The airline delivered my bags at 10:30 last night. This morning I
swapped the pedals (now they are candy's intead of the [censored] 858's,
suited up, and headed out. Where? Dunno, but Balboa Park was spoken
about a few times. I got there, but it was obviosly the wrong section.
A couple of double track washouts and lots of homeless to jump over as
Sorni had informed me of. Tooled around there and then went to the LBS
to give them the 858's as appreciation for all their help. The guy
thanked me and said he could realy use them for the rental bikes. It
was the least I could do for all of the free help and tools. He then
told me that I had the wrong part of Balboa (6th Ave) and needed to go
to 12th Ave by the zoo. OK, I had some time before my morning meeting
to headed over and lo and behold, just past the naval hospital was lots
'o singletrack heading down into the canyon. And it was marked! Happy
Happy Joy Joy! I point the SS down all the time thinking, how am I
going to get up. Not having too much time I did one small loop which
pointed me up. Could I do it? Out of the saddle the whole way up, but
I made it! Yeh, it wasn't a long distance, but it was steep. Then it
was a boogie down 12th back to the hotel. Just coasting cause I was
topped out.
I will go back there this afternoon to do the whole canyon and get some
pics. I think I will have to pass on Mission until I get the SS
climbing thing down. These trails were steep but after looking at
Mission, I would rather take baby steps.
So far my SS feelings are good. There is definately something about not
having to waste time with gears. I definately was more focused on the
trail and achieving the goals rather than deciding what the right gear
for the approaching obstacle should be. The trails were not too
technical so the fully rigid didn't bother me much. There was a nice
tight switchback (something I have always had problems with) that was
easy to swing the bike around since it is so light (21#).
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o-o-o-o Ride-A-Lot o-o-o-o
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