Rainy Days and a 3 speed at Tanasi

With the predicted afternoon thunderstorms today, we headed up to Tanasi early this morning to try to sneak in our ride before the major rain hit. We managed to get away from the cars before the drizzle started, however, I soon learned that my front derailleur had gotten horribly knocked out of alignment in transport so I had about three gears in my big chain ring that didn't rub. These were somewhat tolerable for Brush Creek, but I needed something easier for the Tanasi trails. I unscrewed the barrel adjuster so that I was able to use a couple of gears in my middle chainring, but I think I made matters worse, as my small chainring didn't work at all. Argh..I REALLY need to learn how to fix these types of things on my bike. So the rest of the day I had to grind my way up all the climbs in my middle chainring which made things a bit more interesting. We only got rained on for about 30 minutes, but it was enough to soak us and the trail. The rain eventually let up and we had a decent, albeit squishy, ride. We managed to get back to the cars after nearly 4 hours of riding and get packed up about two minutes before the heavy rain hit. Whew...now its just a matter of cleaning all my gear. Did I mention I'm accepting applications for a gear butler? I really hate cleaning muddy gear....