Trail Report - Circle X - CA

From: Ronald Fong
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 1:13

Well went to the doctor this afternoon. Looks like bacteria in the lungs. Taking antibiotics now. Can't believe I got sick off this ride. Bike computer says 21 miles but gps is only 19...

Google Earth File http://www.garafa.com/GPSKit/tracks/2390c9bcc8697028e6d9bc88c39c51ca6a681d1e_28.kml

Google Maps Link http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.garafa.com/GPSKit/tracks/2390c9bcc8697028e6d9bc88c39c51ca6a681d1e_28.kml

GPX File http://www.garafa.com/GPSKit/tracks/2390c9bcc8697028e6d9bc88c39c51ca6a681d1e_28.gpx

Trail Report - 3/28/10 - Big River East - West Greenwich, RI

- Trailhead: Hopkins Hill Rd Parking Lot
- Riders: Teri, Pat, Chris, OMMB and Spencer...Spenc? Bueller? Bueller? ...anyone?
- Distance: 5 plus a little miles
- Total climb: 2.5 miles (not as high as Spenc was last night)
- Weather: Clear and COLD (colder than ALL the beer Spenc dumped down is throat last night)
- Temp: 35 (something like those 35 ounce beers Spenc drank last night)
- Trail Conditions: attempted to stay on the higher ground...to no avail.  Some deep water and mud (muddy like Spencer's brain this morning)!
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: wasn't notified of any mishaps...close call when Patrick went barreling through the 15 inch deep stream attempting to pass OMMB...think not (there was as much water in that stream as Spenc had beer last night)!

Notes: With more impending rain (it was raining beers for Spencer last night), we were glad to kick off the Sunday Morning Group Ride this morning.  Some unexplainable sliced tire issue causing a bulge on OMMB's bike delayed our start, but we got a great ride in.  Although one rider short (hmmm), we worked through some real technical single track that offered rocks, mud, water, and hills.  We found some trails new to us on the far east side of the area...but of course Spencer didn't get to ride this, he was still na-nights. 

Tidbits:
1) Chris has got some fast legs, he wants us to sign up for a race (but of course we would have to make sure it's scheduled around Spencer's sleepy time)
2) Teri did an awesome job keeping up with the boys today...great effort!
3) New Trail Quote by Chris & OMMB... "well that's a nice bulge you got"  "I've been waiting for someone to tell me that my whole life!"

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/25/10 - Sycamore Canyon - Point Mugu State Park, CA

- Trailhead: Sycamore Canyon Fire Road, Pacific Coast Highway
- Riders: Hector, Scott, Tim, OMMB
- Distance: 13.5 miles
- Climbs: 2.5 miles
- Weather: clear & dry, cooler as the sun went down
- Trail Conditions: hardpack, ruts, loose rock
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: given the danger of the fast downhill, surprisingly no wipeouts

Notes:  Got a late start, so lights were ready.  We climbed Backbone (what I call "back break") and decended on Guadalasca (1, 13, 11, 10, and 7 on the map below)...well worth the climb (which is brutal for someone from the east!). The downhill run is the best thrill around! I felt pretty good climbing, possibly due to knowing what to expect. 

http://venturacountytrails.org/TrailMaps/Sycamore/AreaTrails.htm#Map

Tidbits:  The mountains are soooo green this time of year!  Awesome views all around from the summit.  The after ride refreshments were the best...home made green salsa & chips washed down with Newcastle Brown Ale.  These guys are the most enjoyable and generous riders your going to find anywhere! I really appreciate their friendship.

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/23/10 - Sycamore Canyon - Point Mugu State Park, CA

- Trailhead: Sycamore Canyon Fire Road, Pacific Coast Highway

- Riders: Hector, Scott, Juan, OMMB
- Distance: 14.5 miles
- Weather: clear & dry
- Temp: 70
- Trail Conditions:  hardpack with some ruts from recent rain
- Wildlife: ground squirrels, lizards, a snake (Hector inadverdantly gave the snake a lesson about crossing bike paths...ouch)
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: one slight whoops by Scott.  It's tough in the large washed out ruts, one got him! ...all good

Notes: My first west coast ride with new parts, felt surprisingly good...especially after the post ride brews!  We rode out on the Fire Road, then Two Foxes, and looped Hidden Pond...awesome variety of terrain!

