The 2018 imtbtrails Spring Get Together in Wrightwood

Well?
2018 imtbtrails Spring "Meet and Greet" in Wrightwood? . . . . Happened!
There were a lot of the usual suspect Hooligans, and a surprising volume of first attenders!
Naturally, this gets Mikie very giddy!

The whole goal of a Club Ride is to get folks out there and meet often for the first time. To put a face to screen name, and that is very important.

@Cornholio said it well at Ride 4 Rwanda, "Man! Now that I have met you guys I got to be nicer to you online!" That was hilarious! But it also has an element of truth to it in us all.

Blown away how everyone was on time. Saddened as some ended up not making it, both in planned due to last minute updates here, and some who ended up not making it the morning of. Some of my local buds @CBone who brought Rick and Tony from Pedal Mulisha out in the Antelope Valley! But I always say, "Everyone that made it were the ones supposed to be there this time."

We had a very diverse group this time and that is awesome! But what comes with that is the challenge of putting a ride together that all of us can survive and what will satisfy others. I would say for today's roster, we hit it pretty close.

A couple of things right off...
To the big miles people? Thank you for your graciousness. I think only at a imtbtrails club ride does everyone have such big smiles and patience. We have proven this a couple of times now that we know how to social ride!

To the people this was a stretch ride? I am so damn proud of you! Pace, character, and tenacity are the secret ingredients and you all nailed it!

Also, big thanks to @Voodoo Tom and @Maddog for running sweep and everyone that stopped at junctions to make sure no one got lost.

To everyone that brought grub for others and if I try to list them i will leave someone out but I know for a fact there was Hot Dog Steve and Hot Links Scottay! Ha hah!

So the route I chose upon surveying my unsuspecting "victims" was a pretty simple layout and had a little of everything in it. Boyscout, to the fire road, the fire road over to Log Jammer, up Fault Line t the highway, to Leprechaun and then the ugly climb back to Jackson Lake. That left options for extra credit but also gave a well rounded ride to all that were there for the first time.


Everyone has pretty much said it all below as I am posting up here pretty much last!
But I do want to throw out there a shout out to my good buddy @blixet ! I was not sure how to do this as I did not want him to feel self conscious or anything but as he has posted about the ride making humorous statements at himself, laughing at himself in good nature, this is telling me he is a good solid dood.

I want to raise a brew to Blixet! To a good natured guy that finished WELL! For someone who rides at almost exclusively 200 feet above sea level to come up to nearly 8,000 feet and ride and climb some long grinders? I salute you! I'm glad I twisted your arm to stick around afterwards. What really pisses me of is I did not apparently get one pick of you that day!

We will have another 2018 imtbtrails "Meet and Greet" Social ride in Fall at another location. I encourage all of you to attend. It's a no drop social pace ride and grill afterwards. Come for the ride... stay for the friendship!

So I'm just going to post the pics I took and let them tell the story.
it would be really awesome of you to grab a pic of your self, post it back here and share your day's experience. Something funny? How much you hate my guts from the climbing or technical, or crash! Yup! You can blame it all on me. Just like J did!

 

A couple more Pics Since I maxed out the uploads per post.

 

Really quick.... you are the man @Mikie thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Today ruled!

 

Ok I got the popcorn ready. Let the reportage commence. Make me jealous

 

Quick photo dump
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Jennifer and I both had a wonderful time. Some new dirt for both of us. Strava doesn't have a time allotment for taking pics so I only took a couple of my bike when we regrouped.

 

This one is a little too big and complicated to sum up. I think it will have to come together piece by piece.

And yes, I concur with Kevin @Redman - fantastic job by host @Mikie and sweep @Voodoo Tom for making this a memorable event.

I'll attempt a roll call of IMTB participants (and others):
@Mikie @Voodoo Tom @mtnbikej @horsebikerider @Faust29, Amy, @AKAlan @Maddog @kingaucho @Fijirob @blixet @LLPoolJ, Eric, @UPSed, Jennifer, @CBone @scottay @Redman @mtbMike @Stkx66 @herzalot - hmm there was a Tony, a George, a Rick and a Ray. Maybe others...

