This past Saturday I organized a group MUni ride of Stevens Trail in
Colfax, CA
http://www.unicycling.com/brett/steven.shtml
We ended up with nine riders: Jess Riegel, Zack Baldwin, their friend
Nick(?), Brian Lundgren, Mike Scalisi, Bevan Gerber-Siff, Corbin Dunn,
Jim Roberts, and me. The weather turned out beautiful after an amazing
downpour the previous day. We drove up from Sacramento and above the
gloomy deck that we've been having in the valley for the past few weeks,
and into the sun. Temps were in the low 50s, but felt much warmer when
in the sunlight. We got this weird effect of being able to see our
breath, but not being cold in bike shorts and T-shirts.
Anyway, the Stevens Trail is famous for cliffside retrievals. What's a
cliffside retrieval? That's when you fall off, and your unicycle gets
away from you over the edge. The retrieval is measured in how far down
the unicycle gets.
Before that day I was familiar with three very large cliffside
retrievals:
1. John Childs' unattended unicycle slipping down the side of a curving
rock/cliff at Moab in 2003 (70-100'😉
2. David Poznanter on the Stevens Trail (something over 100'😉
3. Brett Bymaster on the Stevens Trail (over 100'😉
The last time I rode there alone I had a small one also. But on
Saturday, January 29, 2005, Jim Roberts (guest rider from Boulder, CO)
hit the cliffside retrieval jackpot, at an estimated 300' (approximate)
drop!
I was riding behind him when it happened. An innocent UPD, but then the
loss of grip on the unicycle's seat. Okay, it's over the edge. It only
gets bad when the unicycle points it's wheel down the slope with the
seat trailing behind it, and picks up speed! "Uh oh" we said. It rolled,
flopped and tumbled ever downward until we lost sight of it in the trees
below.
Jim started climbing carefully down after it. The side of the trail here
was steep enough that no one else elected to go down with him, as it
knocked too much stuff lose and it was thought better not to risk
multiple persons. In time, he made it back up, and the cycle was
undamaged! He said the cycle had come to rest still about 150' above the
water, which we couldn't see from up above. At first we were watching to
see if it came floating down the river.
Fortunately Jim's unicycle is built to military specifications. We know
this because it's senciled on the side: "Mil-Spec."
Aside from that mishap, we had a great time. My uni almost went over the
side at one point, but stopped obediently right at the edge of the
trail. Whew! Mike Scalisi had to chase his down 20' or so.
At the bottom, the trials guys had some fun hopping around on some very
slippery, water-carved rocks along the river. It's a spot that makes a
great swimming hole during the warmer weather. In the winter, it's a
fast-moving torrent of ice water.
If this thread stays alive long enough, I'll post the pictures from this
ride as soon as I get them up. In the mean time, here's some others:
http://unicycling.smugmug.com/gallery/153555
--
johnfoss - The wilder Wilder
John Foss, the Uni-Cyclone
"jfoss" at "unicycling.com" -- www.unicycling.com
"Read the rules!" -- 'IUF Rulebook'
(http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/) -- 'USA Rulebook'
(http://www.unicycling.org/usa/competition/)
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