A Nice Birthday Jaunt

Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a
return to the trail we did last year on his birthday. Last year, we
were fewer in number- the Birthday Boy, Stan, Sorni, and myself. This
year we had the Birthday Boy (of course), Sorni, Cliff, Chris O, MTB
Bill, Eric, De Punkrat, and me.
The bike stats were interesting: three SSs, including one fully rigid.
Of the hardatils, all were handbuilts- Spot, Yeti, Sycip, Phil Wood,
Ibis, Titus. Only two bikes had rear suspension, and they belonged to
the Bills: Sorni's Titus and MTB Bill's Intense. All of us but MTB Bill
and Eric were running big, fat GEAX Sedona tires. The only flat was
Eric's pinch flat on a Fire xc Pro. Eric also had some shifting
problems, so I think he cornered the market on mechanicals.
Chris O had a Nite Rider 12E, and De Punkrat was running a pair of NR
Trail Rats. The rest of us had NR HID lights. Cliff, in his typical
over-the-top fashion, had two. None of us ran out of light, but Dan's
setup was woefully inadequate at best.

We met at the designated spot twenty minutes late, thanks to me and
Eric, and rush hour traffic. We set up our shuttle, and were on the
bikes by 8:30 or so. I'm not sure of the exact time. I do know,
however, that we got back to the cars at 1:24AM, and three hours is
believable for the ride we did.
Anyhow, we hit the trail, and immediately started some reasonably
technical climbing. The first few miles were uphill, and tight and
twisty. We stopped a few times to regroup, but we were keeping a pretty
good pace in general. Us SSers were going faster (by pure necessity,
believe me) than the MSers really wanted to do, so it was typically
Chris, Cliff and me doing the waiting.
The first long downhill stretch was a blast. I led out, with Cliff and
Michael insulting each other's skills. The trail was tight and twisty
still, but quite fast. A lot of the corners had deep sand right at the
apex, offering a little more exitement than there might have otherwise
been. Coming around a sharp downhill turn, I dropped my front wheel in
a rut and got into some front wheel pogo action. Thankfully, I rode it
out just fine, but Cliff, right behind me, became detached from his bike
at the same spot.
When the others showed up, we hollered at them to watch out, promptly
causing them all to nearly wreck.
Anyhow, after it had all died down but the shouting, we were off again.
We soon crossed another trail, causing those in the back to question
my navigational abilities. Now, I'm not naming names, but the rider who
was the most doubtful couldn't generally find his way out of a paper
bag, so... We resumed speed, and climbed for a while until we got to
the Big Downhill. This Downhill (and really, it must be capitalized) is
steep, except where it is Really Steep. It's also pretty rocky, with a
lot of switchbacks, and water bars constructed of shards of granite
(that's the type of stone we have here) stuck edge-in, so they resemble
stone knive sticking up 6-8 inches or so. Cliff had the most exciting
moment on the downhill, nearly riding off his namesake while balaced
precariously on his front wheel, feet unclipped and pointing straight
back, superman style.
At last we all gathered at the bottom of the Downhill. A truck pulled
up at that moment, some Border Patrol agents wondering who the heck we
were lighting the place up like that in the middle of nowhere in the
middle of the night. We talked to them a while then we split. We heaed
up the fire road, rather than the 1 1/2 mile hike-a-bike. MTB Bill had
something extra special to eat at the stop, so he set a furious pace on
the climb. No way was I going to let him get away with it, so I stuck
on him like glue the entire climb. Cliff, though, knew of a shortcut
and the ******* manged to get ahead of Bill and I. We were killing
ourselves to catch Cliff before the top, but he was working just as hard
to not let us erase his ill-gotten advantage. I have to add that the
advantage Cliff had was helped some by MTB Bill (who had never done this
ride before) and the other, navigationally challenged member of the
group heading the wrong way AT THE ONLY POSSIBLE SPOT on the fire road,
and then once again doubting me when I pointed out the error of their
ways...
We stopped for a snack at the big lookout rock at the top of the fire
road climb, but pretty much all we could see was blackness where the
hills were, and kerjillions of stars all spangling in the sky. We
spotted a few meteors, and some aiplanes trying to pass themselves off
as stars, too.
Back to the singletrack, and more climbing. It was in this section
that MTB BIll's Spider decided to throw him off the trail, and then leap
on him. Oddly enough, I have a photo taken on another ride of another
rider and his bike doing the same thing in almost exactly the same
spot... After a while the trail turned from a climb into more rolling
terrain, and then into a ncie longish technical downhill. Plenty of
fun. Unfortunately, De Punkrat had run out of water by this time, and
was suffering. We tanked him back up, but this wasn't to be the last of
his miseries.
After the steam crossing, we did some more climbing, and rolling
terrain, and downhills. Eventually we got to the pavement. A short
climb and descent later, and we were back at the cars.
We headed back into town for a late night meal at Denny's. De Punkrat
was lucky to have made it to the Denny's, as he bonked SUPER-HARD on the
drive back into town. We ate, flirted with the sorority girls that were
clogging up the place, then went home.
As it was a night ride, nobody took any photos or video, but I posted
some old photos of the trail on my server at