With guest appearances from @burt at the start and @bigringrider101 at the end.

We rolled to a line at 9:00 am for a briefing from Coach Mikie. He took the temperature of the group to see if there were huge discrepancies in the size of ride people wanted to do. We all agreed to head up Boy Scout and figure it out from there. Off we went. Lovely conga line up a fire-road and then through the woods under crystal blue skies, nice temps, smooth singletrack and no flies (yet). Boy Scout is an easy gradient singletrack climb of 2.7 miles. It does get a wee bit exposed and narrow. More on this later.

After Boy Scout, the group agreed to climb the fire-road to loop to Logjammer trail. That was fun. We spit back out onto Big Pines hwy, climbed a bit, then hit Leprechaun. That's where it got interesting. A few crashes in places where the trail kind of disappeared into off camber fluff or hidden turns. Those tricky Irish Elves! I was chasing @horsebikerider - which is not easy. She flies. But she lost the front end of the bike and turned into a puff of powdery dirt. She was not hurt. Soon after, we happened upon another victim - maybe Rob? We passed them, and I let @scottay take off in front of me. He knows the trail and smokes it on his pretty new Ripmo. A couple of low trees brought me to a stop to crawl under, but otherwise a fun run.

Fire-road climb out of the drainage back to Big Pines Highway and we got really spread out. There were some flies here, but an occasional breeze helped and they weren't bad. We regrouped in the shade by Jackson Lake while we waited probably 20 minutes for all to show up. I'll let @mtnbikej tell you what happened to him.

That's a start. I can see that others have started to reply, so who knows what they are typing?

 

More dumpage
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Big ol Yucca
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Continuing...

After our prolonged regroup in the shade tree by the lake, most decided we had not yet had enough and needed to add something. So we headed back to the parking lot, said buh bye (temporarily) to those who were done and took off for another climb up Boy Scout, this time to turn around and descend same. By this time, my legs were telling me we were nearing the 3000' mark, but my Runtastic app was way off, claiming like a million feet already climbed. Partway up the fire-road to BS, @Mikie decided he should return to camp and play host, since most of the party was there. What a guy!

As we entered the singletrack, I was with Steve @Stkx66. He was nearing the end of his energy for today, and had walked a bit of the fireroad (at my riding pace, ironically). I told him it was an out and back, so turn around when he got tired. I guess he didn't hear me. Later I learned that he was yelling and making noise to get my attention to wait for him. I am sorry about that, Steve. I looked back after I didn't hear you behind me and assumed you had turned around. What a jerk I am.

Halfway up Boy Scout, I caught up to Kevin, who was also nearing the end of his legs for the day. He soldiered on with a couple of stops and about eight of us regrouped at the top, including Amy, Scottay, Faust, Redman, Suzanne (?), Eric, JJ and Ed. Scottay led the descent, I think. I was still putting on my elbow pads as most headed down. Then it was just Kevin and Faust and me. I led. I was very nervous about carrying speed at the exposed, narrow, soft parts of the trail, so Kevin and Steve caught me pretty quickly. I just don't want to make a mistake there, so thanks for your patience. About halfway down, the trail widens and it becomes safer to go fast - so we did. Five of them headed to one more short little section called Ricky-Bobby, and Kevin and I just headed down the fireroad back to camp.

Kevin and I did exactly the same ride. My Runtastic said 19.9 miles and 5300' - mileage sounds right, but elevation sounds way off. Kevin's STRAVA said 4242' - 19.9 miles. I was surprised by the elevation. I figured about 3500 based on my legs. OK. I'll take it.

Then - the BBQ and beers - and smack talk.

 

This is the line-up to drop into Leppy. It was funny because Mikie had waited down lower for the re-group
and as we got closer to the top, they started to drop in. He was like "maaaan, they just couldnt wait!"
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And this is HorsebackRiders lil get off. Ironically (?) I have this on video, and she is saying " I pulled a Jason!".
And we all know what happened to him soon after.....
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Can you post her video?

