RR: SDMBA Cuyamaca Night Ride

Tonight I had the opportunity to do my first night ride, courtesy of the SDMBA and their biannual Cuyamaca Night Ride. I had this circled on my calendar ever since I heard about it more than a month ago, because at that time I had never ridden Cuyamaca, and had wanted to try a night ride for a while now. Plus I would be able to cross another goal off of my 2008 Goal List.

I had planned on driving up to Cuyamaca by myself, since I didn't know anyone else who was going to this event. However I received a private message on STR from Sol, another San Diego rider who was planning on doing the ride and had lost his carpool partner. We arranged to meet up at a park and ride in Mira Mesa, and were under way around 5:30 or so.

Sol is a neat guy, and as I would find out, an excellent rider. We got to know one another during the drive up to Cuyamaca, and we got there around 6:40 or so. We parked in a dirt lot about a half mile before where Billy and I started for this same ride a couple weeks ago. I was already dressed, and after getting my demo light from the folks at SDMBA and signing in, I was excited to get started.

Sol helped me get my light attached to my bike and set up properly, and then the group gathered for some last minute instructions about the buddy system and ride rules.

Sol had his game face on. After the brief spiel, we were off. There were about 35 people there, and about 30 of us started out in one huge "intermediate" group. Behind us a few guys stayed to form an expert group that planned on getting going a few minutes later.

We crossed Sunrise Highway and headed for some singletrack that Billy and I hadn't ridden two weeks ago. It was a fun section, with some relatively easy up and downs and a couple of switchbacks. I was just happy to be riding singletrack, because I knew a large portion of the rest of the ride would be fire road. The singletrack meandered for about a mile or so, and then we emerged from the tree covering and crossed back over Sunrise Highway and entered the parking lot that Billy and I had parked in before.

At that point, the route the group intended to take was identical to my ride a couple of weeks earlier, but circumstances dictated a slight deviation for me tonight.

We crossed through the campground and over to the main fire road that would take us up the first climb. Sol took this shot over his shoulder of me and a guy from SDMBA chatting as we rode along the fire road.

Here was my angle:

As we rode the fire road along toward Soapstone, I was generally feeling like crap. I was tired, my stomach was a mess, and I was drifting from the first third of the pack farther and farther back. I couldn't figure out why I felt as bad as I did. I hadn't eaten dinner, but had eaten a MetRx meal replacement bar right before we had started riding, so maybe that had something to do with it. I had actually had a very strong ride at this same trail just two weeks earlier, so something was definitely amiss.

On top of my own struggles, the pace of the group was pretty fast, at least compared to what I'm used to. We weren't regrouping/resting as often as I had two weeks ago, and the pace even on the flats was pretty brisk.

I kept falling farther back in the pack, and by the time the group stopped at the Soapstone intersection, I was one of the last 5 or 6 riders and seriously considered turning back. If I had driven myself, I probably would have. The most frustrating thing was that on this very route just weeks earlier, I had felt like I was making some strides with my riding and conditioning. Now tonight I was falling apart.

Here we were at the regroup:

I really didn't want to quit, but with the way I felt I couldn't imagine doing the sustained climb up Soapstone to the right which lead to the fun singletrack. One of the SDMBA leaders offered to lead anyone who wanted to cut some of the ride short up Soapstone to the left, which was steeper than the main route but considerably shorter. I wasn't excited about the humiliation of riding with the beginner group, and even less excited about riding up something steeper than the trail to the right, but I was not going to hang with the intermediate crowd tonight.

So I and three others took Soapstone left, while the rest of the riders headed straight up the hill to the fun section. In retrospect, it turned out to be the right choice.

The climb up Soapstone was brutal for me, and I ended up HABing the last half of it or so. The other four people with me were able to ride the whole thing, solidifying my role as the weakest link. I HABed as fast as I could, and the last rider before me was on the bike but pedaling slow, and I made it to the top of Soapstone just a few minutes after she did. Daylight was waning at that point, and I took this picture to the south during the middle of the climb, and the one after it just before the summit.

After a 30 second rest at the top, I was back on the bike and we were off and riding again. From there the route was identical to my ride with Billy a couple weeks ago, until the very end.

