Before the Snow

Got out on a ride sat with Siren Mary. Headed out of Idie with the intentions of finishing in Warner Springs. Got sidetracked by the May Valley trail system .........man was that good.
Hit the road to Paradise corners and headed South. Trails were loose from this point down. Slow moving on the ups and drifting on the downs. Pulled off on Coyote canyon and a rendevous was setup with Yumi our ride home.Thanks Huney...we made it back in time for a bit of springtime snow.

Garner view from a kick ass May Valley session.

View from Lookout mountain.

Mary descending table mountain with barely any hydraulic pressure in the front brakes. She rocked all the tech sections with scary brakes........and even rode a giraffe at one point.

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Phooey with 9 to 5

So it has been a weird week. A couple of nites ago crime hit me. Someone during the nite opened my unlocked truck ............ (D'OOOOH) and walked off with my North Face pack. The pack included all my riding tools and my helmet light....

So I replaced the pack with an Osprey Talon 22 ....1st impressions is that it is a bigger bag and overall weight is much lighter. Straps don't seem to be as sturdy but we will see how it travels on saturday.

Friday is finally here and I rode the House loop with the addition of the grotto loop. Nice way to get work out of the mind. Nice clear day with the cloud level sneaking up the hill.

The new ride still needs a name. Nothing has stuck yet but an unconscious theme has started........Salsa Bars,frame color is named "hot tamale" and I'm trying a new rear tire named Ignitor. After a good suffer ride I'm sure something will stick.

Clouds sneaking up.

Shared this with Yumi last weekend.........Russian River's Damnation.....a Belgian style ale...................Taste like yummy.

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Silly Fun

Saturday nite's Beer before sundays ride. Speak Easy Brewery in SF.....I highly recomend this Barley Wine ifn you're into that kinda stuff.

So I met up with Marlin,Dawne and Phil.Phil and Marlin decided that they were going to Climb Art Smith and met Dawne and I at the Benches on Dunn Road. So Dawne and I started at Pinyon and connected over to the meeting place.

Dawne at Pinyon.......it was a nice cool morning and she rocked Pinyon and Palm.

Flowers blooming everywhere...jus a perfect time to be on the trail.

Hey Frankie remember this climb right after the 3 mile wash. Luckily this time I didn't have to climb it.

Phil finishing off the mid climb on Art Smith.

Good ridin on good trails with GREAT PEOPLE. Enjoyed some Mexi food and I believe we all got a lil tipsey.

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Spring is almost here

Fri went on a lil hike with Yumi. Back in the BearTrap creek area. They've cleared alot in that area but had a good hike. Was able to get out a lil later and did the house loop. Thanks goes out to whoever cleaned up Optimatr. Just can't get enough of that trail. Goodness gracious that was a fun loop.

Enjoyed sharing one of these with Yumi.

Sat left the house pretty early wanted to get in some mileage in before Emi and Sage's B-Ball
game. So ISOMATA was the call. Left the house and linked trails down to Hell Razor. Upper and Lower Tubs is just superb. Wow it's a pity what the did to ChimneyFlats and Oz. Rode Hell Razor for the first time on this bike.......trail is perfect and the bike handled well. Climbed out of the hole and ran into Marlin on the Grotto loop. Just another good ride in Idie.......

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Cravin Mexi Food

So I took the long way to Anza.

Yumi and the kids met me at La Cocina.

Got in a good 6 hour ride with the new fork.........Really diggin this big wheel rigid thing.

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Oooooooh Snap

Spring is near and the House Loop was just to much fun.
Finished Yumi's Singlespeed.
Added some carbon Bling.

Borrego

Headed out to Borrego sat afternoon to hang out with Anthony and Scott. They were out there riding in a dual sport gathering. Sat they rode 185 miles and sunday was scheduled for 130.Sounds like they smoked the field.Sunrise sunday am.
Anthony's chewed up sprocket.

Rainbows aplenty

Might take the family out next weekend. Flowers could be blooming if it gets a lil warm and plenty of desert trails to be pedaled.

Winter Retreat

With a lil bit of weather yesterday.......an all day rain and snow overnite shut down a local ride for me. Off to Pinyon I went. Been spending a lil more time in this area learning the trails and connectors of the obscure. Even today my loop consisted of an offshoot trail that led to a new exit for me.

Upper Pinyon Trail

Entrance to the 1st Omstett wash crossing

High Desert singletrack

New exit 4 me

Jus a good solo run in really good conditions.

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3 Days in a Row

Been a while since I rode 3 days consecutively. Busted Palm with Tony B. Great run just what I needed to get my timing under control.

Hint for the local crew........at the end of Horsethief b4 you drop into the 2nd wash is a right than a couple miles up this take a left. What it does is give you a fun singletrack instead of taking the wash. It's a beautiful thing winding singletrack that drops you off at the singletrack to the saddle.

My rigid big wheel bike at the Ridge b4 the descent into Cat city. You know the one with the Switches that makes you Pucker.

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20 Days

As of last fri that is how many days I've been off the bike. Due to the worst case of Flu I've ever had.
We had a lil snow storm in town so out to Pinyon I went. Did an easy spin just to gauge myself and just had a Ball.

About to descend the switchbacks.