Tidbits:  knee high socks to keep the bugs off, legs warm, and reduce scratches from cactus/brush...good idea!

http://venturacountytrails.org/TrailMaps/LaJollaValley/AreaTrails.htm

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/21/10 - Swansea Town Forest - MA

- Trailhead: Swansea Library
- Riders: Patrick, Mark, OMMB
- Distance: 4 miles
- Weather: cool, but nice
- Temp: 45-ish
- Trail Conditions: getting better
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: 1 Whoops for OMMB (looked back to check status and plopped over sideways), 1 Yikes for Mark over a water & mud crossing (buried the front end with an endo, resulting in a flat rear tire, huh?), and 1 Yikes for Patrick (which could have easily been an Oh Sheet) during the first attempt at the quite large seesaw (see the video)

Notes: got Patrick out for his season opener; as usual...a natural

Tidbits: one mud point for Mark, one "beyond the call of duty" point for Patrick (as daunting as the seesaw was, he did it first!)

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/19/10 - Swansea Town Forest - MA

- Trailhead: Swansea Library
- Riders: T, Anna, Mark, OMMB
- Distance: 4 miles
- Weather: great
- Temp: was supposed to be about 70, although it felt much cooler
- Trail Conditions: still quite muddy and wet, but getting better
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: good clean ride, even for those on their season opener!

Tidbits: I think "hop, hop" means "hurry up, keep going because I don't feel like unclipping my shoes to stop...even if others may need a break!!" ;)

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/18/10 - Weetamoo Woods - Tiverton, RI

- Trailhead: End of Lafayette Rd (North side of WW) - Riders: OMMB
- Distance: 5 miles
- Weather: perfect
- Temp: 68
- Trail Conditions: I'm surprised there aren't any Water Buffalo native to New England
- Technical Level: intermediate to expert (some trails are very rocky)
- Wildlife: just a friendly retriever, likes to chase bikes

Notes: Awesome day for an "almost" Spring ride!

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/17/10 - Swansea Town Forest - Swansea, MA

- Trailhead: parking lot behind the Swansea Public Library
- Riders: OMMB
- Distance: 4 miles
- Weather: NICE!!
- Temp: 58
- Trail Conditions: muddy and wet where they was never mud and water before!
- Technical Level: intermediate
- Wildlife: a hawk

Notes: With all the rain and flooding the area has had, the mud holes were so deep they would startle a water buffalo! The mucky conditions throughout the otherwise normal single-track made for tough going. Even the bridges over small streams were washed out. I attempted to stay on higher ground so investigated some trails over the many rock outcroppings...turned out to be fun stuff.

Tidbits: Greg the Italian boy is really mostly Irish... who knew?

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/10/10 - Swansea Town Forest - Swansea, MA

- Trailhead:  parking lot behind the Swansea Public Library
- Riders: OMMB
- Distance: 5 miles
- Weather: clear and chilly (the day warmed up later...I think this pseudo-Spring is ending)
- Temp: 35
- Trail Conditions: good
- Technical Level: intermediate
- Climbs: 15%
- Wildlife: hawk or pheasant or something flying fast
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: 1 whoops off a log bridge and into the cold mud (good news... 1) I got up, 2) didn't land in the stream)

Notes: Pushed out an early morning ride in an another attempt to get the strength built up this week...yes now I'm sore,  ...but feeling much better on the bike each day.  Still not ready to ride with Bikeworks just yet (nor with those Left Coast animals).

Tidbits:  Trailhead behind the library is better than (meaning there are no rivers to cross) behind Colt Jr High.

Happy Trails,
OMMB

PS-Sunday Morning Group Rides will be coming very soon..........

Trail Report - 3/8/10 - Swansea Town Forest - Swansea, MA

- Trailhead: Case Jr. High  - Riders: T, Mark, OMMB
- Distance: 4.5 miles
- Weather: clear, windy
- Temp: 60
- Trail Conditions: some mud, not too bad
- Technical Level: beginner/intermediate
- Climbs: 15%
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: n/a

Notes: We couldn't resist taking advantage of this psuedo-Spring (60 degrees in March? It's still Winter!!)

Tidbits:  The Bikeworks crew has built a pretty large seesaw here, bigger than the one at Big River (remember Hector Kneivel?).  Did NOT try it this time...MAYBE next time (can you say "baby"???)