We rode along a rutted fire road, along Sunrise Highway for a short bit, then up Milk Ranch Road to Azalea Springs. We didn't stop or rest at all until a 30 second break on the way up Milk Ranch Road when one of the rider's chain slipped off. Even without any breaks, I was feeling much better than I had at the beginning of the ride, and was keeping pace with my fellow members of the "B group." At the bottom of Milk Ranch we finally turned on our lights, and I was fairly impressed with the performance of my light. It cast a wide beam and illuminated the trail enough to ride confidently, especially uphill on a graded fire road.

I began to struggle a little bit during the climb up Azalea Springs, and had to HAB the short steep section at the beginning. From there I was able to stay on the bike, but my pace fell way off and the rest of the group opened up a small gap that forced me to rely on only my light for illumination. I just put my head down and chugged along, and made it to the top where the water was sooner than I expected. I found that in the dark, I couldn't see how much trail I had in front of me, and it was easier to just put my head down and pedal than during the day.

We rested for another 30 seconds at the water spot, then continued the climb up Azalea to the top of the mountain. This was the spot where Billy had his mechanical last time, and it was nice to just ride by and start the downhill without hanging out up there for an hour.

The downhill was a nice change after all of the climbing, and descending the rocky, rutted fire road in the dark was much more fun than it had been during the daylight two weeks earlier. I generally rode in second position, behind another rider who was flying down the hill. I kept pace for the most part, and finally it was me waiting for the others during the regroups rather than the other way around.

We rode down Azalea Springs fire road to Fern Flat fire road to Pipeline fire road. This time, instead of taking Pipeline directly to the 79 like we had two weeks ago, we took Pipeline south, and rode it for another mile and a half or so until it rejoined the singletrack we had ridden at the very beginning of the evening. We rode that singletrack for a short distance, and then found ourselves crossing over the 79 back at the parking lot.

It felt good to be done, and by the end of the ride I was generally upbeat. I had been a mess at the beginning, and while I was still slow overall, had rallied considerably to at least not be an anchor for the climbs in the middle and performed well on the downhill. This trail is still not a favorite of mine, and not one I'd ride again soon. It has way too much fire road, and way too much climbing without a real payoff.

The night riding aspect of this ride was interesting, however. For one thing, the weather was flawless, and I rode in a short sleeve jersey and baggy MTB shorts the whole time without ever getting cold. It wasn't difficult riding with the light, because it was pretty high powered and the collective lights of the group provided plenty of illumination. I didn't see any wildlife, though which was a bit of a disappointment.

The group riding aspect of this ride was another matter. I haven't done a lot of group rides with people I don't know, and after my last few experiences, I think I'll be avoiding them for a while. I just think that most of the people in group rides are considerably better riders than I am, and it makes for a pretty stressful experience for me trying to keep up.

For example, I struggled to keep up at Sweetwater earlier this month, and felt a little out of place with the speedsters in that group. I did have a good time with Sean and Dave G. at Hodges back in May, but felt bad holding them (especially Dave) back considerably on the ride back to the cars. Also, I hung pretty well at the SMaRT ride a couple of weeks ago with the STR crew, but still battled on some of the uphills and if not for one or two others I would have been the clear weak link. And lets not mention my poor showing at Calavera back in March and the debacle that was Daley in February.

To be clear, I enjoy riding with others, and have been fortunate to meet some really neat people through mountainbiking. And to the person, everyone I've ridden with has been gracious and encouraging when I've fallen behind or struggled to keep up. But being an anchor stresses me out, and I ride to escape the stress in my life, not create more. I'm also not accustomed to not excelling at something. Its hard for me to be at the back (or very end) of the pack. I'll continue to work on my conditioning, and will still join the occasional group ride if I know someone that is going or if the ride is specifically geared toward a more social (read: slower) crowd. I thought after a pretty good showing at Black Mountain two weeks ago and a strong ride at Cuyamaca right a few days later that I had begun to build some riding strength and ability. But tonight's ride seemed to be a setback, and I'll need to reevaluate where I need to go from here.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 17.81 miles
Total Time: 2:47:37
Ascent: 2256 feet
Average Speed: 6.4 mph
Top Speed: 29.1 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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RR: Santa Rosa Plateau

Today I had the opportunity to do my first "out of town" ride, and it actually surpassed all of my expectations. I've been doing pretty well working my way through my 2008 Goals List, but still had not done a ride outside of the San Diego area this year, which is one of the goals on the list. But thanks to some neat circumstances, that was about to change.

