Monday, Scat sends the feelers out for a evening freeride down St. Louis. It’s been a while since I did that, so I was itching to hit the downhills. The night before saw some rain at my place, but the day was shaping up sunny and hot. 
By the end of work, clouds were rolling in, but Scat, Ckucky, and I were in! Met up at Ckucky’s to be greated by the wonderful aroma of someone cooking dinner. Dang, I’m hungry already! We cram everything into his work van and take the drive up the hill. As we climb in elevation, there’s a noticeable drop in temperature, and when we park at the top, we’re greeted by a drizzle and that grassy smell of rain in the air. We’re not detered, in fact there’s no mention of calling it, we unpack and gear up.
The sun is still high in the sky, we head up the road into the park, Scat and Ckucky take off leaving me in the dust. Sheesh, what’s gotten into these guys? Gasping, I catch up to the guys in the park. Guess they’re just happy to be out! We’re a bit indecisive on what trails to ride, but finally decide to take the upper trail through the taco jumps and then maybe back track to the curvy three rock drop trail. Ckucky takes off like a madman down the main trail and blitzes it across the roots. I hang on for dear life trying to keep up, my eyeballs bouncing around so much I’m having trouble seeing. 
We regroup right at the jump that goes up the side berm. Scat is on fire and he goes back up the hill to hit the jump again. We head down and cutoff onto the taco trail. It feels really nice and I think we ran this trail faster than ever. Hit some of the turns right at the limit of traction where both tires are drifting. Come to a screeching halt where it comes out to an interesection, sweet!
We backtrack up the center trail a short distance to the curvey trail that leads to the ant carpet three rock drop. 
The swoops are great fun, and the sequence of really tight cambers just before the drops are always wonderful. No ant carpet this time around. Scat really is the jumping fool and he walks back up the trail to hit another jump. He’s on a roll!
We’re just above the agave exit, we weigh our options. The stoke is on so we huff it up the trail to the intersection on the outside of the berm just above the super curvy three rock cutoff. The option to continue climbing comes up again, but I’m kinda spent climbing and I’m already lowering my seat. Everyone takes this as an answer and we speed down the trail. No worries about the rain, the trail is dry, going pretty loose in spots, the previous rain has cut down a bit on dust. Catch up to Ckucky right after I notice a nice fresh skid mark going off the outside of a turn. I yell at Ckucky and he confirms that Scat had gone too hot into the corner and had some fun there. Whee!
We pass through and stop where it crosses the old World Cup downhill at the base of the tree with wooden bracing on the eroded side. The bracing has displaced out, we decide to drop into World Cup. It’s been ages since I’ve ridden this trail. It’s wider, more eroded, and I don’t recall rock faces being so gnarly. I actually lose my nerve on a couple, stop, and take the easier out that runs along side the faces. This quickly dumps us out onto the conrete road. Not sure I like this out, it’s over fast, super rocky.
It’s a little odd to be on the concrete road while there’s still sun out. We take a usual break here and jabber about bike stuff. The air is pretty still and humid and I start feeling pretty lazy sitting in the middle of the concrete. Then suddenly I hear it. Psssssshhhhh. “Aw cr*p!” Rear tube has let go it’s goodness. My tool pack is on the x-country bike, I have to squirrel tube & tools from Scat. Looks like a pinch, on one of those mondo big tubes too! Light is starting to dwindle, so as I’m close to replacing the tube, Scat heads down the trail as he decided not to run a light. It’s kind of neat being able to pick lines on this last rocky out. I do get a bit iffy in spots with the increased speed, but we all make it out ok, and pretty happy. It was a fun ride.
We road ride back to CKucky’s house, again Scat throws down the gloves and he & Ckucky take off up the hills. Ugh, I’m spent, I think the hunger is really hurting me now. Not to worry, we head to Azteca for some recovery!
Full pics HERE!
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