Saturday I procrastinated (not really, dealing with a dead car battery all day) my way into a bad situation that luckily worked itself out. I should have learned my lesson from last year when I walked out in the middle of the night sometimes on my hands and knees. Saturday I decided at around 5 PM that I would see how fast I could ride Sheep Mountain. So I set out to do it backwards at 5:37 PM.
After about an hour I had completed the prolog (ride to trailhead) and got up the Rattlesnake Corridor to the start of the climb.
As I approached the summit the sun was just hitting the horizon and I knew that I could bomb the decent to make it out before it got dark. Then my Kenda rear tire busted its liquid latex out all over the trail. I had cut a sidewall. So there I was at 8 PM on top of Sheep with a torn sidewall. I used a Velcro strap and a Otwalla Bar wrapper to boot the tire and pumped like a madman to get the tire up so I could try and descend as much as I could while I had final daylight now disappearing fast. Deja vu!
I had to ride gingerly and the going was slow. I found myself dreading the few climbs that remained on the ridge. Soon it was so dark I was trying to use my cell phone as a light. One wonders at this time why after all the times I have been out there I didn’t bring a headlamp. Somewhere on Wisherd Ridge I ran into some horsepersons camping. One of them loaned me his light so I could descend and get home. This made all the difference.
So around 9:25 I was descending Wood Gulch and left the light in their truck. I finished the official loop in 4 hours and 16 minutes a long way from the fast time I had in mind (sub 3 hrs). At 9:53 I was on Rattlesnake Drive heading home. I arrived in the comfort of modern living around 10:20 PM and fell fast asleep after a beer and the final moments of the Griz game.
Boneshakerbike 
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