I had signed up for a morning training for the Truth Project at Calvary Chapel Murrieta, and after talking to Doug and Scott at the SMaRT ride on Wednesday, realized that the Santa Rosa Plateau was almost right across the street from the church. It was too perfect a scenario, and I was worried that something would come along and complicate it. Something did.

Friday afternoon my boss asked me to host our summer intern for a few days over the weekend before the intern's regular host family returned from vacation. I had no choice but to agree, and now I had a houseguest.

I had already registered for the seminar, so there was no skipping that. But I felt bad spending another couple hours out of town while the intern was stuck at my house, so I had almost resigned myself to skipping the ride. Then I was struck with a brilliant idea: I would bring the intern to the seminar, and then drag him along on the trail! It was perfect: the Truth Project is something he should be interested in anyway, the Santa Rosa Plateau is considered a beginner friendly ride, and I still had my old FSR that he could ride. It was all coming together.

Friday night he arrived at my house and I began laying the groundwork convincing him to go along with my plan. The seminar was an easy sell, but he was a little more reticent about the biking. He told me he did ride a road bike back home, and over the course of the evening he seemed to be coming around. Around 8:30 PM I quickly switched out the clipless pedals on the FSR for some flats, and he finally caved in. My ride was saved!

We left early Saturday morning for the seminar, and the bonus was that he offered to drive since he had a Prius. With gas prices out of control, the hybrid was way better than my Tahoe, and I was stoked.

The seminar was scheduled to end at 12:30, but instead ran until a little after 1, and we arrived late to the trailhead. When we got there I saw Scott's car parked at the trailhead and was surprised to see that he had decided to show up last minute. Because we were late, however, he had already left on the ride. I felt terrible, but since we didn't exchange numbers and I wasn't sure he was even coming, I had no way to warn him we were running late.

We parked at the Santa Rosa Ecological Preserve Visitor's Center, paid our $2 each for the facility usage, and quickly changed into riding clothes.

The Visitor's Center:

Here is the intern, ready to go:

I had been extremely worried about the heat, which was forecast to reach 110 degrees, but actually it wasn't that bad. The temperatures were over 100, but there was a nice breeze that kept the heat from being overwhelming. We also spent about half the time riding under canopies of trees, which helped as well.

After gearing up and consulting our maps, we headed across the street and up to the Tovashal trailhead. I was planning to follow this geoladder's route, which we did to the letter. A helpful STR member had private messaged me an interesting addition to the route, which I would have taken had I been solo. But with a first-time mountainbiker with me, I figured we'd stick to the easy stuff.

We rode along the Tovashal trail for about a mile, and then turned right on to the Sylvan Meadows fire road. Across from us was the expanse of what had to be Sylvan Meadow, and it was a scenic landscape, even with the grass having turned brown and dry with the recent heat.

After half a mile we turned uphill a bit, and rode up the Shivela trail. Things got a little interesting there for the intern, as he struggled with some of the moderate climbs and rocky sections. The trail was still beginner friendly, and he did pretty well for a first-timer, but he still had a few puffing HAB's.

After another half mile, we turned right and continued uphill on the Stevenson Canyon trail. This was a fun section for me, with a nice easy climb that had a few rocky spots, but nothing particularly difficult.

The intern gamely battled on. We headed up Stevenson Canyon trail until we passed a gate, and according to the geoladder's route, needed to turn around and head back to the Shivela trail. If we had continued up the hill a little farther, we would have connected with the section the guy from STR had told me about, but I wasn't about to push the intern any farther at that point. He wasn't complaining or looking that bad, but it was clear he was struggling somewhat.

The trail continued uphill as you can see here, but we didn't explore any farther:

We turned around to head back the way we came. Here is a picture of the gate we passed though back down the Stevenson Canyon trail:

The downhill from there was a lot of fun. I opened it up a little, and had fun flying down the trail. I stopped to wait for the intern at a point on the trail where I could see a singletrack offshoot to the right of the Stevenson Canyon trail. I wasn't sure from the geoladder's route whether we should take it or not, but after waiting for the intern to catch up, we decided to go for it.