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Trail Report - 3/6/10 - Swansea Town Forest - Swansea, MA

- Trailhead:  Case Jr High - Riders: T, OMMB
- Distance: 4 miles
- Weather: clear
- Temp: 50+
- Trail Conditions: typical New England Spring conditions...water, mud, mud, and mud
- Technical Level: beginner/intermediate
- Climbs: 10%
- Wildlife: 2 Trail hounds (Jack Russell Terriers)...no worries, they liked us
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets:  clean ride (aside from the muddied bikes and legs!)

Notes: the forecast for 3 consecutive days of 50 degree temps drove us to celebrate an early Spring (even if short lived)... so yard work, mtb ride, and a G&T sunset by the fire had us looking forward to many more days like this!!

Tidbits: I need thorn proof tire/tubes!!!

Happy Trails,
OMMB

Post-Ride Vander-Blog - 2/26/10 - Chesebro, CA

- Ride length: 16+ miles Time: ~3 hours

- Technical Difficultly: Moderate

- Oh Sheets: Pretty much just Hector

- Climbing: Pleasant w/ exception of hell-hill

- Temp: 70's

- Track: See Ron's google link below

- Rating: A- (it was an A until Hector got us lost)

Tim V's Notes:

So I made the decision to join the "left-coast crew" (Scott, Hector, Ron, Juan) for a "Friday Cheezwhiz ride". As usual, Hector masterminded the ride and all I had to do was show up at Cheseboro @ 1100. Did I mention that Hector planned the ride. "Plan" is an interesting term because as it turns out there was a fair bit of this ride he'd actually not ridden. More on that later. Did I mention that Hector neglected to give a clear indication of ride distance. He mumbled something about 9 or 10 miles and I'm thinking ..."10 times 1.5 = at least 15 miles...and I've got 1 bar and 1.5 liters of water". So we started the ride @ 1120 or so. The 1st four miles are a leisurely uphill non-technical ride with the exception of the "staircase". Staircase is a classic 50 foot or so section that requires one to pick a line and then hope you've got your mojo going. Apparently none of us had that particular form of "mojo" as none of us made it...though Ron and I came pretty close. Juan just skipped that mojo altogether. After another 1/2 mile or so we came to an intersection where some really nice downhill singletrack started. I made the mistake of talking to some downhill dressed guys while Hector and the boys took off. "Downhill boys" made some false claims of excessive poison oak...so I donned my uber-sexy arm warmers. This downhill had some rain induced technical sections (nicely rutted) and here is where I ran into Juan picking his way carefully downhill sans the bike. I eventually caught up to Hector and proceeded to "tailgate" him down another technical section. Does everyone know that Hector has some mild form of vertigo? Well, I forgot...and then suddenly remembered as Hector lost control and dislodged a large rock (perhaps boulder is a better term) onto my path. Hector managed to not crash and I chose a new line...so it all ended well. At this point Hector tells me..."oh yeah, this is where we turned back last time". In other words, we're now on an adventure vice a ride. Sweet! Fortunately, we've got "new school" with us. That would be Ron and his ultra functional iPhone. We ride on for another mile and then come to our first real uphill...and this turns out to be a "hell-hill" of sorts before mellowing out. At this point Hector doesn't exactly know where we are...only that we've gone about 9 miles. At this point, I'm thinking another liter of water in my camelback would have been a wise choice. We then proceeded to ride on an up and down fireroad...a fireroad that was supposed to end at the top of each visible section...but somehow extended and extended. But then, just as Ron said, we ended up back at the intersection of the downhill single-track...and had a nice 4 mile or so fast ride back to the car. All in all, a really great ride. Juan has post-ride beer drinking (I mean carbo-loading) photos.

Hector's "clarification":

A clarification, we were never lost. After Tim's "hell-hill", Ron and I tried to alter the planned ride to make it easy for those complaining of the hills and extra miles. However, we ended completing the planned ride.

Google Earth File <http://www.garafa.com/GPSKit/tracks/2390c9bcc8697028e6d9bc88c39c51ca6a681d1e_22.kml>

Google Maps Link <http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.garafa.com/GPSKit/tracks/2390c9bcc8697028e6d9bc88c39c51ca6a681d1e_22.kml>

GPX File <http://www.garafa.com/GPSKit/tracks/2390c9bcc8697028e6d9bc88c39c51ca6a681d1e_22.gpx>