I had protested this trip from the moment it was mentioned. The plan was to go up to Humbug Mountain State Park, this is where we usually camp during summer, however there was just one problem. It was fall time. Both of my parents knew it was going to rain and still they insisted on going. I begrudgingly packed my bags with as much rain gear as possible. This trip was not going to be ruined by the weather.
When we got there it was clear out with only a few clouds in the sky. We decided to set up camp as fast as possible. On the coast the weather could turn at any point. My friend Jack, my brother Aidan, and I set up the tent that our parents brought. It was a huge ten person Coleman tent meant to be used in the summer. We threw all of our stuff in the tent, and got ready for dinner.
That night's dinner was hotdogs, I love hotdogs. However we didn't get to enjoy them for long. With the faint smell of rain in the air we all decided to pack up and put away all of the supplies.
I don't know why but I decided to go out for a bike ride. Hoping to be back in time before it started to rain. My plan was to bike up a mountain via the old abandoned highway. On the way up I would get a good workout in and I would get to go fast on the way back. I was biking up the steep mountain road when I felt it, the first drop of rain on my right arm.
“No problem, the rain will just cool me down,” I thought to myself.
As I continue biking through the tunnel of overgrown trees thinking of how cool it would be to drive a rally car though this area.
Rally racing is where you take a normal car and modify it so it can go through twisty country roads as fast as possible. The other reason why they can go so fast is because they have a co-driver telling them how sharp the corners are up ahead. With the callouts being one as the tightest turn and six being a slight bend in the road. I was going along trying to memorize all of these corners so that I could come down the hill as fast as possible; without dying.
I finally got to the top and the light drizzle had now turned into a downpour. I took a break at the top under one of the only trees as I watched the sun go down over the ocean. I gathered myself for the ride down. I took a deep breath and remembered the first couple of turns. They would have all been classified as sixes.
There were a couple problems with this situation that I was in, first of all my visibility was terrible, I couldn't open my eyes all of the way, the rain was coming down in sheets and it was now dark. The second problem was that my rain jacket was soaked through. Despite that I was soaking wet, I was grateful because it acted as a good shield for the rain as I was flying down the mountain. The third problem was I didn't have a co-driver like in rally and I couldn’t remember all of the pacenotes.
The water hitting my face made it go numb. I was almost at the end of the mountain, when I saw a turn I thought I knew. It was a quick number four turn into another straight. The curve was longer than I expected. The forces of my turn pushed me to the outside of the road; however, the corner kept going. Then, when the curve finally opened up, I barely made the turn. Then I saw it, the narrow bridge that I had forgotten about. It technically was a straight road, however it was in the center of the road, and I was almost in the grass on the left side. I slammed on the brakes and I felt the back end start to slide out from under me on the wet pine needles. I was so sideways that the handrail was inline with my petals, I held the brake as long as possible hoping to stop. There was no chance of stopping. So I let go of the brake and the back wheel started to gain traction. Then all of the sudden the back wheel snapped back to be parallel with the front and I shot through the shoulder-width walking bridge.
I rode slowly back to camp, ready to not be on the bike anymore, the sensation of the back wheel slipping out from under me kept playing on repeat. I got back to camp, and tried to dry out my clothes as much as possible, and went into my tent. I didn't want to be there anymore. After an incident like that you want a warm shower and dry clothes. Instead what faced me was two more nights in a tent that by this time had leaked a puddle on the floor.
The next day was Thanksgiving, and the food, like always, was amazing. It was all prepared at home and we just heated it up with our camp stoves. It would have been even better if it wasn't raining and I wasn't damp all day and night. When we first asked to go home, the parents no. they only agreed to go home when a extension cord melted only listened to us
After our parents dismissed our complaints about the rain, probably because they were in camper vans. What finally changed their minds was that an extension cord had short circuited and melted in our tent. That is when they finally decided we could go home a day early. It was an amazing Thanksgiving.