Rain Ride

I was gonna tell the Vancouver riders how they better recognize Nor Cal rain rides. But then I saw Knolly's post. So much for measuring up to bad weather riding.

Alan (kafin8ed) from Mountain Biking magazine came up to ride this weekend. He picked the wrong weekend. We (me, Forrest, Alan, and Rob) were going to go ride this sweet jump trail on Saturday. When we got there it had just started to rain. The first two corners were sweet but then the tires started to pack up and the rest of the trail felt like ice. So that was that. We gave up on that trail, Rob bailed out, and Alan, Forrest, and I went to another place that's always good in the rain. It was about 40 degrees farenheit when we got there and we rode for two hours in the cold, pouring rain. We pedaled, took pictures, and had a good time. It was a good way to start the rainy season.

Olympus Stylus 800 Digital

Good question. I meant to mention the camera because we have a pro review almost ready to publish. It's the Olympus Stylus 800 Digital - an 8-megapixel weatherproof compact digital. It's got a nice big LCD and shutter-lag is almost non-existent. It's a really nice camera. I'm impressed. Especially compared to previous models in thr Stylus line and other compact Olympus cameras I've used in the past. I think Olympus has done a great job with this camera. Here's a link to an unedited, full-res sample of the photo of Forrest: http://gallery.photographyreview.com/showphoto.php?photo=21165&password=&sort=1&cat=500&page=1

All of the photos I posted here have been heavily adjusted in Photoshop. Most of my photos are, actually. But I don't want you guys to think these photos came out of the camera looking like you see them here. It was a really dark and I was seriously pushing the limits of the camera. Most of the photos we took were complete crap. These are the salvageable ones that didn't have too much camera shake from slow shutter speeds.