I'm so glad we did.

The next half mile or so of trail is among the most fun I've ever ridden. Seriously. It was under a canopy of trees, along a small creek, and was swoopy, narrow singletrack. The trail was a little off camber in parts, and it was just a blast. It was a little like the tunnels at LPQ, but the tree canopy was much higher than the tunnels. I flew through that section, my bike rising and falling with the undulations of the trail. It was awesome.

I did stop to wait for the intern near the end, and took this picture:

The picture doesn't do it justice.

Eventually, after far too short a distance, that trail re-linked up with the Stevenson Canyon trail we had ridden up, and I was re-oriented.

I got to the bottom, and soon thereafter the intern caught up:

At the end of Stevenson Canyon trail, we headed right and hooked back up with the Shivela trail.

From there we crossed a bridge, and rode a mile or so of fun singletrack until we ran into Sierra Elena Road. We headed left, and quickly crossed Tenaja Road and linked up with the Fenceline trail.

Fenceline trail is aptly named.

I wish I had taken a picture of the Fenceline trail at the beginning, because it could have served as the dictionary representation of singletrack. It runs right along the fence, parallels Tenaja road, and was a lot of fun to ride. It had several gradual descents followed by easy climbs, and it was at this point the intern started to have some fun.

Because the Fenceline trail was smooth, buffed singletrack, he wasn't as afraid to open up his speed a little. There were no rocks or technical features to get in his way, and the descents were gradual but sustained, so he had time to build some speed. As we got to the end of Fenceline, he remarked that he had no idea that someone could go that fast on a mountainbike and not die. I think he was probably going 15 mph at the most. But the look of joy on his face was awesome.

From the end of Fenceline, we again crossed Tenaja Road and crossed through a dirt parking lot. At that point we started on the Nighthawk Loop trail and beared left at the fork in the road. After riding half of the Nighthawk Loop, we veered left again and took the Mortero trail. On the side of the trail I spotted a large rock grouping that I think had at one point been a single large boulder. I wanted to ride over it, and did it the first time without hesitation. It was fun and pretty easy, and I realized that this would be a good chance to get a picture of myself out on the trail. I have relatively few pictures of myself because I'm always the one taking the pictures, but this time I had the intern with me, so this was the perfect circumstance to get a nice action photo.

I handed the intern the camara, positioned him next to the boulder, and headed back up the trail to get a running start at the boulder. I adeptly rode up and over it, and stopped immediately afterward to survey his camarawork. Lets just say it was subpar.

I ended up sessioning that boulder eight times before we had a decent shot, and for the one that worked, I practically trackstanded in the middle in order to give him time to get a worthwhile pic. Lets just say photography isn't in the intern's future.

Here are two of the one's that came out OK:



After the boulder we continued along the Mortero trail until it intersected with Sylvan Meadows Road again. Just before we hit Sylvan Meadows, I was riding along the trail and hit a small, two foot drop that was pretty fun. Despite the camara problems we had had just minutes earlier, I couldn't pass up another opportunity for a cool picture of me in action, and I set up another shot.

Apparently, all of the practice from shooting me on the boulder paid off, because the intern took this beauty on the first try:

It was a harder shot to get than the boulder one, because I was moving pretty fast, so I take back the rude comment about the intern not having a future in photography. He just needed some practice.

We rode along Sylvan Meadows Road for a mile or so, and passed a couple of singletrack offshoots that I would have liked to have taken had I been alone. They all seemed to hook back up with Sylvan Meadows pretty quickly, and I'll definately hit them next time. At this point, however, the intern was looking a little peaked.

After another half mile or so we found ourselves back on the Tovashal trail, and were getting close to the trailhead. I rode ahead a little, enjoying the last section of trail and trying to get some speed up for the final portion of the ride. This was a mistake.

I was riding down a minor descent, which had a medium sized rut right in the middle. The rut was easily avoidable by riding up above it on the trail, but I didn't do that for reasons that still escape me. Still, merely riding in the rut shouldn't have been any big deal; I should have just been able to ride it out until a good spot presented itself to get my tire back up on the edge of the trail.

