Life...Behind Bars

Deer Trail:

 

Waterworks.

 

So wiiiiide...

 

I thought you meant the trail.

 

A few days late...

 

Jennifer's life behind bars....overlooking Simi Valley....

 

Blackstar

 

Chino hills

 

A few days late....

 

I think it's time for new grips.

 

Getting every penny out of them!!!

 

Bell Ridge

 

Shakedown ride with the new whip at the top of 5 Oaks. Fak it was crowded today

 

I see you, San Jacinto!

 

Looking over the charred hills from the top of Dreaded

 

Backbone...

 

Experimenting with handlebar width?

 

HARDING

 

Awesome!!!!

 

Deer Trail, one of my faves:

 

A few days late...

I finally rode Palm Canyon Epic


Opted to go right instead of doing Indian Potrero



Before the top of Hahn:

 

GREAT! How were trail conditions? Any drama?

 

Trail conditions were outstanding. The wash wasn't even that bad, (I mean it sucked, but it wasn't that bad.)

I was discouraged early in the ride, realizing that in spite of a lot of planning I was over my head with regard to both fitness AND skill. I'm used to being the slow, fat rider in the group, but realizing my skills have atrophied a lot over the past year was a rude awakening. But we got to the midpoint much faster than I thought we would, and none of us had a really bad crash. 2 of us (from a group of 6,) backtracked from the top of Hahn and took the Dunn bailout. In contrast to the rest of the trail it was very rutted.

One area where the planning worked was nutrition. I brought food, but didn't end up eating any of it until after the ride. I had 6 hours of Tailwind packed into two bottles hummingbird food style and another bottle of water and 3L of water on my back. Constantly sipping the water and drinking the Tailwind at set intervals was plenty. Zero hunger or thirst until I was off the trail.

On the trail when things were most challenging, the thought, "I really never need to do this trail again" kept going through my head. But before the day was over that changed to "I want to come back with full suspension." And within a couple of days it had changed to "If I make some slightly better tire/wheel choices and work on my skills & fitness, I can do this on the hardtail again." I've been thinking about it all week. I am developing a new plan to address the minor shortcomings of the bike and the more significant shortcomings of the rider. I'm going back.

 

Great, thanks for the perspective! I'll be on a squishy bike, so have that covered. Tailwind in the mail, so have that covered. Skills and fitness... what could possibly go wrong!

 

I started the trail hot on the wheels of Bobby who was right behind Vincent. It was a fun pace but the close calls started stacking up FAST. I calmed down a bit and let everyone in the group pass. In spite of watching multiple videos where the filmers said "GoPro does not do this justice" the steepness and technicality of the beginning part took me by surprise. I think a few visits to Aliso, Oaks, Hulda, and Southridge will get me back up to speed on the steep and technical bits. I was getting scared on things I would have done on the full rigid half a decade ago.