08/15/09 – La Costa Group Ride

After 4 days of commuting, I was ready to hit the dirt again.  On the menu for the first half of the weekend was a group ride at La Costa with some people from Dirt Treaders.  At first I was hesitant to go since there was going to be a large group, but it was my friend Spencer’s first DT group ride so I thought it’d be nice if he saw a familiar face.  I was expecting there to be a lot of stops and re-groups, so I showed up early to do a lap on my own.

I huffed and puffed my way through the first back of the swtichbacks climb.  I felt more drained than usual, but I wasn’t sure if it was due to the week commuting or all the lack of climbing I’ve been doing lately.  While I was taking my break halfway up, my friend Joaquin, who had the same idea about the group ride, come rolling up.  I finished off the climb with him, and at the top of the hill, we met up with Tara and Ben.  The four of us opted to descend via “Nascar,” which is a fast and technical downhill.  It has a couple of pretty gnarly rock gardens and a few drops.  I eased me way down, cleaning all the features I usually do, but ended up getting a flat towards the bottom.  After a quick fix, we cruised down to the trailhead to meet up with the group.

I think there were probably about 15 people, most of which I’ve ridden with before.  After a few minutes of chit-chatting, the convoy headed back up the switchbacks.  With such a large group, and varying skill levels, the climb started off as a giant traffiic jam.  I hung back for a bit to allow some spacing and then started on my second lap.  For the most part, the climb was uneventful.  However, I did get to chat with Tara and Spencer about going to Mammoth the coming weekend.  By the time we reached the top, a decision was made to make the trip.

At the top, the group split into two.  Half of us were going to do Nascar, and the other half was going to do Vista del Mar.  Even though I did Nascar previously, I decided to go for a second run since Spencer was doing it.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t as successful as my first time and took two minor falls.  After regrouping at the bottom, everyone set off to climb up Vista del Mar.  As I started the ascent, I noticed my front wheel was extremely out of true and wobbly.  Disappointed, my ride had to end and I rolled back to the cars with Joaquin, Tara, and Spencer, who all had to leave early as well.  Back at the cars, we made tentative plans for the coming weekend.

08/16/09 – BLT/Noble

Once again, I was lured into doing another shuttle of Big Laguna and Noble Canyon.  The cast for this week was me, Andy, Matt, Jeremy, Brian, Barcy, and Ali.  The ride through BLT was fun as usual, but unfortunately, I didn’t attempt any new log features.  We crossed paths with a couple groups from the SDMBA’s Womens Ride, who all looked like they were having a great time.  After a mellow stroll, the real fun was about to start.

Unfortunately, the real fun never really got under way because Brian took a pretty nasty spill early on in the descent.  I didn’t see how it happened, but the aftermath was a severly taco’d wheel, a hit to the noggin, and what he believed to be a broken shoulder.  I booked down the paved road to get my car, and on the way, ran into a ranger.  To make a long story short, the ranger called in some help and my vehicular assistance was no longer needed.  I think Brian said he was assisted by 14 people and 7 vehicles.  Must’ve been a slow day in Pine Valley.

I waited by myself at my car while Ali, Barcy, Andy, and Jeremy finished off the ride.  I guess Jeremy took a little spill as well and came back with a banged up wrist and a taco’d wheel of his own.  This ride pretty much sucked due to the obvious injuries and the fact that I shuttled a fire road.

08/21/09 – 08/22/09: Mammoth Weekend

Prelude:
Spencer (bentmywookie) and I had been talking about a trip to Mammoth for a while now, and he finally decided to go this past weekend. At first, I wasn’t sure if I could make it since I used my “sick day” two weeks ago for a Tahoe trip, and I also wasn’t feeling up for another long drive. Tara expressed interest in going up on Friday, but wasn’t comfortable with spending the weekend with a handsome stranger. At the DT La Costa ride, Tara got acquainted with Spencer, and I somehow convinced her to drive me there. In exchange for a ride, I offered gas money, hours of stimulating conversation, and exclusive access to the my iPod library. I managed to successfully provide 2 out of 3, but it must’ve been enough because by the end of the weekend, we may or may not have slept together and may or may not have seen each other’s skivvies.

Day 1:
We left my apartment in Mira Mesa at 4pm and after 7 quick hours, we arrived at the campground. Topics of conversation included… I actually don’t remember, but I assure you that it was all very fascinating. Background music was provided by The Gaslight Anthem, Jimmy Eat World, The Starting Line, The Postal Service, Pinback, The Casting Out, and some other bands she may or may not have enjoyed.

