I Rode My Bike Today...

I rode the Rwanda 25... minus the pavement start and finish. It's my local route, but I hardly ever ride it anymore, because it's too flat for the single speed. All of the water crossings are rideable, but be prepared for a crunchy drive train afterwards. Good thing Arroyo Trabuco is at the end...

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We may see a re-route for this on Saturday. It was easily 6 inches deep, with a nice gooey bed of mud. I was already wet, so I rode through... This is the little extra credit off of the Arroyo Trabuco Trail that is part of the official route.

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They ought to fell a tree or two to create a natural bridge. ;)
 
I rode the Rwanda 25... minus the pavement start and finish. It's my local route, but I hardly ever ride it anymore, because it's too flat for the single speed. All of the water crossings are rideable, but be prepared for a crunchy drive train afterwards. Good thing Arroyo Trabuco is at the end...

View attachment 27755

We may see a re-route for this on Saturday. It was easily 6 inches deep, with a nice gooey bed of mud. I was already wet, so I rode through... This is the little extra credit off of the Arroyo Trabuco Trail that is part of the official route.

View attachment 27756

According to the course map, there are a couple of chain cleaning stations along the way.
 
I got out this afternoon. Tuesday means an Oaks ride. Wife wasn't feeling so hot so she just headed over to the barn. I am feeling a bit worn out, so I was just gonna do a quickie and head home. Once I got pedaling, I started to feel better.

Stopped and watched the rattlesnake casually slither up the trail towards me. A couple ups and a couple downs. My wife texted me saying she was heading home, so I jumped over to meet up with her. I was up at Robber's Roost and started to drop down the rocky section. Some idiot had his bike laying down blocking the trail, so I squeezed around him and rolled into the first step. Immediately both feel popped out of my pedals. I was riding down like a bucking bronco. Let's just say the it felt like the seat was coming out of me ears and I went from a bass to a soprano. Tagged both ankles and got a charlie horse on my inner thigh. Stayed on the bike and was able to roll it out. It was uncomfortable and a pretty slow roll home.
 
I rode Chantry Flats this morning. Upper Winter Creek/Mt. Zion/Sturtevant. Perfect weather, great dirt, small crowds, beautiful green plants and flowers. Gotta love a Tuesday off for Chantry. There was a small number of elderly hikers on Winter, but I had Zion all to myself. It could use some brushing.
Sturtevant was it's usual awesomeness and was pretty uncrowded. Took one dirt nap when I got into the soft edge of the trail, but no big deal. After a 12 hour shift, when the choice is sleep or the Gabes, I'm picking the Gabes everytime.
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I got out this afternoon. Tuesday means an Oaks ride. Wife wasn't feeling so hot so she just headed over to the barn. I am feeling a bit worn out, so I was just gonna do a quickie and head home. Once I got pedaling, I started to feel better.

Stopped and watched the rattlesnake casually slither up the trail towards me. A couple ups and a couple downs. My wife texted me saying she was heading home, so I jumped over to meet up with her. I was up at Robber's Roost and started to drop down the rocky section. Some idiot had his bike laying down blocking the trail, so I squeezed around him and rolled into the first step. Immediately both feel popped out of my pedals. I was riding down like a bucking bronco. Let's just say the it felt like the seat was coming out of me ears and I went from a bass to a soprano. Tagged both ankles and got a charlie horse on my inner thigh. Stayed on the bike and was able to roll it out. It was uncomfortable and a pretty slow roll home.

An easy spin up Harding will make you feel better. :whistling:
 
I haven't been getting out as often as I'd like lately, but I made it out to Aliso today. I wanted to do a longer ride, but it was getting hot enough by around 11:15 that I decided not to tack on a Cholla/Lynx loop on the way out and just continued to the car. Did my usual recent routine of 5 Oaks, Car Wreck, and Rock-it. It was a fun ride despite the temps. There were a few mountain bikers and a surprising amount of hikers for a weekday, but everyone was friendly, all smiles, and just happy to be out there. I finally cleaned Car Wreck from top to bottom, including under the leaning tree, down the roots, and across the little creek. Cleaning the whole thing including that last part was a first for me. I never used to be able to get under that tree without needing to tripod.

I stopped to take a couple pics on 5 Oaks to take Alan (from LCF) up on his offer to discuss the narrow, cut-down pavers that I think are doing more harm than good on the right hander just before you drop into the mogul/step section. Keeping my fingers crossed, and we'll see where the conversation goes. FYI, he mentioned that there are a couple of pavers on 5 Oaks that LCF didn't place and it sounded like it's probably these.
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MattB,
nice job on cleaning car wreck... that last section before the actual car, always gets me.. do you roll that last ledge before the right turn or do you have to carry speed and jump it? The price for failure there is great... so I always think I'm gonna jump it.. then chicken out and almost crash, walk it... w/ my suspension.. don't think I could roll... 120mm
 
MattB,
nice job on cleaning car wreck... that last section before the actual car, always gets me.. do you roll that last ledge before the right turn or do you have to carry speed and jump it? The price for failure there is great... so I always think I'm gonna jump it.. then chicken out and almost crash, walk it... w/ my suspension.. don't think I could roll... 120mm

Thanks!

I've rolled it the last few times, but also came close to OTB one of those times. The best line I've found for rolling it has been to cut back to the far right on the rocks so that you can kind of ride the wall of dirt on the right side down the ledge. When I did that successfully, my from tire rode the wall and my back tire dropped the ledge. I think a little more speed and kind of wheelie dropping it would be best for me. I'm afraid of carrying enough speed to jump it and then hitting the rock garden too fast for my skills.

