"Balancing granny" - 9/15/10 - Sycamore Canyon - Point Mugu, CA

- Trailhead: Sycamore Canyon Campground

- Riders: Scott, OMMB (also Freddie and Lola) 

- Distance: 12 or so miles

- Temp: 65

- Weather: clear, cool, dry

- Trail Conditions: dry, dusty, runoff ruts

- Wildlife: 8 inch or so lizard, some fancy quails, and a couple of...yeah you'll see
- Whoops, Yikes, and Oh Sheets: Nope...just Yikes regarding the unwelcome clan

Notes: So how do you celebrate one year to the day since your Birmingham Bilateral Bifornication Bifurcated Hip Resurfacing Replacement surgery?  Well you ride 12 plus miles through Sycamore Canyon with a 2 mile climb in the middle of course!  First real climb for me in quite a while, so it was balancing in granny gear all the way up.  The decent was the usual seat of your pants Guadalasco Trail ride...BUT my "buddies" out here never bothered to mention the size of the creatures roaming the area!  I knew about the wildcats and rattlesnakes...is there any other dangerous creatures I should know about??? uuuuhhhh....like, for example, scorpions, jumping killer squirrels, or attack condors?  Jeesh...flying down the trail I see this black fur ball go whizzing by my tire.  I'm thinking, what the hell was that?   Was that someones sock?  Shit....that was a freakin spider!  Did some kid drop his giant plastic toy spider?  So it finally clicks...hit the brakes and go take some pictures.  At the time I did not know what kind of spider this thing was, later found it to be a Tarantula.  When I caught up with Scott, I told him about Freddie (he's thinking what a nutty New Englander)...apparently there's also spiders on steroids in South Carolina.  Some redemption was had when Scott spotted Freddie's cousin Lola a few hundred yards down the trail.  Based on his reaction, he NOW knew what I was talking about! 

Tidbits: Happy Birthday to Hipper and Hipple, one year old today!

Happy Trails,

OMMB