RR: Anderson TT

I shuttled Anderson TT with Billy, Nate, and Joel this morning. We had planned to do Noble, but Thursday's rain and snow necessitated a change of plans. In fact, there was still a smattering of snow at the top of Anderson, but not enough to affect the trail, which was actually extremely dry. I'd heard Anderson is the best trail in San Diego after a rain, and that is apparently true.


I was surprised Billy was willing to shuttle, since he is one of those that had been strongly against it in the past, but I guess he's coming over to the dark side now...He said it was so that we could have more energy to enjoy the downhill sections, which made sense to me...

We started at the top and did World Cup this time instead of the fireroad we took on New Year's Eve. Today was a "play day," and we stopped often to survey several aggressive downhill sections. We tried a few of the smaller and easier ones, and marveled at most of the crazy ones. Near the middle Nate and I found a section we were willing to give a shot, and had several good runs and jumps.


On the last run at that section, I tried a different line and lost too much speed. I crashed sideways, and while the fall itself wasn't bad, when I got up my rear wheel wouldn't move. Upon inspection, I found that I had snapped my deraileur hanger. My second trip to Anderson TT, my second serious bike malfunction.

Billy did an impressive job of jury-rigging my bike into a singlespeed, and I was able to make it home thanks to his help and expertise. But once again, I was climbing out of Anderson without gears.


The rest of the ride was relatively fun, if uneventful. I enjoy the downhill, but as Joel put it later, I prefer the more sweeping, flowy cross-country riding than the crazy DH riding. All in all though, it was an enjoyable day. I had a feeling of accomplishment from the sections I was able to ride and jump, and escaped major injury. So I count today a success.

I also stopped at the spot where I endoed on my last trip here on New Year's Eve. Here are some pictures of the spot as it looks today:




We also had an enjoyable time of fellowship after the ride at Manana's #1 Mexican Restaurant nearby, which was delicious. I may have to check out Manana's #2 someday, wherever it is...

Here are the stats:

Total Distance: 6.89 miles
Total Time: 2:11:07
Ascent: 711 feet
Average Speed: 3.2 mph
Top Speed: 28.9 mph (pavement)
Bike: Specialized FSR XC Pro
Map:

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RR: Anderson TT

Today Joel, Danny, Steve, and I shuttled Anderson TT in Alpine. It was my first time out there, and after hearing about it quite a bit from Danny, I was excited to see if it would live up to the hype. For the most part, it did.

Some people I know think shuttling is an affront to the hobby of mountainbiking. Those same people actually like to do long, arduous climbs. I am not one of those people. And after going down the trail, I'm pretty happy we didn't try to climb it first.

For the most part it was banzi downhill. We didn't go crazy, but we definitely got up some real speed in parts, and I was impressed by Joel and Steve, who both did the ride on hard tails. I was also impressed by Danny, who definitely let it all hang out in spots. He's more of a DH rider than an XC rider apparently.

Some sections were extremely rutted and treacherous. Other sections were sweeping singletrack that were a blast. There were a couple of opportunities for huge jumps and boulder drops, each of which I avoided. No sense starting 2008 off in the ER. But I would really, really like to get to a point someday where I could clear some of the spots we saw today. As it was, I did make it over a fairly small boulder.



It was a gorgeous day, with views of El Capitan Reservoir and all of east county.



The day was not a complete success, however, as I took a pretty nasty digger and endoed about 2/3 of the way through the ride. I actually ended up going OTB into a pile of grass, which was nice, and it didn't hurt at all. But my bike was a different story. The endo planted the front shifters into the ground, breaking the right shifter to the rear gears. And because I was going downhill at the time of the crash, I was in the hardest gear to pedal. Broken shifter = stuck in gear. So I had to ride the rest of the way to the car, 80% of which was uphill, in the hardest gear to pedal. It was brutal, and put a small damper on what would have been an almost perfect ride.

Ah well, at least I can upgrade to XT shifters now...

Final Stats:
Total Distance: 6.62 miles
Total Time: 1:16:29
Ascent: 583 feet
Average Speed: 5.2 mph
Top Speed: 28.9 mph
Route Map: Click here for Google Map
Bike: Specialized FSR XC Pro