Trying out the Pro Moto carbon Flat bar from Salsa. So far I'm really diggin it. More on this after a few rides.

So on sat I stayed close to home and rode May Valley. A lil snow at the start but things got really good from Log Piles and down. Looks like my strength is still hangin with me. Will find out about my endurance on sun. Tony B is coming over for a Palm Canyon run. Should be fun but I hope I'm not over doing it, I tend to do that kinda thing. Well hopefully pics and write up later.

To all my friends at the Pueblo, Hope you're enjoying and puttin pressure on the pedals.

Looks like Siren and AA bikes is going to make the podium in the top spot barring any freak happenings.

Redhawk and Jay's team are fighting for a podium spot.

Chads rockin his 1st Solo.

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Word

Interesting words here

SO................

I'm ..... IN

See you there.

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Chill in the Air

Wow had pretty cool temps today. Fit my comfort zone perfectly. Once again the Home trails was the call for today. Ended up with a good 5 hour ride linking trail after trail. Ran into Marlin & Dawne, really good seeing them....it's been a while.

View of Tahquitz from Sunset Trail.

Cloud level riding.

All in all a really good day on the bike.

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Home Sweet Home

Been staying away from the local trails lately. Just a bit to muddy. All about keeping our trails primo.
Finally ventured out last monday. Seemed like a good time waiting for them to firm up a bit.

I'm so glad I was patient. Trails were as good as it gets.

Started @ Cowbell and linked every trail I know in the May Valley system.

It was one of those times that I truly feel fortunate I have access to this system of trails.Many thanks to the trailbuilder (you know who you are) and everyone else who puts there time into maintaining.

tOP OF sUNSET tRAIL

cOUPLE OF bEERS THAT WERE ENJOYED OVER xmas EVE dINner

pEdAL OnE LonG

PALM RUN

Palm Canyon was todays Flavor..
Tony B joined.
Good cool temps.
Broke a power link today for the first time.
Good fast pace run.
Local riders should be on this.

Up on the ridge looking at where we will be going.

Looking back at where we been.

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Pinyon Back to Back Days

Been ridin Pinyon the last couple of days. So many options can be put together riding in the high desert. A couple days of rain and snow opened up a trail usually to loose to ride.

Switchbacks dropping you into Olmstett Wash.

Started on the Pinyon trail and connected to Palm Canyon.

Roshon riding the slalom course with Cats Claws and cactus as the borders.

Signage for our cutoff and the start of Potrero Canyon. Found out this connector should only be done after a rain. If timed good you pedal the wash for about a mile and a half and then connect to the ol' 4X4 double/singletrack.

Ran into a Longhorn Bull on the Upper End.

View of the Old Grove after a stout climb.

Been kinda nice on the eyes. High desert really shows off after a lil bit o water.

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All Day Fun

Started early sat morn out of Paradise Corners. Cold temps for SoCal prolly in the low 30's. Layering is always an issue low temps in the am may lead to high temps in the pm. My lightweight winter layering was solidified this season by the purchase of a Windwall Vest.

1st climb of the day.

Usually this climb is a good constant spin...areas you can attack and just a good fun climb. This ride was a different story. Crunchy soft top layer felt like pedalin sand.

Then there was snow in all the wrong places.

My steed playing camera whore on the Connector Trail.

First time conditions for me, normally I'm visiting at the other end of the spectrum.

Frank on his first snow ride.

The Jedi trail was just plain special. Snow was as deep as a couple of feet in many spots. It was just hold on and ride. Flew over the bars once to the delight of fresh deep snow. It's kinda goofy how a couple of grown men giggle like lil schoolgirls in conditions like this.

View of Potrero Canyon.

Found some trails in this area I will try to loop this coming weekend.

Looked kinda ZEN to me.

So this ride had some objectives to it. One hearing from a local Pinyon Cowgirl/MTBer was that there was Butta near.........We didn't find it but enjoyed the hiking we did in a few canyons.

Second was finding tha Ol' Live Oaks trail to Palm Canyon trail. Had a failed attempt in the fall of 2006 with the Raptorman. That trip is named "carry your bike up and down canyons and bumming a couple of Budweisers from some hunters" ride/adventure. This trip was a failed attempt too. This time it was a hike down a water drainage gap in the side of the canyon.

Hiking the bikes down Boulders.

Stepping our way down.

Scaling our way down.

Finally after a couple of hours of scaling we hit the bottom wash. Hooked in to Palm Canyon about a mile north of the Bottom Canyon trail. Running Palm in this direction is just plain fun.

Climbing is a lil more but this trail is good in both directions. Day was running out on us but we had 2 hours b4 sunset. So we decided to ride as much or did I decide that we would ride as much as we could b4 sunset knowing that we could get something warm to eat and a fresh pint of Guiness at Sugarloaf Cafe. So when we hit Palm Canyon drive we hooked into a couple of techy horse trails looping in and around Pinyon Flats. Finished these off just as we ran out of light and pedalled over to the CLOSED SUGARLOAF CAFE. So as we froze our ASSES offwaiting for Yumi to save our frozen ASSES and all we could talk about is what we could of had. What we did have was an experience on and off the bike we won't forget for a long time. This will be a Great story to tell the Grandkids.

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