Day 2:
After a meager breakfast, we were on the gondola at 9am sharp for our first run of the day. I know we started with “Off the Top,” but the rest of the day was a complete blur. Flow, Seven Bridges, Brake Through, are runs that I remember, but I know we did a lot more than that. The trails were fast, flowly, a little loose at spots, a little technical at spots, and a little gnarly at spots. The wall rides were not quite as easy as the pictures make it out to be. the “flow drop” was much larger in person, but Tara still contemplated doing it. (Un)fortunately, we talked her out of it. After 5 hours and 3 runs, the altitude was getting to me and I was feeling nauseous and dizzy. I called it a day and headed back to the hotel room while Tara and Spencer went on to do Velocity.

Day 3:
The original plan was to do the Mountain View Trail and then Lower Rock Creek. Mountain View was nixed from the itinerary due to the rain, and as we headed down the 203, we weren’t expecting much better weather for Lower Rock Creek. Luckily, the rain subsided and the ride would go on. Lower Rock Creek lived up to the hype and was my personal favorite ride of the trip. We took more breaks this time around for photos and just to take in the scenery. Tara led for most of the ride and was able to clean all the technical sections with ease and confidence. Unfortunately, we didn’t park the car at the right place at the bottom so we weren’t able to take a dip in the creek. I had the luxury of toweling off while they went and got the cars, but was bracing myself for a stinky ride home. After a quick lunch in Bishop, we were on the road back to San Diego. Tara regained control of the radio for the trip back and topics of conversation included Magic Cards, video games, LARPing, and emo, among other things.

I don’t feel like making the effort to embed pictures, so just go here instead: http://picasaweb.google.com/t.lucille/MammothTrip_821232009#

08/29/09 – Big Laguna Trail

After an incredible weekend of riding at Mammoth, I needed something awesome to do.  The ride for today was to get a proper tour of the Big Laguna Trail.  I have done the Los Gatos trail many times, but knew there was so much more out there to ride.  The group for today consisted of Joaquin, Tara, Denez, Javier, Pete, Sue, and I.  BLT did not disappoint as there was lots of flowing singletrack, some good climbs, and the usual log and rock features to play on.  The only downer was having to grind back about 3 miles on the road to get back to the cars.

Denez on the logs

Javier on another log

“Dragoooooo!”

Me

Sue

Me again

Pete

Denez with a wheelie drop

Tara’s rock roll

Tara’s rock roll attempt on another rock

08/30/09 – Tunnels

The original plan was to ride LPQ/Tunnels with Joaquin and Tara, but they cancelled, so I ended up doing some poaching on my own.  It was fun as usual.

09/05/09 – La Costa

I met up with Spencer and Matt to do a couple laps at La Costa.  As usual, we rode up the switchbacks, down Nascar, and then up Vista del Mar, and back down Vista del Mar.  Nothing noteworthy really happened.

09/06/09 – Bonita

Earlier in the week, I made arrangements to buy pedals from Jeremy, and this eventually led to a ride with me, him, Tara, and Joaqin.  While I’m not all that familiar with the trails down here, I do know that they feature some wooden stunts that would be good practice for our upcoming Mammoth trip.

With Joaquin leading the pack, we work our way through the canyon, riding a combination of singletrack and fireroad.  The riding was fun, with little climbing, and some good short downhill sections.

Finally, we made it to the short stretch with the stunts.  The first one was a narrow skinny, which I made it about 95% through before I rolled off.  In the process, I severely bent my rear rotor.  We managed to straighten it out as best we could so I could continue on with the road.  If I remember correctly, Jeremy and Tara were both successful after a few attempts.

Next on the trail was “the baptiser.”  The Baptiser is a wooden ramp, that than flattens out and ends with a 3 foot drop.  Tara, who is fearless, and the last experiened out of all of us, tried it first and landed front-wheel first and nearly went over the bars.  Her second attempt was a little smoother, but her front wheel still hit first.  After seeing her do it, I decided to give it a go myself.  It was my goal today to try it, and I wasn’t going to let a girl outshine me!  So, I gather up some speed, maybe closed my eyes, and hit the drop perfectly.  Stoked!  Jeremy, inspired by my example, went for it as well and didn’t have any problems.  Joaquin, wussed out.  Tara tried it a couple more times and was sticking it pretty well by the time we moved on.

We then came upon the double teeter-totter.  Joaquin, who was leading, decided to just go for it, and it looked like he was going to make it, but he rolled off to the side and took a nasty spill over the falls.  After seeing his fall, I decide to examine the feature before trying it.  Tara (who is fearless) tries it first and nails it.  I follow closely behind her and hit it as well.  It wasn’t quite as sketchy as I remembered it.