But before that spot decided to show itself, the trail turned sharply to the right. I was going too fast to follow the path of the rut as it turned, and found myself going OTB off the side of the trail, heading for a very large rock that was innocently sitting there in just the wrong spot.

I supermanned toward it, and hit it dead on. My right hand was out to brace myself, and my thumb jammed painfully right into the rock. My momentum was slowed just enough that neither my head nor rest of my body hit the rock, and the rest of me came to an abrupt stop right in front of it.

I got up and shook myself off. My thumb hurt a lot, and I took off my glove to see that it was bleeding under the nail, and was throbbing a little, but was otherwise OK.

I hopped back on the bike and finished the last section of the trail and waited for the intern at the trailhead. We made it across the street and back to the car without further incident, and our ride was over.

This trail was a lot of fun, and I guarantee I'll be back here again. I may even bring Rachel. The trails around Sylvan Meadow are definately newbie friendly, and even the other sections of Stevenson Canyon trail and Shivela are doable by almost any rider. But even with this trail's low level of difficulty, it is a blast to ride, and I never found myself bored or feeling like it wasn't worth riding.

Even the intern had a great time, though he suggested that we should have ridden the loop in the other direction, clockwise, in order to give him a little longer to get comfortable on the bike during the easy sections before hitting the climbs on the west side. He may have a point, but for all but the most newbies, I'd say the route we took would be best.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 7.62 miles
Total Time: 1:31:00
Ascent: 852 feet
Average Speed: 5.0 mph
Top Speed: 22.9 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:


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RR: Santa Margarita River Trail (SMaRT)

This evening I had a chance to do my first STR group ride out at the Santa Margarita River Trail. Joining me were Doug (Pacman), Bill (MTB Bill), Dan (Old Dog Dan), Alan (Dan's non-STR friend), Scott (Blue Rat), and Patrick (Team Fallbrook).

We rallied right on time at the trailhead at the end of North Stagecoach Road, and were on our way.

Doug had planned out the route ahead of time, and we started out down a short fire road.


From there we headed east along the 500 foot trail (so-named because it is 500 feet above sea level).

It was a great warm up; relatively flat and very scenic, with a little bit of undulation to keep things interesting. The impact of the 2007 fires was still evident, and Doug mentioned that the sandy double track we were riding had been singletrack in the past, before clean-up crews bulldozed much of it after the fires.

I enjoyed the 500 foot trail quite a bit. After a mile or so riding along the ridge above the river, we regrouped.

The trail dropped down into a tree covered section and we stopped just short of crossing the river.

From there, we apparently could have headed northeast and done some serious climbing on the other side of the river. Instead, we elected to do a short double back and take the Santa Margarita River Trail parallel to the river to the west.

The trail along the river was pretty neat. It was very scenic, and it was amazing to see how much the area had recovered since the fires in October.



We rode along at a moderate pace, and regrouped often.

There was one particularly steep climb along the river which some cleaned (Bill and Doug I think) and others didn't (Me). From there we rode a short downhill section, then wound our way through a fun rock garden section that lasted about a quarter mile or so. Doug apparently cleaned that as well, while I and several others had a few dabs. At one point in the rock garden, Scott had an awesome save and narrowly kept himself from going OTB headfirst. A few minutes later he was not so lucky, and ended up doing a graceful somersault into the bushes. True to form, however, he promptly jumped up unscathed.

After the rock garden section, we continued parallel to the river and passed through a rocky section that involved some short HAB's over some larger boulders. From there we rode a short distance to our turnaround point, the De Luz trailhead.

After a few minutes hanging out there, we headed back.

On the way back we took a short detour to a nice viewpoint overlooking the river. It was a sandy bog to get there, but the view was worth it. (Not sure this picture does it justice though.)

After that we had another relatively short but steep climb, followed by a fun descent back along the river. On the descent, Doug apparently nearly ran over Scott, and in so doing, Doug's front tire burped and lost some air. I don't know exactly what happened, so I'll have to let Doug fill in the details. Both lived to talk about it though, which is good.

We regrouped at a flat area near the end of the fire road that we had taken down from the trailhead, and were back at the cars soon thereafter. We spent quite a bit of time talking and hanging out at the trailhead after the ride was over, and I enjoyed getting to know everyone better.

