I Rode My Bike Today...

Silica vaginitis...No worries @mike because your mucus membranes are moist and fluid! Way to push on and avoid kartification. If you find yourself carving Venus figurines out of the manganese in your internal sidewalls, you know silica vaginitis has commenced.

Hell of a ride, and on a weekday, and singletrack, and solo. Badass!
 
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Was hanging out with the family when I get a text from @herzalot - "I'm going to Aliso, now, you are welcome to come." Sh!t. If I drop *everything* and star getting ready now, I can just barely make it. I hesitate a bit to the wife, but she promptly kicked me out. I made it to Aliso and we were rolling 5 min after the initial time in the text. Not bad.

It was a later start than usual, so we were only going to do 2 ups/downs... but we had to alter our plans first off when we got to Coyote and saw that the trail was closed. Closed? We were at the Mathis connector and saw a bobcat, and figured they were smoothing out that up and over hill there on the Mathis side of Coyote. So we walked the trail (rebels that we are), so we could see what they were doing to it. Herz has the pictures, but they did some significant work on it. The south side (to Mathis) is completely, and I mean completely, smoothed out. They took out all of those rocks and just bulldozed the thing so it now has a double track slightly graded climb to it. The north side (away from Mathis) was the side that really needed the help, and they did about what one would expect there. They put some stairs in at the bottom, left a route for bikes to go up/down a small rock area, and legit improved that side. It was getting almost impossible to ride due to how eroded that section had become. They also did what you'd expect and shored up the sides of the cliff with beams and what not.

Short version; they sanitized the Sh!t out of that up and over - one side needed it, the one side didn't need it as bad as it got.

So we altered our route a bit given the Coyote closure, and did Cholla -> Rock It -> Cholla -> Lynx. Made up for the lack of rocks on Coyote with the other trails :P

There was a ton of traffic in Aliso, and even though we bag on Aliso for having a ton of traffic - today it was really bad, even for Aliso. There was a lot of traffic on Rock-It, so I took it much easier than I usually do and just enjoyed picking lines rather than gliding over the top. But Lynx, when I got done I told Herz that I didn't think it was a PR, but the trail is getting easier the more often I go down it. Turns out, I did PR Lynx today - and I still lost site of Herz (he's so fast on the downs, heh). So that was a nice way to end things, even if we just had to take wood canyon out of the park (yawn) instead of doing our usual Coyote egress.

Light day, but it's always good to get out there.
 
Yeah - today was a real letdown. It doesn't take a lot of tech to make a trail fun, but it's great to have a few sections to spice things up. Today we lost a great little 50 yards of trail. The great Coyote Run up-and-over challenge is no more. See my new thread here.

In two weeks, two of the best little challenges have been removed from Aliso - the Meadows connector and the Coyote Run Challenge. F*** me...

Thank you to @Cougar for dropping everything and joining me today. I was struggling on my first lap, but by the second lap I was feeling better. Fun descents. :thumbsup: Always better to ride with a buddy than solo. And Craig is right - it was relentlessly busy on the trails today - big groups, small groups, bikes, hikers, runners, kids, there were people everywhere - except on the Lynx descent. :sneaky:

I sure hope the sanitation madness stops, or I will need to sell my house and move. :thumbsdown: :mad: :(
 
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herzalot said:
Yeah - today was a real letdown. It doesn't take a lot of tech to make a trail fun, but it's great to have a few sections to spice things up. Today we lost a great little 50 yards of trail. The great Coyote Run up-and-over challenge is no more. See my new thread here.

In two weeks, two of the best little challenges have been removed from Aliso - the Meadows connector and the Coyote Run Challenge. F*** me...

Thank you to @Cougar for dropping everything and joining me today. I was struggling on my first lap, but by the second lap I was feeling better. Fun descents. :thumbsup: Always better to ride with a buddy than solo. And Craig is right - it was relentlessly busy on the trails today - big groups, small groups, bikes, hikers, runners, kids, there were people everywhere - except on the Lynx descent. :sneaky:

I sure hope the sanitation madness stops, or I will need to sell my house and move. :thumbsdown: :mad: :(
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I was thinking about how much fun you'd have on Holy Jim, Trabuco trail, and Bell Ridge lately. Not to mention San Juan and Chiquita. So perhaps some shuttling and Santa Ana descents are in order.

And maybe summering in Whistler, etc. would ease the pain. Here's some tech goodness to feed that dream: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/460504/
 
kioti said:
I was thinking about how much fun you'd have on Holy Jim, Trabuco trail, and Bell Ridge lately. Not to mention San Juan and Chiquita. So perhaps some shuttling and Santa Ana descents are in order.

And maybe summering in Whistler, etc. would ease the pain. Here's some tech goodness to feed that dream: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/460504/
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Yup.....time to get him out of the parks.
 
