Posted by MPB:

So perhaps the title of this post is a bit on the err... dramatic side, but I had a reasonably unsettling experience this weekend. I went riding at a trail just outside of Denver known as Buffalo Creek, a nice set of trails consisting of fast, flowing, tight, singletrack. For some reason when I go here it always rains. I usually cut my ride short, only to have it blow over about the time I'm driving away. On Sunday, I decided to test my luck when the dark clouds rolled in.

On the first half of the ride, I did a little amateur weather forecasting and convinced myself that this too, would blow over. As they said in G.I. Joe "Convincing yourself is half the battle", or something like that. But alas, about half way into the ride, the evil looking cloud decided that I would be punished for my hubris.

Buffalo Creek lies in an area that was ravaged by a fire five or so years ago, so you often go long stretches with no trees around. It was in just such a stretch (of course) that the rain drops started to fall. Then, lightning cracked, and it sounded pretty close. I was in the middle of a long climb (of course), and looked around and the trees were still a good distance up the hill (yup). Now, I didn't turn around and go down hill to find trees, because then I would've had to ride back up again when the storm passed (I'm a genius). So instead I started pedaling my ass off to get to the trees (the threat of imminent electrocution is an excellent motivator) and the hail started falling before I got there. It started out pea sized and got bigger. I was wearing a sleeveless jersey and immediately regretted my choice of clothing. My amrs were bright red from the pelting. Various thoughts went through my head: "I'm glad i have a helmet on"; "I wish I would've brought a jacket", "Ouch, that hurt".

Finally, I made it to a fallen down pine tree (which still had most of its needles) for shelter. I hung out there getting pelted only slightly less often for about five minutes. I had an Espresso flavored GU, I waxed philosophically on my predicament. Finally, the storm blew over and I pedaled away, relieved, and vowing that next time I'd cut the ride short when the clouds rolled in (but I probably won't).

MPB