http://24-25-22-11/~mdtodd/

All in all, it was an excellent ride.

"miles todd" wrote in message
...
Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a
return to the trail we did last year on his birthday. Last year, we
were fewer in number- the Birthday Boy, Stan, Sorni, and myself. This
year we had the Birthday Boy (of course), Sorni, Cliff, Chris O, MTB
Bill, Eric, De Punkrat, and me.

{Major Snippage, at your service}

On a positive note, I wasn't seeing blurry highway signs at end of ride this
year like last.

Also, I have a fat Geax on the front still, but went back to my "tubless"
Hutchinson on the rear.

Nice write-up, MT.

Bill "no one told me there'd be sorority girls at Denny's" S.

"miles todd" wrote in message
...
Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a
return to the trail we did last year on his birthday. Last year, we
were fewer in number- the Birthday Boy, Stan, Sorni, and myself. This
year we had the Birthday Boy (of course), Sorni, Cliff, Chris O, MTB
Bill, Eric, De Punkrat, and me.
**snip**
We ate, flirted with the sorority girls that were
clogging up the place, then went home.
As it was a night ride, nobody took any photos or video, but I posted
some old photos of the trail on my server at

http://24-25-22-11/~mdtodd/

All in all, it was an excellent ride.


Great write-up! The link isn't working??
--
Slacker

"miles todd" wrote in message
...
Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a
return to the trail we did last year on his birthday. Last year, we
were fewer in number- the Birthday Boy, Stan, Sorni, and myself. This
year we had the Birthday Boy (of course), Sorni, Cliff, Chris O, MTB
Bill, Eric, De Punkrat, and me.
snip adventure

Damn, that sounds like a lot of fun. Drama n' everything!

Thanks for the write-up.

Matt

PS was it fungus or something more benign?

Slacker wrote:


Great write-up! The link isn't working??
--
Slacker



Oops. Try http://24-25-222-11/~mdtodd/


Miles

"miles todd" wrote in message
...
Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a

SNIP

Let's not forget that the B-day boy had early onset Alzheimer's by locking
his fork out for the fireroad climb and then promptly leaving it locked out
for the remaining 60% or so of the ride!

I knew I was feeling a bit "off" on all the downhill's for the rest of the
ride but it wasn't until we were halfway to Denney's where I said "Fock, I
think I was locked out for most of the second half of hte ride!"

Nice write up and nice ride

Michael

"Michael Paul" wrote in message
...

"miles todd" wrote in message
...
Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a

SNIP

Let's not forget that the B-day boy had early onset Alzheimer's by locking
his fork out for the fireroad climb and then promptly leaving it locked
out
for the remaining 60% or so of the ride!



I won't remind you that you called me a dumbass for having my REAR shock
locked out for first third of ride.

Bill "heavy hard tail" S.

On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 04:31:23 +0000, miles todd wrote:


Great write-up! The link isn't working??

Oops. Try http://24-25-222-11/~mdtodd/

http://24.25.222.11/~mdtodd

--
a.m-b FAQ: http://www.j-harris.net/bike/ambfaq.htm

a.bmx FAQ: http://www.t-online.de/~jharris/bmx_faq.htm

miles todd wrote in message .. .

All in all, it was an excellent ride.

nice

JD Wheeler

Michael Paul wrote:
"miles todd" wrote in message
...

Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a


SNIP

Let's not forget that the B-day boy had early onset Alzheimer's by locking
his fork out for the fireroad climb and then promptly leaving it locked out
for the remaining 60% or so of the ride!

I knew I was feeling a bit "off" on all the downhill's for the rest of the
ride but it wasn't until we were halfway to Denney's where I said "Fock, I
think I was locked out for most of the second half of hte ride!"

Nice write up and nice ride

Michael



And here I was, leaving out the most embarrassing details of your (and
Sorni's) lapses, but yet you both chimed in to tell the world what
chowderheads you are. Sometimes I'm just not too sure about you two...

Miles