Icycle Reflections - Kick him in the Balls - Part 1

Icycle this past weekend can be best described as a giant bike Party, then a race breaks out.  Pure and Simple.  Drink....Ride....Drink...Burn stuff....wind up in a ditch...   Lots of dirt and mud most times snow  ice crunchy dirt and mud.    This past race was way above average temps at the start was downright warm.   a couple of hours later on the mountain the clouds and wind rolled in and the temperature dropped, but still wasn't anything like some of the frozen weekends we've experienced years past.

It's cool Icycle has changed  from when Claude had started it , then the vibe changed when WesD and Jay took it over, It got bigger and more popular. Christopher Herndon has been a  big part of it for the past few years helping Wes when Jay got out of it.   So now Herndon and Danny have taken over organizing this whacky weekend, and it was cool to see the it had a similar vibe to the first couple of Icycle's.    The course was different this year ( due to permit issue with the Forest Service)  they had to use trails on Fontana Village property only; which was cool.  In the old days the Downhill course trail "Turkey Chute" was a part of the XC course.  There wasn't big centrally located indoor party this year no bands, dj's, dance offs, nekked dudes on unicycles, just a couple of kegs, a couple of fire barrels and a bunch of drunks hangin' around trying to stay warm at the awards near the DH finish.  then the party kind of spreads out to various cabins, bonfires and ditches around the village.

Personally Icycle has transformed into a Family Event.  most of my friends all have kids now and it's kind of taken on this weird kind of "family vibe" put the little ones to sleep and Party. which is very cool.  I know my son really want's to come up race at Icycle and he's heard all of the stories, seen the pictures, knows most the gang i party & ride with and he rides well enough for Fontana Village.  I  am cool with bringing him,   but there is that burning question of "do i really really want my son to see how stupid i am?"   yeah why not?


Family updates: Yeah my Dad is still in ICU at St. Francis   they found the internal bleeding spot from his colon surgery last Monday.  His vitals are stable now, and slowly improving, but not good enough to be released from ICU so he's probably has a couple more days in the hospital.    They did find an artery that was nearly blocked and put in a stint.

My son is still on complete bed rest  (at home/ not hospital, thank goodness) and we see the urologist again today so hopefully we'll find out what is going on with his nutz.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and kind words, thoughts and prayers.

sorry for the ramble....enough words...Photos from the weekend

Cap'n. Dicky going down with the ship

All the Photos are HERE for the taking.

- bRad

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• Queens Of The Stone Age - Never Say Never
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