A river runs through it

Out at Hawes last weekend with my brother-in-law. It was his first time riding the loops. He was demoing a 2008 Fuel EX8. The trails were nice and tacky from the rains on Thursday night, but some sections were a bit chewed up from all the flooding…The great part about Saturday was the canal was running water down through the trail system. It was a cool sight to see Hawes river flowing. We made it through the first crossing up on top, but down below the water was too wide and too fast to cross.

I’d been warned by five or so bikers coming back up that they couldn’t cross…but I still had to check it out for myself…not too often you get to see that much water on your backyard trail. So I went down, scouted for a safe crossing but found nothing.

It was a great day of riding, so many bikes out early. We hit the trail at 5:10 AM. Perfect conditions. No hikers, bikers, or bugs for about an hour. By 6 am the trails were swarmed with group rides, group hikes and large quantities of gnats. Yummy. I saw plenty of sweet bikes out on the trail… lots of Santa Cruz, a Turner, and plenty of Trek. Good times on the Hawes River.