Epic Ride

I went for a an epic 5 hour ride this past weekend. I haven't had so much fun in a long time. I decided to do some exploration on trails I had never done before. To get there I had to ride for about an hour and then go to the trailhead. There were several cars parked but I never saw anyone. The trail started out as ATV double track which was pretty rutted up and full of puddles. Once past this section I came upon the technical track in the Niagara Escarpment. Now I am not one for extremely technical riding but I was committed now so kept going. Things started getting ridiculously rocky but to my amazement I was able to ride about 95% of it. It was liberating! I must have rode this type of trail for about an hour before I came to the section to descend the escarpment. It looked very daunting and I got off my bike to start walking down. Then I started noticing some lines down the steep, boulder strewn, with rocky dropoffs descent. I went back to the top and hopped on the bike and started going down. Much to my amazement I cleaned the whole thing. I was very happy and I owe most of the credit to riding the Asylum 29er. Throughout the whole trail I would just roll over the rocks without a hint of going over the bars or crashing. I am convinced I would have had problems on my old bike and walked much more. It was a real confidence booster. Once I exited that trail I went over to Kelso Conservation Area to check out the Ontario Cup Provincial Championships course but unfortunately it wasn't marked. I did my usual loop and was pretty tired plus I still had to ride home which took over an hour. Got home after the 5 hour ride and my legs were on fire!!! I couldn't even stand so I assume that is the feeling of cramping (never happened to me before). It was painful, but I figured it meant I put in a solid ride. I was supposed to race at the Durham Durango, but I sure am glad I decided to do this epic instead!