This was a great experience for me as part of my first STR group ride. I've done other group rides before, but almost always with people I already knew well , so this was new to me. The pace was social and enjoyable after a long day at work, the company was great, and the trail was scenic with plenty of features to make it fun and interesting.

Thanks to Doug for playing tourguide, and to everyone else who came along and making my first STR ride a great experience. I hope to ride with all of you again sometime soon.

[Edit] The above description was posted on STR. Here are a couple of additional thoughts that I wanted to remember later, but didn't necessairly want all over STR.

First, it was great to finally get to meet and ride with Doug. Having read his blog for months, and corresponding by email and message board for a while, it was great to put a face with a screen name and blog personality. I hope we can ride together more often.

It was also pretty neat to meet and ride with Bill Porter, of MTB Bill fame. Like most others, I've used his site as a resource many times, and was pleased to learn that he is a totally down to earth, personable guy who was fun to ride with. I was a little worried that he wouldn't enjoy a 7 mile, relatively flat ride at a social pace, but he never showed a hint of impatience and didn't charge ahead or get annoyed. Really neat guy.

I've been hesitant to do an STR ride for a while, largely because I didn't want to be an anchor with a bunch of experienced riders that I didn't know. For today's ride, I was right about in the middle of the pack in terms of conditioning and ability, which was perfect, and I had a great time. Hopefully that is the case in future rides as well.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 7.30 miles
Total Time: 1:51:29
Ascent: 1161 feet
Average Speed: 3.9 mph
Top Speed: 22.7 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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RR: Cuyamaca Grand Loop

Today was a ride with the Skyline MTB group that has been on the calendar for a while. Even though Cuyamaca was not on my 2008 Ride List, I figured it would be a fun day and was looking forward to riding with friends.

As it turned out, Billy and I were the only ones who were able to make it, and we arranged last night to meet in La Mesa and carpool out to the mountains. The plans turned out perfect, and I was able to go to Performance Bike in La Mesa beforehand to get some supplies and use my coupon, and even dropped the Tahoe off at the Firestone where we met to get some long overdue work done.

We made it to the trailhead in Cuyamaca about 9:15, and were underway shortly there after. Just as we passed through the campground, we spotted a group of six or seven turkeys crossing the trail. I took a few pictures, but only this one really came out:

There were actually five or six turkeys. The others were camara shy.

The real ride started on a fire road outside of the campground and headed north. After a mile or so we exchanged the fire road for singletrack, and soon thereafter we began the first sustained climb of the day up part of the Soapstone fire road and the Upper Green Valley trail.

We climbed for about two or three miles, and it was a grind. Not super steep, and not technical, just sustained incline that proved tiring. I stopped and rested a couple times, but didn't HAB, and kept Billy in sight the whole time.

We reached the top of Upper Green Valley trail, and began a short singletrack descent that made its way along the road. It was pretty fun, and was narrow and swoopy for the most part. It was mostly nice to get a break from the climbing. The singletrack wound along a meadow, and I could see Lake Cuyamaca in the near distance.


From there we rode another half mile of singletrack, and after a short climb, found ourselves at an intersection. If we headed left, we would hook back up with the Soapstone fire road we rode at the very beginning, and the day would be over. If we headed right, we'd take the California riding and hiking trail to another system of trails, making it a much longer ride. We went right.

The next section was mostly fire road, and pretty rutted fire road at that. It was at least relatively flat, and we spun along enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. There was still some evidence of the 2003 fires, which reminded me of how long certain areas can take to recover from that kind of devastation.

The fire road dumped us out on to the 79 for a short road ride, and we then made our way over to Milk Ranch Road for the next climb of the day.


The climb up Milk Ranch Road was another grind, even harder than the first climb of the day had been. I had to rest two or three times, and my back was pretty stiff after being bent over for so long. Again, the grade wasn't particularly steep, and it was not techy, just long.

At the top of Milk Ranch Road, we hung a left and began another sustained climb up to Azeala Springs. This time, the climb began with a steep, sandy, rutted section that I tried to clean, but spun out about halfway up.

I HAB'ed the last 20 yards or so, and then re-mounted for the climb. I had actually been feeling pretty good up to that point, for a change. My nutrition had been good, and my stomach, which is usually the first thing to go, had been feeling great. Also, despite the sustained climbs, my lungs and legs had been feeling pretty good. During the final climb up to Azeala Springs, my legs started to fatigue, making this ride the first time that my legs started to go before my lungs or stomach. I counted that as a victory.