I rode today......actually today was the first time I had ridden since Monday. :eek::eek::eek:

Was fighting a bug most of the week, so I took some days off.

Well today was the day to get back up on it. Needed to get in a big ride to make up for the off time. So I decided to head to Chino Hills to put some miles in. Also had a route in mind that would net me a fair amount of elevation. Rolled out of Brush Canyon Park at 10:00. Decided to climb up Scully Hill from Lower Aliso, then continued across Scully Ridge. At the end chose to do some exploring...so I went up Bobcat Ridge. This dumps out by a underground water storage tank....As I was looking around saw a singletrack that headed down the ridge line. This would be out of the park...so I headed down. Fun descent....some jumps, some drops. About a mile down, I saw the trail continued...but it was going the wrong direction. So I turned around and climbed back up. Most of it was rideable, but a few spots were HAB. Back at the top, went down Bobcat to Scully to Rolling M Ranch for a water refill. Up Southridge to Telegraph Spur to 4 Corners.

At this point I wasn't feeling so great.....it was going from hot to cold to hot to cold. At the top of Bovinian I reassessed how I was feeling. Made the call to turn back instead of finishing the big loop. Back to 4 Corners and then on to Raptor/Faultline. Going down Faultline towards the bottom in the really fast section, a coyote jumps out in the trail in front of me....I chased him a good distance.....he held his own. Down Lower Aliso and take Elevator....just after exiting Elevator, spotted another Coyote.

Considering I wasn't feeling all that great...I am glad that I still got out.

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mtnbikej said:
Yup.....time to get him out of the parks.
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I've been to Whistler three times riding, and once skiing. It's fun, but very expensive and very time consuming. I've also moderately injured myself two of the three times I visited, which certainly cut into my ride time.

If you can find me rides in the Santa Anas that have fun fast descents with drops and rock gardens, that I can complete between 7am and noon including travel time, I'm listening. San Juan to Cocktail rock is meh. Holy Jim to Trabuco is OK, but definitely a 4-hour ride for me. The Trabuco DH is not worth the 3.5 hours of climbing, IMO. Chiquito and Viejo Tie sound great!

I thank those on this forum who want to get me out of my backyard, but for me it's either that or don't ride. 6-10 hour day trips are a 2-3 times a year thing, at most. Not an every weekend thing, or even a once-a-month thing.

BTW, my big days away this year were Golden Eagle, Snow Summit x3 and Tahoe. I also managed a Fontana day or two in there.
 
Trial over. Bike time. Bronson. Small window. Perfect afternoon. Mentally, 5 Oaks, Stairs, up Willow to TnA. Drag race back into town and climb to the pad. My dropper died-- for the fourth time. But I climbed Willow anyway-- it was kind of like riding a tricycle-- because I was Jonesing to drop TnA. The last climb to the pad with a dead dropper SUCKED. But I stuck with it.

The transition to Meadows has been destroyed as has the fun section of Coyote.

I cleaned dripping cave climb, I was pretty stoked about that for having been in another world for the last 6 weeks. Also Had great runs down 5 Oaks, Stairs and TnA. Got airborn on Stairs in a few spots. Not really worrying about the "line" and just trusting the dudes who designed my bike. Mentally run sucked as the trail is really soft in many spots.

The 20 / 20.5 tire pressure on the Bronson is my magic # combo I think. Super grip, it still rolls, confidence in corners. Bikes are rad (and fun).
 
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StrandLeper said:
The 20 / 20.5 tire pressure on the Bronson is my magic # combo I think. Super grip, it still rolls, confidence in corners. Bikes are rad (and fun).
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Curious what rim width and tires you running. About 5 weeks into a new Bronson (funny have a 429 too)
Loving the Bronson.


Ohh and I did another Maple to Motorway run. The Silt is back on the Main Divide Already. It was a good day except a lot of Moto's most good, few dorks.
Motorway was fun / work as usual.
 
herzalot said:
I've been to Whistler three times riding, and once skiing. It's fun, but very expensive and very time consuming. I've also moderately injured myself two of the three times I visited, which certainly cut into my ride time.

If you can find me rides in the Santa Anas that have fun fast descents with drops and rock gardens, that I can complete between 7am and noon including travel time, I'm listening. San Juan to Cocktail rock is meh. Holy Jim to Trabuco is OK, but definitely a 4-hour ride for me. The Trabuco DH is not worth the 3.5 hours of climbing, IMO. Chiquito and Viejo Tie sound great!

I thank those on this forum who want to get me out of my backyard, but for me it's either that or don't ride. 6-10 hour day trips are a 2-3 times a year thing, at most. Not an every weekend thing, or even a once-a-month thing.

