Thanksgiving, solo style.

Well after spending the past 20+ years going to the coast for Thanksgiving I decided that alone or not I would head that way for the holiday. It took a bit of soul searching for me to decide to go, I was in the WinCo at 8pm on Wednesday night shopping on the way out of town, not optimal trip planning....

I hit the Chinese food place on the way out of town only to get this...shit.

Your'e Fing kidding me right?

I made it out past Williams before I was wandering between the lines too much for my tastes and decided to find an old farm road off of Hwy 20 to sleep for awhile. I actually slept pretty good for being in the back seat of the truck, I didn't want to get the trailer set up for just a few hours of sleep so that was my best option. The alarm went off at 4:30 and I really was glad I had stopped. Got some coffee in Lakeport before the tweakers woke up and landed in Fort Bragg  by 7am, sweet.

I got the trailer set up in a nice sweet spot and hit the trails for a pre-thanksgiving ride. I headed out to Mendocino via some trail and road. Much to my surprise the market in Mendocino was open so I stopped for something to eat and drug it out to the headlands.

Fun trail out on the Headlands

Pretty bitchin lunch spot...

The weather was absolutely stunning for a November day, it's always a crapshoot when you come to the coast in winter.
I made my way back to camp to get dinner ready. It took a bit of time and effort, but a couple of hours later I had a turkey dinner on my table. Not nearly as festive as years past with Mary, but I pulled it off none the less

Thanksgiving dinner minus the margarita in my hand!

Friday I awoke to another stellar day. Sasha and I spent a bit of time on the beach and I headed out for a ride with our friend Jesse, a lifelong resident and one of the best guys in the world to ride with if you are on the coast. Jesse and I rolled around in the forest for almost 4 hours on trails old and new to me. All in all a really great day and the perfect distraction for an otherwise kind of bleak day for me.

Sasha, sitting still for once...

Beautiful day!

Jesse waiting while I fix a flat because I'm an idiot and let the Stans dry out in my front tire. 

North Coast goodness

Ho Hum, more stellar redwood riding.

 I said my goodbyes to Jesse and we talked about meeting up on Saturday, it didn't happen but I had a great ride out in the forest anyways. I've been coming to Fort Bragg for a very long time and even though I still feel like I never know where I am, I've come to be able to put some biggish rides together without a guide. I'm not always sure of where I'm at but I always seem to make it back to civilization.

It all looks the same, but I love it's uniqueness all the same. 

No, I didn't ride it....

It's a dark place deep in the forest.

Hmmm, hallucinations or death.....

 Upon coming out of the forest I was surprised to see a massive fog layer had developed along the coast. I made my chilly way back to camp for a fire and leftover turkey dinner! Sasha and I headed out for a little beach time but were turned back pretty quick by the wet fog and a pretty gusty north wind. Sasha didn't much care, fur coat and all, but I was less enthusiastic about it.

"Let's go, what's the problem?"

I had planned on doing the club ride on Sunday, but I really should have been at work the whole time I was off screwing around. I decided the grown up thing to do was to get out early and get set up for Monday's work day instead of riding that day. It was till pretty foggy as we left the coast for this years version of a family holiday, not the plan I had in life, but the one I have to work with.

 All in all I'm very glad I made the call to go with tradition.....

Grouse Ridge overnighter

Took a spin up to Grouse Ridge over the weekend. It's been years since I've been up that way. I fought hard  to keep that area open to bikes when it was being considered for a Wilderness designation and have always considered it a special place.

The past few years have seen little to no maintenance from the Forest Service, a common theme anywhere other than the Lake Tahoe basin, which seems to have an endless supply of money despite no apparent revenue stream from timber sales.

I rode a bit down lower on the Upper Pioneer extension and Spaulding Lake trail, just a quick spin as I had worked earlier in the day and wanted to get up to the top of Grouse Ridge before sunset so Sasha and I could head out to Five Lakes Basin for the evening.

Spaulding Lake Trail

The campground had a few hearty souls car camping as we drove through to the trailhead parking lot. It looks like some money has been spent on the campground, now if they could just spend a bit of  time cleaning up the 100's of downed trees in the area that would be great. 