The Azeala Springs climb lasted another two miles or so, and this time Billy opened up a pretty big gap on me. I was spinning away, and didn't HAB except for the short section at the beginning, but my pace was slow. It was still fire road, but the scenery was pretty good.

I eventually caught up to Billy at the rest spot near the top of the hill, and we rested for a few minutes and drank from the spring water they had there.


After that it was another short climb (you can see a theme here) up to the very top of Azalea Springs, which I made without stopping.

After all of that climbing, I was ready for the payoff. But then came the mechanical.

Just as we crested Azalea Springs, Billy noticed his rear tire was low. We pumped it up, and we rode on for a few yards, but he could tell immediately that it was not holding air. This development was a little annoying, but not catastrophic, and flats on the trails are a part of riding. Plus, Billy had two spare slime tubes in his pack, so he was covered.

At least he should have been covered.

He popped the leaky tire off his bike, and threw a new tube on. Using his CO2 cartridges, he pumped up the new tube. As he replaced the tire, however, he realized that the new tube was not holding air. Upon further inspection, we spotted a slice in the tube, right along the seam.

We double checked the inside of the tire and the rim, but there were no lingering sharp objects that would have caused the slice. So we chalked it up to a faulty tube, and decided to try his other spare. He put that one on the rim, began pumping, and the same exact thing happened. Apparently, the slime tubes he had purchased had manufacturer defects.

And now we had a problem. I didn't have any spare tubes, and neither of us had brought a patch kit. After more than 35 minutes of screwing around with these tire changes, we were out of options. We were about six miles from the car, and Billy had no way to get air in his rear tire.

We brainstormed for a few minutes, and couldn't come up with any solutions.

Here was where we had stopped:

We had the option of walking his bikes down the paved road back to the 79, and then going and getting the truck from there. But after thinking about it, Billy estimated that the paved road was actually a longer route than continuing down Azalea Springs fire road to Fern Flat fire road and back to the car.

So he began walking.

He told me to ride on ahead and I could wait for him at the car, but I wasn't going to just leave him behind. So I would ride downhill for a half mile or so, and then turn around and climb back up to where he was walking and ride alongside him for a bit, then repeat.

After about 2o minutes of this routine, we realized it was going to be a very long walk back to the car, and began brainstorming about possible solutions again. We decided to try to cut up one of the defective slime tubes to use as a patch for the original tube that had two small punctures.

Using my leatherman I got for Christmas, we cut up a piece of the defective slime tube and tried to affix it as a patch over the punctured tube. That didn't work. The slime was slippery, and kept the tube from staying put over the hole.

Then we tried medical tape. Billy wrapped tape around the punctures, and that seemed to work. The tube at least held some air, and we threw the tire back on and shot down the downhill. It was rutted and rocky, and the vibration was significant. We had to stop every mile or so to put air in Billy's tire, but at least it was holding enough to let him ride it.

We got to the end of Fern Flat fire road, and took the Pipeline fire road north back to the 79 instead of south to the singletrack like we had planned before the mechanical.

After a half mile on the Pipeline fire road, we hit the 79, and did a mile or so road ride back to the truck to finish the ride.

This was not a "fun" ride. The climbs were long and sustained, and while I felt as good as I ever have climbing, and avoided HABing almost entirely, the climbs were not really enjoyable. The views were beautiful, and the weather was virtually perfect, which made the ride better than it would have been otherwise. But between the long climbs and mechanicals, it wasn't a ton of fun.

Also, this route was about 80% fire road, which is never ideal. While I don't mind climbing fire road to get to downhill singletrack, that was not the case here. For this route, it was fire road climb to flat short singletrack to fire road climb to fire road descent. Meh.

I enjoyed riding with Billy, and was pleased with my riding overall. It just wasn't a particularly fun route, and is not one I'd do again unless I had a specific reason.

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 20.07 miles
Total Time: 4:36:39
Ascent: 2705 feet
Average Speed: 4.4 mph
Top Speed: 29.3 mph
Bike: Specialized Enduro Elite
Map:

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