BTW, I have 150mm up front and 135mm in the back on a 29er, so I agree with you about maybe not rolling it with 120 up front.
 
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FYI, he mentioned that there are a couple of pavers on 5 Oaks that LCF didn't place and it sounded like it's probably these.
They did try to shore up the rut next to the pavers in January. Not sure if they placed the pavers or someone else did earlier. But really ought to get those out of there before someone gets hurt.
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The best line I've found for rolling it has been to cut back to the far right on the rocks so that you can kind of ride the wall of dirt on the right side down the ledge. When I did that successfully, my from tire rode the wall and my back tire dropped the ledge.

Good job Matt, that's basically how I was shown to do it so it wasn't to scary, roll the front tire on one of the sides of the bowl shaped hole and rear will follow. I usually take the left side to get better angle for the right turn. I do it pretty slow tho, and never have tried to huck or wheelie off it, I'd surely screw that up...
 
Good job Matt, that's basically how I was shown to do it so it wasn't to scary, roll the front tire on one of the sides of the bowl shaped hole and rear will follow. I usually take the left side to get better angle for the right turn. I do it pretty slow tho, and never have tried to huck or wheelie off it, I'd surely screw that up...

Yeah, I used to use the left side, but it seems like there isn't a side to use there anymore so I tried the right.

This is all assuming we're talking about the big ledge drop into the last rock garden before the car. If we talking about the smaller ledge right at the car, then I've been confusing everyone with this.:whistling: I always stay left on the last little ledge at the car, but that one's pretty easy to roll (at least compared to the ledge you have to drop to start that rock garden).
 
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I was feeling antsy to get out for a nice evening spin today. So I climb aboard and head for Cherry Canyon to see how badly sanitized the upper portion of Cerro Negro trail is now (a friend informed me). Well, it's still rolling but it's wide and flat and loose and even rerouted a bit.

Backpedal a few miles and I am smelling smoke. Ah, crud, I was all ready for a nice local spin. It's getting worse. By the time I reached CC, it was bad. I climbed to the top of the range but there was no smoke column. Just grey ugliness blowing in the from the East. Can you guys smell that? Is it from the big fire South of Tucson?

Anyway, I decided to do 2 of my 4 usual trails and then get out of there. My lungs were starting to burn a bit.

9.24 miles
57:15 ride time
1106' elevation gain
648 calories

...and I had an encounter!!! :thumbsup::eek:o_O:p:D

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I had to ride Brown KB El P early. It was great! When I got back to the parking lot, it looked like a jailbreak! First I meet the infamous E.I., then David, Peter, Scott, @Cisco Roots, and a @Luis on the way.
There was also a gang of folks led by FrenChy going up to bomb El P.
Glad I got.out of there before I had to drop all those guys on the climb!:whistling:
 
Yeah, I used to use the left side, but it seems like there isn't a side to use there anymore so I tried the right.

This is all assuming we're talking about the big ledge drop into the last rock garden before the car. If we talking about the smaller ledge right at the car, then I've been confusing everyone with this.:whistling: I always stay left on the last little ledge at the car, but that one's pretty easy to roll (at least compared to the ledge you have to drop to start that rock garden).
Yup.. Thats the ledge i was talking about..seems to be getting bigger as i get older..haha..
 
We rode. Harding to Four Corners. It was not exactly a social pace, but it was a good workout! :thumbsup:

18 miles and 3400 feet. Tinker's time is safe, but it was a PR for me! :p
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Allow me to elaborate......

After my :08 ride last night on my bucking bronco, I had some aches and pains going on. I though about bailing on the ride earlier this morning. I took some Advil before I left.

Got there late'ish, but I think we still left on time. Right away everything in my legs were tight and sore. @Faust29 was out front setting the pace. Neither of us were really feeling that great.

Well, we trudged on and eventually reached 5 mile turn. The pace picked up a little bit at this point...but that is because the trail gets flatter. Down into 7.25 mile Point of No Return DH.....the next 1.5 miles to the gate was where I cranked up pace. Felt like we were fighting a headwind, but I also knew we were making good time. There was talk of a possible PR, so we pushed. Turns out we had a bit of a tailwind the last mile or so....which we noticed when we started to head back down.

Trail is getting a bit slippery. Was a bit hesitant to jump the water bars with the wind blowing.

Good times.
 
Allow me to elaborate......

After my :08 ride last night on my bucking bronco, I had some aches and pains going on. I though about bailing on the ride earlier this morning. I took some Advil before I left.

Got there late'ish, but I think we still left on time. Right away everything in my legs were tight and sore. @Faust29 was out front setting the pace. Neither of us were really feeling that great.

Well, we trudged on and eventually reached 5 mile turn. The pace picked up a little bit at this point...but that is because the trail gets flatter. Down into 7.25 mile Point of No Return DH.....the next 1.5 miles to the gate was where I cranked up pace. Felt like we were fighting a headwind, but I also knew we were making good time. There was talk of a possible PR, so we pushed. Turns out we had a bit of a tailwind the last mile or so....which we noticed when we started to head back down.

Trail is getting a bit slippery. Was a bit hesitant to jump the water bars with the wind blowing.

Good times.

Strava called it "Tough". The Rwanda ride yesterday didn't even warrant a label. :p

And it was a PR... By 12 minutes. :eek:
 
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