BTW, my big days away this year were Golden Eagle, Snow Summit x3 and Tahoe. I also managed a Fontana day or two in there.
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Doesn't mean we are gonna stop trying. :thumbsup:
 
mtnbikej said:
Doesn't mean we are gonna stop trying. :thumbsup:
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Right! There's a Lower Rock Creek night ride on the calendar Monday and Tuesday between Bishop and Tom's Place. Lows will be in the high teens just before sunrise. Come on up and ride in a freezer with me, Herz. Remember, though, I get to be the big spoon. Oh yea, I wont be riding my bike today, except maybe to downtown to pick up some donuts for wifey.
 
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herzalot said:
...rides in the Santa Anas that have fun fast descents with drops and rock gardens, that I can complete between 7am and noon including travel time...
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Yeager Mesa is a 3-4 hour ride from/to HJ parking. A 12-mile lolli, with more ST action per foot than any ride in the SAs I'll venture to say. A few homies here will back that up. The price of admission is getting up Trabuco. The catch...if one never does it, it'll be a beat down, but it's not superhuman to get to Main Divide in under two hours. With some okay fitness you can get to LP Peak, the high point, in two-plus hours, and it's all DH from there. No sandbagging; just gotta be cool with walking a few sections up.

The driving time to the lot might put you over, but wait until the county road gets graded (the forest road already has been) and you can make pretty good time out there. For a rider like you I think it would be worth the effort; it's a unique ride by SA standards and a gem with a little moisture. Put it on the radar, I'm happy to docent. It'll put a smile on your face and make you feel like you rode 20 miles :thumbsup:
 
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herzalot said:
If you can find me rides in the Santa Anas that have fun fast descents with drops and rock gardens, that I can complete between 7am and noon including travel time, I'm listening.. Chiquita and Viejo Tie sound great!
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2 cars, 2 drivers and you're good for Chiquita. Some climbing involved. Access from Blue Jay, out at Candy Store. Will hopefully meet and exceed expectations, and I think possible within time constraints. Expect tech with some flowy sections. Should be awesome after rain. Take nothing for granted, and exercise all standard first-time vigilance.
 
I guess you could call today's ride "2017 Counting Coup training ride #1." I headed up Black Star past the ball over to Hagador Peak, at least I think I was at Hagador. Signs up there said Pleasants Peak but pretty sure I was where I intended to go. I parked up close to the gate like a wuss and was glad I did at the end. Overall it was a great ride and next time I will drop Motorway rather than doing an out and back. Baby steps!

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Cornholio said:
I guess you could call today's ride "2017 Counting Coup training ride #1." I headed up Black Star past the ball over to Hagador Peak, at least I think I was at Hagador. Signs up there said Pleasants Peak but pretty sure I was where I intended to go. I parked up close to the gate like a wuss and was glad I did at the end. Overall it was a great ride and next time I will drop Motorway rather than doing an out and back. Baby steps!

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The first set of radio towers past the Doplar Ball is Hagador, Pleasant's Peak would be the next set of radio towers. You have to go through the white gate to get to Pleasant's Peak.
 
Got out for a ride on the shorter side of things today.

Rolled from the house and went through Oaks to meet up with the Volunteer Ride for Non Dot Adventures. We had a big group....yes, today we got to be "that" group.

Didn't feel great at the start.....in fact my HR was really high the whole time. Good times with a fun group. Park seemed a bit quieter than usual for a Sunday Morning.

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Whiting-Luge-Whiting with a little extra credit of Cattle Pond and a trip to Mark's Bench on the return leg.

I wasn't going to go ride over there, as I was jonesing for something a little more challenging. But my riding buddies were all doing different things, and I don't like tackling tech on my own. A couple of friends were going to go do Whiting only (N8 - recovering from a broken leg he sustained in Whistler this summer, Scott that you read about through his bike demo and buying decisions, and two friends of his). I figured I would ambush them at the Borrego trailhead, then do a social loop, then head up to The Luge. Well - I never met up with them, so I just did my own thing.

I felt strong today. Fast run on The Luge. Solid climbing throughout. 16.6 miles. 2600' Perfect weather. Absolutely perfect.

Bikes are fun!

Lunch with daughter and wife in Dana Point. A walk along the cliffs. Then I played tennis with my little girl before the rain started. Great day!!!! Now it's time to do a little schoolwork for tomorrow.
 
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Rode my bike today With Tom Shaffer and Mark Fix. Up Lower Sam Merril to Inspiration and back down Middle Merril, Sunset and out the newly improved fireroad run out to Chaney trail. Haulin the mail over the chunk! No flats no Mechanicals and no crashes. Trail workers and a ton of hikers on Upper Sam Merril, trail bells work!
Gooooood times!
 
Was all jazzed to check out El Prieto/Ken Burton but started to rain over here by my neck of the woods..iPhone said it was raining pretty good over in the La Canada area..next time..ended up going to Powder Canyon..but just wasn't into it..try to make up my own ride and up and down various trails..but just wasn't into it..rode all the way to the top and just blasted all the way back to the car.
 
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