After the stunts, we finish the ride with some more rolling singletrack and an easy cruise back to the cars.

09/07/09 – Tunnels

“Tunnels” is my favorite local ride and I have been riding it pretty regularly for the past couple years.  Tara, unfortunately, got into mountain biking after it closed and never really got to experience it.  I guess Joaquin has taken her there a few times, but she didn’t think it was anything special.  I found that statement hard to believe and declared that if she went on my route, her opinion would be changed.  Everyone who has ridden with me here has had a lot of fun.  This includes both newbies and experienced riders.  She took me up on my offer and off we went.

To make a long story short, Tara said this was her best time at Tunnels and has become a believer.  So much, in fact, that she wanted to go back again before Mammoth to session some of the jumps and drops.  The verdict is still out on whether it’s the route or the company that made this ride so enjoyable!

09/12/09 – Bonita again

This was pretty much the same ride from 09/06/09, but we had over 20 riders show up!  I will let the pics do the talking…

In honor of the Twitter trend, “Music Monday,” we thought we’d share some music from one of our favorite record labels, Suburban Home Records. SHR is home to such amazing musicians as Ninja Gun, Drag the River, Tim Barry (vocalist of Avail), Joey Cape (vocalist of Lagwagon), and many more. This coming weekend is the 14th anniversary celebration of SHR, bringing the vast majority of the roster together for a weekend full of live music in Denver. Vince was hoping to make the drive out from Tahoe, pack in some Colorado riding, Colorado craft beer and a whole lot of great live music, but time seems to have slipped away and it’s unlikely he’ll make it.

Enjoy the music!

Last week, I started commuting to work again (8.5 miles one way).  I used to do it on a regular basis (3x a week), but that habit tailed off in the past two months due to the heat, Tour de France, laziness, and having no place to go on my lunch hour.  Now that it is cooling down a bit, and the TdF is over, and the cafeteria has been built, it’s time to get back on the saddle… assuming I can wake up in time.

I surprised myself by riding in 4 days last week.  I felt little to no fatigue througout the week, and my ride on Thursday may have been my strongest one yet.  I’m hoping for a repeat performance this week.

While we await the “official” race report, here is the GPS data from our second place finish.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/11265789

I’m usually pretty frugal when it comes to purchasing bikes and bike accessories, but I splurged a bit when I saw these shorts on Chainlove for $61.99.  Three years ago when I first started riding, I would have scoffed at spending that much on a pair of shorts, but now I guess it’s considered “cheap.”

I don’t really like buying clothing without holding it in my hand first, but I decided to take a chance on these shorts since I had good luck with some Chainlove Jett shorts and the MSRP of $125 must mean that these are some high quality shorts. When the shorts arrived, the color scheme was nicer than I was expecting, but I was disappointed that they didn’t come completely as advertised.  The key things that were missing were the two cargo pockets and removable liner.  I contemplated returning them, but wanted to test them out before deciding.

My waist size is somewhere between 34 and 36 and the size L shorts fit a little more snug than I was expecting.  They aren’t tight by any means, but I still find myself sucking in my stomach when putting them on.  Once on, it’s a near perfect fit.  They don’t go below the knee and I can move very freely in them.  The chamois is where these shorts really stand out.  On their maiden voyage, my ass did not get sore whatsoever.  That was enough for me to keep them.  Overall, I would rate these shorts 3.5 out of 5 stars.  I like the style and the chamois, but dislike the feel of the pockets and the velcro fly.  I also had to dock a few points due to the bait and switch.

http://www.sugoi.com/usa/usaeng/Products/Bike/Men/Shorts/Details/1705-36305U-Gustov-Short

After getting a taste of some Tahoe dirt, I wasn’t going to be content with hitting one of the local rides this past weekend.  Something awesome was needed to satisfy my thirst.  I put up a post on Dirt Treaders asking if anyone had anything awesome lined up and didn’t get much of a response.  A few posts and text messages later, I was set to do another Noble Canyon shuttle with Andy and Mike.

The route for today was the same as usual.  We started with the BLT trail and then descended Noble.  I enjoy riding with Mike because he has great technical skills and it’s always fun to watch him on the various stunts, jumps, and drops.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see much of him in action since he descends much faster than I do and I was unable to keep up.  We also didn’t stop to session any of the features as we had done in the past, which was ok by me.  My personal highlight of the day was cleaning “stairway” again from top to bottom.  This attempt was significantly smoother than my last time around and it felt great to be able to do it without any hesitation.

“bottom third of Stairway to Hell”

We flirted with the idea of doing a shuttle of Anderson Truck Trail on the way home, but on the final descent, Andy’s seatpost/saddle broke.  He ended up walking the last .25 miles or so.  Despite the mechanical setback, it was another great ride at Noble and a lot of fun was had by all.