 

Janky Bridge, Low Clearance, crash aftermath
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Dang, that tree is huge

 

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Yeah, I rolled up after she got up, so I didnt catch the action! I'll post it later tho.
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It was great to get out on some new trails and puts some faces to the screen names of quite a few people. I was hoping evdog and Snake Charmer would show up since I’ve “known” them thru MTBR for several years. Long drive from Oceanside but I’d definitely come back for a weekend trip in the Fall, especially if I have a guide or two or 20. Hint, hint...I should have stayed and did the bonus loop since traffic on the 215, 60 and then 15 caused me to miss the event I left early for.

 

Great to finally meet you Herz. Tony and Rick were there. Fellow P-12 riders. Again, great group out there today.

 

Second crash aftermath, same trail.
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A couple more coming up Boy Scout

 

For the record, I was not pushing Mrs. JZilla. She took off a fair distance ahead of me. I was just trying to reel her in a bit when I saw the puff cloud!

3:17 on Steve's video shows our separation (and her speed). Hmmmm, 3:17. 3/17 St. Patrick's Day. Coincidence? I think so!

 

I think she was actually pulling away from both of us!
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So, who's up for joining me on a death march tomorrow???

At this point I should say you all suck, for being able ride when I could not. Looks like a great time (although the plethora of crashing and dust clouds, memorialized and implied, is surprising) and I will get up there some day.

 

Some landscape type shots taken by my buddy George

 

Big group today.....thought I heard a head count of 24?

Mellow climb up Boyscout. Surprised with the conga line that there weren't more bottlenecks and stops. Was also surprised that the group stayed somewhat tight.....not spread out over 10 miles of trail.



From the top of Boyscout we traversed over to Logjammer.....the traverse across was new dirt for me. Not bad at all. Got to chat with a few members along the way.

Down Logjammer......fast and flowy.....and dusty. Took off towards the front to avoid some of the dust. Then decided to stop here:



Followed Amy down the rest of the way. Then the traverse over to Leprechaun. @horsebikerider headed down, and I told @herzalot to follow her....so he did. I jumped in behind @Mikie and @UPSed jumped in behind me. We were pushing the pace pretty good. It was really dusty.....and the trail seemed even tighter than it did 2 weeks ago. Still a fun run. We got about 1/2 way down and in the giant cloud of dust, I saw the big rock on the side of the trail just in time to lift my foot over it before I clipped my pedal on it. Let's just say it kicked my over....i rag dolled down the side of the hill only to have my fall stopped by a large branch....or I would have ended up in the creek. The bike cartwheeled down the trail a little ways. Sat there for a minute or two to compose myself. Wasn't hurt....the dirt was soft there. The bike was all good except for the new grips were torn. Chest was a little tight and I could feel a charlie horse developing in my quad. So hopped back on, and continued down the trail....a little slower. By the time I reached the fire road climb my quad was pretty tight. The climb up the fire road was uncomfortable.

Regrouped at the top of the fire road climb next to Jackson Lake. This is where I learned that Suz had tasted some dirt as well. As we waited for the back of the pack to show up, my quad really tightened up. This would end my ride....fortunately we were only a minute from the car.

The group would split up.....some went home, some hung out at the lake, and the rest headed up for some extra credit.

Good to meet some of the newer members I hadn't met before. Good to see those that I see on more of a regular basis....always fun to ride with y'all.

Good gab and and good grub afterwards. Thanks to @Stkx66 for the dogs and @scottay for the HOT!!!!!! links.

Thanks @Mikie for putting this together.

 

4242' or 5,300'? Either way you are becoming one of THEM.
Nice ride Chris. That is a lot of elevation.

 

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short vid, incriminating evidence.
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https://www.pinkbike.com/video/488227/

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I blame it on this:


Mikie hooked me up with some of these drugs. I put one sampler pack into a water bottle on my bike (a new feature for me) and had my regular ol' water in my hydration pack. That and the fact that there were literally 0 sections steeper than like 10% for the entire ride.

After insulting the hive, I was forced to assimilate. I have ordered my hardtail 29er too. I love climbing... (to be read in an unemotional, robotic voice).

 

@1:01 is the rock that bit me.

 

Dang - nasty place to go down!