Toad Festival

I've been really lazy in posting lately. I think I've done over 100 miles on the bike since my last post and just haven't felt like writing about it. Not to say interesting things haven't happened, I've just felt like keeping them to myself I guess.

This past Saturday I did the Toad Festival for the first time. I had heard about it last year and it sounded like a lot of fun, so I figured why not.

The event is always billed as a strictly fun ride up Holy Jim and then down Trabuco. Along the way you play games like rolling dice, throwing horseshoes and darts. You also look for plastic toads on the side of the trail as you ride and then you get points for the games and toads that might earn you a prize.

It was awesome to get to the event and see so many guys I've ridden with before. I know I'll miss a name or two, but I saw Andrew, Matt, Troy, Mike, Hal, Frank, Junior and maybe some other guys. The more you ride the more people you meet. Go figure.

Anyways once the ride started I knew I was in for a bit of trouble. The lady at the start kept saying "It's NOT a race", but it sure felt like a race to me. Hahaha. Maybe I was just tired from riding earlier in the week but I felt like I was constantly playing catch up with Matt, Andrew and Troy.

I found it hard to match their pace. My heart rate was just too high and I was starting to fade by pushing. I had an especially hard time at the very bottom of Holy Jim where the trail is steep, technical and often times requires a hike-a-bike.

Getting onto Holy Jim proper was much easier for me as I could ride 95% of it instead of walking sections.

We got to the top of Holy Jim to find a dice game. (By the way I drew a freaking 4 in the card game at the bottom of Holy Jim). I think I rolled a 5 with the dice. Two dice for a 5?!? Horrible.

The top of Holy Jim was pretty hot and we only rested maybe 10 minutes before shoving off. I was amazed at the Warrior's Society guy that was right behind me at the top of Holy Jim on a singlespeed 29er. I hope I didn't piss him off too much by not letting him by at the end. We were almost there and it's singletrack so I didn't think he'd mind being behind me for just a minute or two.

The next big concern for me was "The Wall". I've seen it called that on a few messageboards. Even though it was hot and I was tired "The Wall" wasn't so bad. The only other time I had ridden to Trabuco I had to walk maybe 5% of this climb, but this time I cleared it all. It was a little loose and kind of steep, but nothing bad. Very doable.

After the big climb to Trabuco I was just trying to catch up to Matt, Andrew and Troy. Right before getting to the horseshoe game/root beer float stand I cramped in my right calf. Not just a small twinge either. A full on lock-up-can't-move-the-muscle cramp. I decided to ride through it though and didn't get off the bike to recover. I'm proud of myself for that.

I just realized that we played horseshoes at the top of West Horsetheif. Well done. Haha.

The root beer floats were awesome even though I sucked at horseshoes. I brought my Lactaid pill so I was able to digest it just fine. Haha.

The trip to Trabuco wasn't bad at all. My legs recovered from the cramp and I was able to push a bit more. Without cramping I think I could have done much better in this section. I've been working on standing on the bike and hammering more and this part of the trail is definitely condusive to that riding style.

I got a 32 I think at darts at the top of Trabuco, which was pretty good.

The big story of the day was Andrew eating it at the top of Trabuco. I guess he was going pretty fast and he hit a patch of pine needles and wiped out. He scraped up his knee pretty bad (needed two stitches), but was able to finish the ride. First time I've ever seen the guy fall. Haha.

The trip down Trabuco was uneventful outside of Andrew crashing. The trail is a lot looser than I remember, but it's still pretty fun. I actually ended up passing 3-4 guys on the way down which is always a shock for me. _Me_ passing someone on a _downhill_. Haha.

The BBQ and party after the event was pretty awesome. Then it went on for like 3-4 hours which turned it from pretty awesome to pretty frustrating. Apparently a few guys didn't finish the ride until around 2PM and we all had to wait for the raffle etc. because of them. Lame.

Still, the El Pollo Loco food, the demo bikes from Bionicon and the company of good friends made it more than worthwhile.

Definitely need to do this event again next year.

Some pics I like from the ride:

Darts:


Root Beer Floats:


Andrew (Little did he know he'd eat it on Trabuco!):


Me and Troy:


Part of our group: