2009-Jan-10 La Costa

After all of the errands and long planned events of the morning were finished, and the morning trail work event at La Costa Conservation Area well passed, I ventured out to get a quick ride in before the planned events of Saturday evening.

I arrived at the starting point at about 3:15, surprised to find several SDMBA members (Rich J, Matt M, Gardner G, among others) still hanging around, drinking beers and chatting. I joined them for what I wanted to be a brief moment, but I ended up hanging around for around 45 minutes. Part of the reason I stood around for so long was because I was feeling a big guilty for not having been there for the morning trail work, even though I had scheduled the other events long before I learned about the trailwork. The other reason was because there was never a long enough pause in the conversation to interject that I was going to go riding. When I finally noticed that it was 4pm, and I needed to be home within an hour, I bid farewell and got myself going.

I took Switchbacks up, moving very quickly toward the top. I felt strong and solid on the bike, making corners and climbs that I often need to walk. When I got to the top of the singletrack and continued toward the kiosc, I was in a race against the clock, although the rider I had caught up with must have been in a self-imagined race with me because he didn't seem like he wanted to let me pass him.

When I got to the kiosc, I had the intention of taking a picture holding a Moosejaw flag (Moosejaw is this really cool outdoor gear company that has all sorts of opportunities to earn points redeemable for goods. A picture with a Moosejaw logo in it is only worth $1, but it's not really any sweat to send it in.) I snapped a few pictures of myself using the timer function on the camera and then, without thinking what I was doing, I headed back down the hill the same way I came.

About half way down the hill it dawned on me that I really should have taken the "Camino Del Mar" trail, with it's windy, sweet swoops and much greater length. But by that point, I was already committed to getting down the hill, so I continued to zip through the switchbacks.

When I got back to my car, a few of the SDMBA organizers were still hanging around. I stopped by again to chat and then changed into dry clothes and drove home. It wasn't a very long ride, but it was better than nothing and burned some calories and put my head in a great space.

20-August-2008 Los Peñasquitos Preserve ride

I did an after-work/before-the-SDMBA-meeting Los Peñasquitos Preserve with Rich Julien and his buddy Brian since I was carpooling with Rich to the SDMBA meeting and he wanted to do a ride before the meeting. Rich picked me up from my workplace at about We parked at the old "Cantina Bike Shop" parking lot and headed out past the old adobe and proceeded to do a mostly singletrack ride. It was great fun! I did crash at one point, trying to do some fancy line work that left me bouncing too much when I needed to be solid on the ground.

We rode several of the tunnels and some really cool technical singletrack trails. I found that my skills weren't in peak form, possibly due to the late hour and possibly due to being tired. Rich was really fast for someone who claims he'll be in a wheelchair in 10 years due to a variety of physical and physiological issues; I had trouble keeping up with him most of the time.

All in all, a great ride. I shot video, and am in the process of editing it.