Otherwise known as the "THOSE B!@#$%DS LEFT ME ALONE IN THE DARK" ride.

September 21, 2006.

total black. "i can't believe i'm still riding....i can't see anything." sorensen dismounted when it went from dark to black. "should i wait?" wondered egolf, riding beside stouffer on the old woods road. he slows down, but stouffer doesn't.

egolf now hears stouffer ahead of him but can't even see his handlebars let alone where stouffer is. stouffer's voice drifts out of the black hole. "if stouffer is still riding so am i.....sorensen will be ok...he's walking" stouffer and egolf keep riding. just when they think it can't get any darker....it does. even the water in the mud puddles that offered some direction is gone.

egolf keeps expecting to run into something or run off the road and over the bank he knows is to his right. time stands still as there's no vision input. there's just a black void. "i'm not stopping until i hit something ....just keep pedaling" "how am i staying on the road??? this is unbelievable!!" stouffer yells he can see cabin lights ahead, but egolf can still see nothing. "light....i'm seeing it now.....we stinkin' made it. wow!!!....i can not believe this ride."; stouffer's words kept running through egolf's head. "nothin' like takin' something as risky as mountain biking and then doin' it in the dark"

egolf could now faintly see stouffer stopped in the road ahead of him and rolls up beside him. both agree that it was the wildest ride they had done in a while. both stouffer and egolf can hear what they think is sorensen coming behind them, but there is no response to their calls. has something dispatched sorensen and is now stalking stouffer and egolf?

at the last minute plans were changed from riding out of colonel denning to riding from the head of kennedy's valley due to an accident on RT233. egolf already had his lights on, but sorensen decided lights weren't necessary, so he and stouffer left theirs in the xterra. this decision would later haunt sorensen. the ride went by shenk's peaceful acres, up the four-wheeler trail, down the cider path and up warner. figuring there was plenty of time, egolf led the ride out the new logging road onto buck ridge for some recon. living up to it's name, three deer were seen, two of which were buck with good sized antlers. retuning to warner the trio noticed the sun was dropping fast and knowing that the tuscarora trail lay tucked in a hollow, decided to pick up the pace a bit. coming into the wagonwheel, egolf noticed his light was loose. upon checking he discovered the rubber strip on the mounting bracket came out and was lost so the bracket couldn't be tightened. sorensen and stouffer kept moving while egolf removed the light and put it in his fanny pack. no lights for the group.

the pace slowed to a crawl on the tuscarora as the light diminished. egolf led, trying to pick a line and calling out obstacles . stouffer watched egolf's line and sorensen watched stouffer. with almost zen like riding the trio finally made it to the old cabin access road at valley head. the hard part seemed to be over........

but then it got darker. and darker. and just when the three thought it couldn't get any darker....it went black. pitch black. that's when sorensen dismounted. the sound got closer. "LARRY!!" yelled stouffer. a disgruntled "WHAT??!!" was the only reply. sorensen was alive but it was obvious he didn't share stouffer and egolf's enthusiasm for the ride. sorensen rejoined stouffer and egolf in silence and wouldn't talk until after consuming his second beverage which was ironically a saranac BLACK FOREST. stouffer must have had a premonition of the ride to come and brought the appropriate beer.

"I COULDN'T SEE ANYTHING!!" was sorensen's first post ride statement to which stouffer and egolf replied " NEITHER COULD WE!! we were riding blind"

after returning to egolf's basement for some guinness and after ride conversation sorensen finally expressed his true feelings to egolf's wife about the ride...."THOSE BASTARDS LEFT ME ALONE IN THE DARK!!"

but it's a ride he won't soon forget.