Thankfully, our work off every other Fridays schedule had lined up to make Labor Day a 4 day weekend. Now the question was, where to go? It just so happened Schwister had a beer and cider festival going on over the holiday weekend and there was free camping in the RV park. So our decision was basically made for us.
It was a bit refreshing being at a beer festival in Idaho. It was the time in the middle of Covid where we thought it was over, right before it hit us hard again. There was live music, we could hear from the chair lift, and other people. Definitely, the largest group I had been in since the beginning of Covid). With over a hundred different beers to taste, and more than 40 ciders to sample we quickly realized this event needed to be a staple.
The trails were fun and very chunky. Kind of a high alpine desert terrain, a lot of rocks with dust in between them. Even with a bike that was bordering a downhill bike, my forearms and hands were sore at the bottom of every run.
When mountain biking in the PNW, most people like to keep their tire pressure pretty low (around 20 psi). This allows the tire to squish down a little bit and provides more surface area for it to grip. Very helpful when it comes to rolling over roots and rocks, especially when it is wet or dusty out. So after the third time Kurt washed out around a corner, we decided to check out the tire pressure of his rental bike.
After checking the air pressure on Kurt’s tires and discovering they were rock hard, we let some air pressure out so he could get some more traction. He felt much more in control on the next run, and he got a flat. We put in a new tube and rode a little longer until he got another flat and then another. He eventually had to hike his bike up to the top and take the chair lift down. The bike shop told him they like keeping their rental fleet at 40 psi to prevent flats due to the rocky terrain… Oops.
for my friends who are moms 