The view from the parking lot, not bad.

More trailhead beauty. 

Looking the other direction.

I loaded up hurriedly while Sasha enjoyed herself tormenting some unsuspecting chipmunks. I had just thrown some stuff together in the seatbag and nearly filled my Osprey Talon 22 to capacity before we headed out, I didn't think I would need the Apline Explorer bag, but it would have been nice not to have to cram all my stuff in my race pack.

We headed out to Five Lakes Basin via the Sand Ridge Trail.  The trail was free of downed trees for the most part, but the 1/2 mile hike a bike seemed to have escaped my memory. Once we finally got to the ridge it was all good, lovely views and lighting all around.

Heading out.

Sand Ridge Trail

 We finally made the first lake, it looked like a couple of other bikes had been that direction recently, I have never continued down that trail to see where it goes, perhaps down to Fordyce Lake.

Home for the night.

Some cool rockwork.

After a bit of searching we found a great little spot and unloaded. Sasha promptly found a nice little muddy spot to get down to the water, great, muddy dog in the tent......

Not a bad spot....

Muddy dog feet after some cleaning...

We hiked a bit and settled in for the night. I knew I was undergunned in the sleeping area as I had only brought my 45 degree bag on what was likely to be a sub freezing night. It gets dark early this time of year and after playing a few games on the I-Pod we were off to sleep. I made it till about 4 am before I was uncomfortable, slept pretty restless till daybreak but overall slept better than I thought I would. Thankfully I had brought my warm sleeping bag liner or it likely would have been a rough night. Sure enough upon waking in the morning Sasha's water bowl was frozen over.....

Wonderful light.

" There must be something to chase down there!"

Crappy self portrait with the ever moving Sasha. 

Fading daylight.

 It warmed up pretty quickly and after a  bit of breakfast we were off for the return trip to the truck. I had a bit of work to do so we headed out pretty early and were back to the truck by 9 am.

Sasha looking to torment something.

Heading home.

 We rambled down the 6 mile dirt road to the pavement and headed home for the day. I nice way to end the year as it looks like we have snow coming this weekend.

Hard COEre 100

Wow, that was hard.... 

I had read about this underground race for the past couple of years. A race in Henry Coe Park outside of San Jose that would entail one big 100 mile loop with no repeat trails and somewhere north of 20,000' of climbing.  Henry Coe State Park is the largest State Park in California and one of the largest in the US at over 85,000 acres. A few locals had been doing pretty big days in the park and had eventually come up with a 100 mile all dirt loop using dirt roads, double track, trail, game trail, rodent trail, insect trail..... you get the point. A really cool deal given that the route was all dirt within 15 miles of one of the largest cities in California. The prevailing theme of rides in the park involved one constant; F'ing Steep!

Couple this really cool idea with the fact that I had never been there and I was in. I set off for the town of Gilroy and the campground at Coyote Lake on Friday. The campground was just 3 miles from the start of the race and had showers and bathrooms, not a bad deal. I arrived a bit before 3 pm and managed to get a short 15 mile ride in since I had not been on the bike all week. Showered and setup, I headed into Gilroy for some dinner and a few last minute items before heading off to bed for the 5am wake up.

I arrived at the start at about 6:15 with only one car in the lot, it looked like they had been there for the night so I settled in and waited for the other racers to show. One by one the rest of the hearty souls arrived. There had been a 100K option added this year and 6 people were up for that challenge, the rest of us, seven in all were out for the 100 miles. I knew a couple of people from some previous rides, most seemed to know who I was, an uncomfortable deal for me.....

 We exchanged names and after a brief intro to the route we were off. I settled in towards the front and eventually made a getaway as the trail grew steeper. It was ridable, but certainly uncomfortable and it continued for what seemed like forever. The route followed some very fun singletrack, steep roads and beautiful scenery. The first water stop was at Park Headquarters at about the 35 mile route. My initial thought was that I would reach that spot in 3-4 hours since I generally always average somewhere in the 9-10 mph range. Somewhere in a steep creek canyon my gps turned off. I forgot I had put some lithium batteries in on the last 4 day trip and the fuel gauge always reads full on that gps with lithiums, right up until it dies.... When I started it up with new batteries the signal was lost and it found a spot 20 or so miles to lock onto, great, now my cue sheets and map are useless. I had no idea where I was or how far I'd gone but it seemed like I should be getting close to HQ. 