I didn’t have my GPS with me this time around, but here is the data from a previous ride: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/8028567

Since the helmet mount for my light is broken, my weekday ride options are now severely limited.  There are only two trails close enough that allow me to squeeze in a ride before it gets dark after work.  As usual, I chose the one that is closer, more fun,and off-limits.

For a trail that’s supposedly off-limits, it sure got a lot of traffic this Thursday evening.  Once again, I met up with Trent and his friend Doug.  They’re slowly getting back into the mountain biking swing of things, and it looks like they’re close to returning to top form.  Both those dudes are also tri-dorks, so it won’t be long before they are leaving me in the dust.  We did the usual route and came across a group 0f 9, a group of 3, another group of 3, a group of 6, another group of 3, and a group of 5.  There were probably more people out riding out tonight and there were any given night a year ago when the trails were still open.  From across the ridge, we spotted a white truck, which could have been a ranger on patrol.  I guess these rides are no longer “under the radar.”

Tonight was nothing different.  We did push it a little header than I was expecting since they needed to get home in time for a BBQ (a BBQ I wasn’t invited to).  Even though I’ve ridden these trails countless times, I still get stoked when I am zipping through the singletrack under the wooded canopy.  It’s getting darker a little earlier now, so I may have to shell out the $25 to get a new helmet mount.

Here’s some GPS data from a similar ride I did back in November: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7444274.

07/23/09 – Night Ride….or Not…

The Sweetwater ride from the weekend really took a lot out of me, so that, along with a combination of the heat and general laziness, kept me off the bike for most of the week.  Finally, on Thursday, I decided “enough is enough” and finally got my butt off the couch to go on a night ride.  Well, apparently, enough wasn’t quite enough.  When I got to the trailhead, I discovered the helmet mount for my light had broke.  Once again, my night was spent watching other people ride their bikes on tv (Tour de France replays).

07/25/09 – Saturday Double Header

Earlier in the week, I made plans to do the Noble Canyon shuttle with Spencer.  It was gonna be a later start since he had things to do in the morning.  I wasn’t going to waste a Saturday morning on the couch again, so I decided to join the Dirt Treaders group ride at Lake Calavera.

Lake Calavera is a relatively small area, but the trails there offer a lot of variety, and can make for a very fun ride if you can fluidly link all of the sections together.   There is rolling singletrack, some technical rockgardens, some moderate to difficult climbs, and jumps scattered throughout the area.  Luckily, our tour guide claims this trail as his backyard ride, so we were gonna get the full Calavera experience.  Unfortunately, about 15 people showed up for this ride, so this meant that the 7:30 start time turned into an 8:00 start time, and there were many breaks and regroups.  Ordinarily, I don’t mind taking breaks, but it kinda sucks when we stop the whole ride for 25+ minutes so a couple of people can session some jumps.  After 2 hrs, and maybe 5 total miles of riding, I decided to bail so I could rest for my afternoon date.

After a little nap and a snack, I headed off to Noble Canyon to meet up with Spencer for our afternoon shuttle run.  I was worried that it was going to be hot as my thermostat read 85, but the 4:00 start time turned out to be perfect.   The weather was very mild at the upper trailhead and we had a nice breeze for the entire ride.  To top it off, there was practically no one else on the trail.

The ride was a typical Noble Canyon ride, but since it was just the two of us, there were few extended breaks and we made it down to the bottom fairly quickly.  On the BLT section of the trail, we did the usual log rides and log rollers.  There were a couple of “new” logs I would have liked to try, but I still didn’t trust my balance enough to give it a shot.  As we descended Noble, we were able to hit our groove.  As usual, the upper part was fast and flowy, and we didn’t miss a beat when we headed into the chunkier section of the trail.  I love rear suspension!  Spencer was finally able to clean the Widowmaker and I finally cleaned Stairway to Hell from top to bottom without stopping or dabbing.

This may have been the first time I did two rides in one day, but I don’t see it  being my last.  Even though both rides were fun, I, unfortunately, didn’t quite get in the “training” I wanted to for next weekend’s race.

07/29/09 – Post-Work Poaching

After the weekend fun, I was itching to get back on the dirt and a quick spin on my questionably-legal-backyard-trail was on the menu.  I asked my old manager, Trent, if he wanted to go, and surprisingly, he said yes!  We used to ride together 2-3 times a week, but since we were laid off from our old company, a few months had passed since we last went mountain biking together.

