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Saturday, Andrea and I completed the deal. We were married at noon and had friends over to join the family at 2pm.

The party was good, fueled by good food and two 5 gallon kegs from Bosco’s (Flaming Stone and Ghost River Wee Heavy). The Wee Heavy proved the most popular and it nearly ran out (got two glasses from it the next day).

On Sunday, we packed up the dogs, the mountain bikes, and remaining Flaming Stone and headed west to Mountain View, Arkansas to spend a few days at her dad’s cabin and enjoy the country and a bit of mountain biking at Syllamo trails.

We didn’t leave for Mountain View until the afternoon on Sunday (rode on the road in Memphis and then packed up), so we didn’t get there until after dark. On Monday, we drove down to the middle Green Mountain road trail head and started out on the yellow trail (Jack’s Branch) and diverted to the red trail (Bad Branch) before finishing out the yellow trail at the far trail head. For me it the second time I had ridden both trails, for Andrea, it was only the first time for the yellow trail for her. The red trail is pretty moderate compared to the rest of the system and the second time down the yellow meant I started to get more comfortable with it. The big thing is the amount of climbing on the yellow trail. We got back to the parking lot pretty tired and ready to eat.

Today, we decided to tackle two different trails, the orange (Bad Scrappy) and the green (White River Bluff). The ride would a shorter ride, but more technical. The weather also played a factor, since it was much colder today (40’s compared to 60’s on Monday). Like the yellow, trail it was the second time I have ridden the orange, so I started to get better on some of the tougher sections of this trail. After completing the orange trail, we started on the green. We had walked this trail together back on Thanksgiving weekend, so we knew it, but not really… This trail is a blast with some pretty ridable section that challenge me, but not so difficult that I feel outclassed.

About half the way through the trail, we were clipping along, when I felt something snag… like Andrea a few weeks ago, a stick lodged in my rear cassette and tore off my rear derailleur at the hanger. Unlike Andrea I had a replacement hanger and more importantly, I had it with me.

From stop to back rolling, it probably was only 10 minutes. The chain had somehow looped, but I managed to figure out how to get it unlooped without breaking it (Shimano chain with one-time pin that I just installed that morning). The rear derailleur was just fine, and in fact it seem like the shifting improved a little bit (probably had a bent hanger before I broke it).

The worst thing is that my 9-speed cassette is pretty worn. I need to use the biggest two sprockets, the next two are flaky, the next 3 are okay and the smallest two are unusable under load. I have been working around it using the front chainrings. It is sort of a pain, but I am making it work (changing the chain didn’t help the situation). I guess those bad sprockets are just wore out. Two more days of riding, then I will get the parts I need back in Memphis. (I have one more hanger to carry with me…, guess I need to order more.)