Jody F arrived at my house promptly at 6PM this evening for a night ride even though that's about as far ahead as we had planned. A route was discussed on the way and at the last possible moment we were headed to Bent Creek Gap. We actually started at Spencer and the warm-up was a bit over my head. I had to ask Jody to stop a couple of times but we were at the gap very quickly. We talked about the route a bit more then started the descent of Spencer Branch. We rode that section of trail as fast as I've ever ridden it before. We were borderline dangerous but made it the NER unscathed, with huge smiles, and whooping and laughing like we had just gotten away with murder (or our lives). Up NER to Middle Fork->Big Creek followed. Swoopy fun. Once we made it to the reservoir the route was again up for discussion and Jody suggested an out and back on Fletcher. I was game, I hadn't seen the new work yet, so we climbed all the way back up to the NER. Jody's lights were signaling their eminent demise so we decided the fastest way back to the Jeep would be, rather than descending Fletcher to the res rd and back up 5000.... You guessed it, we climbed back up Spencer Branch to the gap then descended Spencer Gap to 5000 (above the Jeep). The climb up Spencer went by much more quickly than I had anticipated and was punctuated by some sort of HUGE yellow jacket type thing that was harassing me. Right as it (they?) were getting aggressive I decided to just turn out the lights. It worked, they left me alone, and I continued to granny gear/hike all the way back to the gap. The descent to 5000 was again right on the edge of dangerous and really dangerous and Jody was able to keep a 50' lead all the way down to the road. Great ride Jody, thanks for getting out there.