Well, in honor of Michael P's birthday the other day, we had planned a return to the trail we did
last year on his birthday. Last year, we were fewer in number- the Birthday Boy, Stan, Sorni, and
myself. This year we had the Birthday Boy (of course), Sorni, Cliff, Chris O, MTB Bill, Eric, De
Punkrat, and me. The bike stats were interesting: three SSs, including one fully rigid. Of the
hardatils, all were handbuilts- Spot, Yeti, Sycip, Phil Wood, Ibis, Titus. Only two bikes had rear
suspension, and they belonged to the Bills: Sorni's Titus and MTB Bill's Intense. All of us but MTB
Bill and Eric were running big, fat GEAX Sedona tires. The only flat was Eric's pinch flat on a Fire
xc Pro. Eric also had some shifting problems, so I think he cornered the market on mechanicals.
Chris O had a Nite Rider 12E, and De Punkrat was running a pair of NR Trail Rats. The rest of us had
NR HID lights. Cliff, in his typical over-the-top fashion, had two. None of us ran out of light, but
Dan's setup was woefully inadequate at best.
We met at the designated spot twenty minutes late, thanks to me and Eric, and rush hour
traffic. We set up our shuttle, and were on the bikes by 8:30 or so. I'm not sure of the
exact time. I do know, however, that we got back to the cars at 1:24AM, and three hours is
believable for the ride we did. Anyhow, we hit the trail, and immediately started some
reasonably technical climbing. The first few miles were uphill, and tight and twisty. We
stopped a few times to regroup, but we were keeping a pretty good pace in general. Us SSers
were going faster (by pure necessity, believe me) than the MSers really wanted to do, so it
was typically Chris, Cliff and me doing the waiting. The first long downhill stretch was a
blast. I led out, with Cliff and Michael insulting each other's skills. The trail was tight
and twisty still, but quite fast. A lot of the corners had deep sand right at the apex,
offering a little more exitement than there might have otherwise been. Coming around a sharp
downhill turn, I dropped my front wheel in a rut and got into some front wheel pogo action.
Thankfully, I rode it out just fine, but Cliff, right behind me, became detached from his
bike at the same spot. When the others showed up, we hollered at them to watch out, promptly
causing them all to nearly wreck. Anyhow, after it had all died down but the shouting, we
were off again. We soon crossed another trail, causing those in the back to question my
navigational abilities. Now, I'm not naming names, but the rider who was the most doubtful
couldn't generally find his way out of a paper bag, so... We resumed speed, and climbed for
a while until we got to the Big Downhill. This Downhill (and really, it must be capitalized)
is steep, except where it is Really Steep. It's also pretty rocky, with a lot of
switchbacks, and water bars constructed of shards of granite (that's the type of stone we
have here) stuck edge-in, so they resemble stone knive sticking up 6-8 inches or so. Cliff
had the most exciting moment on the downhill, nearly riding off his namesake while balaced
precariously on his front wheel, feet unclipped and pointing straight back, superman style.
At last we all gathered at the bottom of the Downhill. A truck pulled up at that moment,
some Border Patrol agents wondering who the heck we were lighting the place up like that in
the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. We talked to them a while then we split.
We heaed up the fire road, rather than the 1 1/2 mile hike-a-bike. MTB Bill had something
extra special to eat at the stop, so he set a furious pace on the climb. No way was I going
to let him get away with it, so I stuck on him like glue the entire climb. Cliff, though,
knew of a shortcut and the [censored] manged to get ahead of Bill and I. We were killing
ourselves to catch Cliff before the top, but he was working just as hard to not let us erase
his ill-gotten advantage. I have to add that the advantage Cliff had was helped some by MTB
Bill (who had never done this ride before) and the other, navigationally challenged member
of the group heading the wrong way AT THE ONLY POSSIBLE SPOT on the fire road, and then once
again doubting me when I pointed out the error of their ways... We stopped for a snack at
the big lookout rock at the top of the fire road climb, but pretty much all we could see was
blackness where the hills were, and kerjillions of stars all spangling in the sky. We
spotted a few meteors, and some aiplanes trying to pass themselves off as stars, too. Back
to the singletrack, and more climbing. It was in this section that MTB BIll's Spider decided
to throw him off the trail, and then leap on him. Oddly enough, I have a photo taken on
another ride of another rider and his bike doing the same thing in almost exactly the same
spot... After a while the trail turned from a climb into more rolling terrain, and then into
a ncie longish technical downhill. Plenty of fun. Unfortunately, De Punkrat had run out of
water by this time, and was suffering. We tanked him back up, but this wasn't to be the last
of his miseries. After the steam crossing, we did some more climbing, and rolling terrain,
and downhills. Eventually we got to the pavement. A short climb and descent later, and we
were back at the cars. We headed back into town for a late night meal at Denny's. De Punkrat
was lucky to have made it to the Denny's, as he bonked SUPER-HARD on the drive back into
town. We ate, flirted with the sorority girls that were clogging up the place, then went
home. As it was a night ride, nobody took any photos or video, but I posted some old photos
of the trail on my server at
All in all, it was an excellent ride.