MtB Skills Clinic - 2008-11-15

I organized a Mountain Bike Skills Clinic for 15/November through the Southern California Mountain Biker Boys and GayOutdoors.Com. So many people said that they were interested, but when the shit hit the fan, only five of us showed up. It was still a great event, and in actuality, the number of students was just right. It appeared to me that everyone who attended got something out of it to make the modest cost and time committment worth while.

I arrived a bit early at the appointed spot and waited for everyone to arrive. Jake pulled in soon after I did followed by our instructor, Julius Syvanen, then Bill S and Jim H. We waited around for the one remaining person, Peter D. It turns out Peter had been there for about 10 minutes before he started asking around for us. Since there were other people using the spot as a starting point for their rides, I just assumed he was waiting for someone else to meet him. But as soon as he asked some other guys if they were there for the skills clinic, I approached him.

 

Bill and I have both been riding for 15-20 years. I'd put Jake in the "Intermediate" range, Jim in the "Advanced Beginner" to "Intermediate" skill level, and Peter, has been in the saddle for only a month.

From there, we moved to the actual starting point of the ride, got our bikes set up and Julius started his lecture on center-point balance on the bike and using weighting to turn the bike rather than turning the handlebar. We all practiced on the dead-end street for about 15 minutes before heading off to the trail.

The trail started off with a downhill, which I blasted down, enjoying the opportunity to catch some air on several small jumps. We continued down a trail I used to know as "Cobble 2" until we got to the duck pond near "Shits". It was decided that we would do some technical uphill sessioning while we were all still fresh and the weather wasn't too hot.

We practiced going up a sandy, rutted, steep incline with an obstacle in the middle. Bill climbed it without any problems. It took me several attempts, but I finally made it past the obstacle and some distance further up the hill. Everyone else gave valiant efforts with varying degrees of success. It certainly wasn't an easy climb. The wheels would slide in the loose sand or lose traction, or the gearing we'd set up would be wrong. Regardless, everyone learned some important skills at that early stage of the clinic's ride.

  

  

  

After the climb sessions, we headed down to the canyon's main road and then up Powerline. Once we climbed to the top of Powerline, we headed to Tunnels. After a brief introduction to some additional skills, and pointers on our riding techniques, we started descending into Tunnel #3. This was the first time for everyone except for myself (and Julius), and the common refrain was "I'll be riding here more often". 

We rode down Tunnel #3 (also known as "Rocking Horse" for the old wooden rocking horse hanging from a tree at the top of the trail.) and then emerged in Deer Canyon. After more pointers and tips, and discussion as to whether we were tired or wanted to keep going, we opted for the longer long loop back to the cars. The loop took us on some nice singletrack through Deer Canyon and then back into Tunnels, which we climbed back to the mesa top. 

We rode some fairly technical trails, and I was pleasantly surprised by Peter's dedication, willingness to push his limits and the ultimately, by his strong abilities on the bike. It definitely wasn't an easy ride--there were significant challenges in terms of technical features (sand, loose rocks, narrow steep trails, etc.)

After the clinic, Jake, Julius and I went out to lunch (of course, everyone was invited, but other obligations called the others) where the conversation frequenly veered into the realm of socio-political analysis (Julius is currently a student of Political Science/International Relations at UCSD, and I have an MA in Political Science from UC Irvine and did my undergraduate degree at UCSD.) Jake seemed a bit bored by our rantings, but the food was good no one seemed anxious to leave.

  

  

 

2008-09-11 Peñasquitos ride with Andreas

Andreas, or Andy as he goes by now, and I met many years ago as Scuba Divers. I was just starting out in diving and so was he. We dove together several times at La Jolla Shores and probably a few other places too. One zig for me and one zag for him, and it was like going swimming on opposite sides of a big kelp plant in coastal waters--you'll never find each other again. So, we fell out of touch for several years, mutually forgotten, until, that is, he pulled up behind me at Joe Lawwill's BikeSkills clinic. We saw each other again on the Indian Creek Trail while I was on the Mt. Laguna Great Outdoors camping trip. I was riding by myself, but had hooked up with a good rider, and he was riding with the DirtTreaders.Com group. After some mishaps with email, I was finally able to get registered at DirtTreaders.com and that's where I saw the info about the Peñasquitos after work ride.

I decided that instead of commuting on my road bike between home and work, I would instead drive to work, bringing my MtB and ride with him at Peñasquitos in the evening. After all, I have been saying that given the opportunity to ride for pleasure, I'd take a MtB any day over riding on the road.

We met at the agreed upon location and we were actually on the trail no more than a minute later than our 5:30 departure time. We rode to Wagon Wheel Crossing, crossed the creek and continued on the road until the first climb. Since I was in the lead, I took control of the route and headed up the hill. It's not an easy climb and Andreas' heavier bike and lower endurance level showed, but he made it to the top. He did comment though that he hated climbing. As we rode on, I asked him whether he wanted to go up further or down. He chose down. What I had failed to mention was that the uphill was about 30 feet and would have left us on top of the mesa, whereas going down meant that we had another longish climb to get back up to the same elevation.

That said, the downhill was fun. Once we got back to the main east-west trail, we continued until we hit Powerline and headed up to the mesa. From there, Andreas asked me if I wanted to do "Rocking Horse". Not knowing realizing that the name "Rocking Horse" was the tunnel trail that had an old rocking horse at the top of it. So, we zipped down. Andreas, far more familiar with the ride than I was faster on the downhill through all the twisted and slanting trees. I still get a little freaked out by how close I must be coming to hitting the handlebar on a tree. There were points, however, where I really felt like I was one with the bike and the trail and the trees and I was zipping through, keeping up with Andreas, and probably pushing him a bit.

We did a couple of loops through Tunnels and then headed back. By the time we got to the top of Shits, it was time to put on the lights. After a long fiddling around with putting the light mount onto the helmet, I realize how much faster it is to mount my light because I leave the mount on the helmet all the time.

We zipped through Shits and back to the car. I tried to do the jumps, but wasn't feeling positive about my skills so I didn't hit the launch with enough force and just rolled over the top. Maybe I'll take a class out in Moab on jumping...

All in all, a nice ride. I would probably have finished the ride faster than we did, but Andreas is a good strong rider who is only going to get better. With only 7 months of riding under his belt, he's very proficient. I hope we ride together more often.

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.