I was hoping to go at a faster pace so I could be somewhat prepared for the coming race, but it wasn’t meant to be.  Apparently, Trent hurt his back on a mechanical bull and this would be his first time on a bike in a couple of months.  He brought his friend Doug who would be riding these trails for the first time.  We did a quick 8 mile loop and it was just like old times.  Despite being off the bike for a while, Trent still rode pretty well.  We went down one of the “tunnels” I haven’t been on in nearly six months and I was quickly reminded of how fun it was.  It’s a real shame that these trails are officially off-limits, but judging by all the tire marks, they still get plenty of traffic.

With only 3 days to go before my racing debut, I wasn’t feeling very confidence since I haven’t pushed myself on a ride in a veeeeeeeeeeery long time, and all the “training” I had set out to do was deterred by the lure of my couch and television.

07/31/09 – Tahoe Bound

The morning started off with a few fake coughs, a phone call to my boss, and an 8.5 hr drive.  Before I knew it, I was parked in front of Corey Rich’s home/office, and 5th Wheel Cycling was together for the first time since the team was brought back from the dead.  After eating a mediocre calzone and waiting for Vince to finish the days tasks, it was time to hit some Tahoe dirt.  It probably wasn’t the best idea to go riding since I drove 8.5 hrs on only 4 hours of sleep and  we had to race the next day, but I had to make the most out of my short time in Tahoe.

Vince, Corey, Corey’s dog, and I headed out from his driveway and rode on the streets for a short while before we picked up the High Meadows trail.  We climbed and we climbed and we climbed some more.  I’m not sure what the mileage was, and it probably wasn’t even that much, but my legs were shot the minute we started ascending.  Overall, the climb wasn’t that steep, but the altitude, calzone, and lack of sleep all caught up to me and I ended up walking a good majority of the hill.  Vince, on the other hand, was just flying up the hill.  I was really impressed.  It was quite a change from when we last rode together.

He was every bit as fast going down as he was going up.  Not before long, he was out of sight and I was left to enjoy the smooth, rolling singletrack by myself.  I eventually caught up and before we knew it, we had logged  nearly 15 miles.  I wasn’t expecting to ride for that long, but was glad I did, since the downhill was as fun as anything I experienced in southern California.

The long weekend was off to a great start and it was about to get better as we had the Kirkwood 9 to 5 coming up in a few hours…

08/01/09 – Kirkwood 9 to5

(This is where I expect Vince to chime in with his race report.)

As the weekend approached, I had the difficult task of choosing where to ride. There were two rides posted over at www.dirttreaders.com that piqued my interest: Lake Calavera and Sweetwater. I ended up choosing Sweetwater since I had ridden Calavera many times and was just there a few weeks ago. I rode Sweetwater once previously – over two years ago and it was a bit of an exploratory ride. I was looking forward to checking out some new dirt and getting a “tour” from someone who knew the trails well.

I knew the day was going to turn into a scorcher when I had the a/c running at 7am as I was making the drive to the trailhead. We had 8 riders total, and off we went. The pace was nice and mellow, and considering the rising temperature, I had no complains even though this was supposed to be a “training” ride for the Kirkwood race. During the first short climb, we were caught by one of the guys from the DT community… he was out for a morning jog.

The trail consisted of 90% singletrack. It was mostly rolling, but there was one brutal climb and a couple of fun downhill sections thrown in.  Overall, it wasn’t very technical, but the fun factor was still relatively high.

Sweet singletrack and the climb ahead

Two legs are sometimes faster than two wheels

After several switchbacks, some more HAB, and a bit of complaining, we finally reach the top

Finally, some descending

(The chick in front was on a nearly 20 yr old fully rigid Gary Fisher.  She was on a business trip from the east coast and really wanted to ride)

Some much needed shade

We ended up logging in a little less than 13 miles.  Apparently, there are a lot more trails and route options than what we did today, so I am definitely looking forward to going back.  My thermostat read 99 degrees when we finished, so I may wait a few weeks before my return.  It’s good to be able to add another trail to ride regularly, and even better to know that there’s always a fun group to ride with.

The final stats: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/9125524

P.S. – I am not even close to being in race form

5th Wheel Cycling Team will be represented at the Kirkwood 9 to 5, an inaugural endurance mountain bike race put on by veteran Northern Calif. race organizers Team Big Foot. 5th Wheel founders Dennis Lui and Vince Camiolo will be racing as a two-man team. Friend of the team, Matthew Sonetto will serve as team support.

In this format, teams of one to four complete as many laps on the 6+ mile course as they can within eight hours, one team member on the course at a time (a relay). This is the first race of this format for 5th Wheel.

Kirkwood, a Lake Tahoe-area resort, will host the eight hour relay event; what many hope will be an annual race.