Riding with Presidents

Posted by PeterD Thu, 21 Feb 2008 21:22:00 GMT

Charles and a whole crew went out for a ride at the Demo on Presidents Day. He has a new camera, so took a bunch of pictures and a few videos (plus one non-blurry pic courtesy of Caroline). Here is his write up:

A Three Hour Tour…

Well, that’s what I had planned. Ok, maybe a four hour, and at best a four and a half hour adventure in the woods, but I’ve swum with these fishes before, so I came prepared for an all day adventure as past experience has taught me. We used the occasion of Presidents Day to get together with friends and customers and take advantage of the warm Spring like day by taking a tour of the Soquel Demonstration State Forest. Of the fifteen or so riders that started last Monday’s ride, about half of us ended up spending over 6 hours riding just about every trail we could find.

Our approach was sort of like a clover leaf, where we kept coming back to near center, after most of us would loop around on some trail or road. Our first loop was out onto Cussacks Road, where the faster and more adventurous could get some additional challenge while I led a smaller group straight up the Aptos Creek Road toward our summit on Mt Rosalia. From Rosalia, Tom led a group out and down onto the first half of a side trail, and then back up to Rosalia. We had been stopping, chatting, offering a careful mix of encouragement and deconstructive criticisms, armoring up or armoring down, then continuing at a mostly social pace.

At this point, we had been playing Slinky with a pretty big group for a couple hours, stretching the stronger riders off the front, where they would patiently wait for those pushing a little less hard on the pedals, so the next group decision surprised me. We decided to drop Saw Pit, climb Tractor back up to the ridge, drop Braille, and then ride out Hihn’s Mill Road and up Highland to where we had parked safely on this side of the big slide, which committed us to at least two more hours of riding.

The entire group dropped in at the top of the Ridge Trail, following a team of photographers who were going to set up at the Big Step Down, and we high tailed it down past Corral, and Braille, then to the picnic table. Kate, Patty, and Reba the Trail Dog set up camp there while the rest of the group bit off one more big bite. The campers decided they would make good use of the available sun and recharge their batteries while waiting for the group to come up Tractor and rejoin them for a group run down Braille.

(text continues after videos)

In the process pushing our limits, and riding do-overs on some of the jumps and drops, and pulling sticks into our collective drive trains, it was already two hours later when we returned to the picnic table on Ridge. Kate, Patty, and the Pooch, having grown tired of waiting and losing their sun spot, had continued on ahead of us. The climb up Tractor was brutal for some, and hard work for all. Some opted out, and continued up Hihn’s Mill from the bottom of Saw Pit, to the parking lot, and up and out to the cars. There have been several periods of high winds in the Demo over the last month or so, and we found leaves, branches, and tree tops on every trail, sometimes deep and thick enough to obscure the trail from view. Doron was already hiking out from the bottom of Tractor, having lost his derailer hanger to a stick, and Nazim was hiking out behind him after experiencing a similar problem. The six of us that had made it back to the Ridge plodded along to Braille, where we received the instantaneous charge that only a little gravity or a whole lot of chocolate could provide. We hooted and cheered each other on, over log rolls, through narrows, and across bridges, down to the road to where we began our final climb.

Tom gets extra points for being the only one to ride the whole ride, every longer or harder option, setting some personal bests, like riding off the Trochanter Jump for the first time, and then having the drive to drop back in at the end of the ride to tow Nazim back up to the car. Josh, Daryl, Norm, Jeff, and Dave also get the extra points for doing the whole ride, setting new limits, and still having the wherewithal to not drop back in after Nazim, and heading to the Summit Store for replacement beverages and calories instead. Henry might get the Most Ambitious award, as he rode up from the town of Aptos, and met us at Rosalia for a couple loops before heading out the way he rode in. The Other Daryl gets the Best Timing award, for driving in from the other side of the slide, and rolling out of the Highland Way parking at the exact moment we rolled by at the beginning of our ride. Doron and Nazim both get Purple Hearts for broken bikes and long hikes, but should be back on the trail soon, if not already. Jill gets the Survivor award for getting spit out of he middle of the group, missing a turn, then orienting and figuring exactly where and when to meet us at the top of Braille the first time around. John and Caroline were no doubt the subject of some kind of envy as we continued up Tractor, heading deeper into the forest, and they were on their way out on the last climb.

I’m sure that all of us, though, would look forward to doing it all, or some version of all of it anyway, next Presidents Day if not sooner.

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