"Trail" along the route to HQ

More "Trail"

Boy was I wrong, the route continued up and down steep canyons on trails and roads. At the 4 hour mark I was out of water with no idea how far it was till I would be able to refill. Turns out it would be 1-1/2 hours without water and that essentially made the next 11 hours and 65 miles miserable at times. I finally reached HQ 5-1/2 hours into the race. 35 miles and nearly 8500'of climbing...Had I known that I would have filtered somewhere along the way and adjusted my grossly inaccurate ambitions.

Coit Lake shimmering in the morning sun

Awesome stuff

I made my way out of HQ and into the great unknown. I was hurting pretty good at this point, the terrain alone would have hurt, yet alone being dehydrated so early in the day. The combination was unrelenting. The route was pretty consistent  very steep climbs, a little ridgeline riding and a steep decent, repeat....

More good stuff out past HQ

Yeah, that's the trail... really fun though.

Bear Mountain had been talked about by quite a few of the locals. Only one person was known to have cleaned it, Brian Lucido, who was somewhere behind me at this point. I knew I had come to it without a doubt. Steep does not do it justice. I walked all of this beast, hoping o save a few matches for later lighting. My matches were sweat soaked by the time I hit the summit and would never light again. 

I sat down for a bit just off the top to eat a bit and relax a bit, it had been a pretty tough day so far and I was only halfway. Just as I was underway I was surprised to see another rider come along beside me, it was Brian. 

Crap now we have a race on our hands.....

Bear Mountain, ouch....

Brian and I chatted a bit and I finally made the connection as to who he was. He is quite a bit younger than me so we never raced each other so to say, but we had raced tandems against each other at Downieville and Sea Otter for years. I knew him to be a strong rider and more importantly he had ridden in Coe 100's of times. 

"Trail" out past Bear Mountain

Brian and I chatted and rode for the better part of the next 20 miles. I was not feeling great but the company forced me to push through what were now beginning to be rather painful cramps, we still had 30 miles to go when he finally disappeared into the fading sunlight. Great, now I'm alone in the dark in the outer reaches of a place I have never been to. The roads and trails seemed to go on forever, steeper and more unforgiving as my legs continued to scream in displeasure. I was now walking just about any hill that required me to get in my lowest gear.

 It was an absolutely stunning night though. The stars and local lights of Gilroy and Mountain View were awesome. Several times I sat with my lights off and stared into space just taking it all in. It's been awhile since I've ridden at night and not been in a 24 hour race so this was a nice treat even though I was suffering mightily.

 I would see Brian's lights ahead of me every 15 minutes or so, I could tell he was putting time into me but I couldn't tell how much. I never saw another light behind me through the night. The final 8 miles or so just about killed my will to live. I was lost several times, rode past turnoffs and generally flailed around. I still had a pretty good attitude though, the good thing about not knowing where you are is the temptation to bail is nonexistent, you're in it finish no matter what. 

I walked the final 600' climb and headed off for the final decent back to the start. I stopped to put my thin windbreaker on about halfway down, I should have done this earlier as I froze my ass off getting back to the car. I was greeted by a cheering group of racers at the finish, very cool to see. Brian had beaten me by about 45 minutes for the win and looked very comfortable. He would have likely gone out for the Everest Challenge( another 40 mile 9000' loop) if I had been up to it. I was most certainly not! 

It has taken me 16 hours almost to the minute to complete the 100 miles and 20,090' of climbing. 

I cleaned up a bit and crawled into the back seat of the truck for the night. Cramps came and went through the night but I slept pretty well for being curled up in the fetal position. I awoke about daybreak and headed back to the start. The last group had just finished(21 hours I think) and it was nice to know that everyone who set out yesterday to conquer this beast was able to do so. 

I said my thanks and goodbyes and headed off for breakfast and the long drive home. 

Thanks to Dirk and his group of hardcore adventurers who brought this to life.  It was nice to ride with like minded souls in this beautiful area. 

I hope to be back again next year.