bike for a month, I didn't was to plan on doing this ride again, I had suffered more than ever in my 28 years of life that day. But now....I'm glad I did it. I'm ready to get back on the trail though I'm still soar in my legs and knees a bit. There's something about it that keeps drawing me back. The pushing yourself farther than you think you can go, taking risks and overcoming them, being out in creation. God teaches me so much from Mt. Biking. There are so many parallels He gives me.

Here's a link to some pics http://gallery.me.com/fzryasky/100059