War and Peace
War and Peace is a long, long book (1,424 pages) and this post is going to be long as well. I figured I'd do a "play by play" of the ride Saturday since I haven't done that in a while.
Saturday was an IRLR (Irvine Ranch Land Reserve) ride with Matt and Andrew. IRLR means that we were led by a few docents through areas of Orange County that are normally off limits to bikes. The majority of the ride ended up on public land, but it was still fun to see a few areas that I've never been on.
The Ride:
There is good and bad with IRLR rides. The bad is that usually riders show up that stink and they slow the group down. The good is that riding with slow riders makes me feel better about my own riding ability. We had about 16 guys on the ride on Saturday and even though some of them were slow, no one really fell apart or totally bonked.
We started at Quail Hill and rode through what I think was Bommer Canyon for a bit before coming to a singletrack that was new for me. Even though it was early in the ride a few riders had started to distinguish themselves at the front and at the back.
I was a little nervous going down the singletrack because it was new and we were told that it had some pretty technical rock drops towards the botom. Only one guy in our entire group actually cleared the entire thing and he was on a big downhill rig. In fact only two people actually tried the drop at the end, so it was definitely gnarly. In retrospect if you knew the section and had ridden it before you might have a good line down it, but it's really hard when you go down a trail for the first time to pick the right lines.
After re-grouping at the bottom we climbed a bit before getting to a tough singletrack section. The trail was narrow, steep and very soft. No one cleared it (that I know of at least) and everyone had to get off and walk. I tried _really_ hard to make it, but ended up tipping over on my side. I couldn't get up and had to have someone else help me get my bike off me. Haha. (As a side note I bruised my left calf pretty good due to this "crash").
From this point we cruised down some more new singletrack in Bommer before coming to "The Challenge". The Challenge is a super steep (40% grade) short climb that runs along a few telephone poles. Long story short, tons of guys tried to climb it all, but no one was able to do it - except for Matt. Is this really a surprise at this point to me? Not really. I am convinced I could do it if I had tried more than one time, but I didn't want to wear myself out. While Matt was climbing I remember 3-4 guys started yelling/cheering and I kept looking around to see if some mountain lion was around or if someone had broken an arm or something. It was that kind of response. Haha.
We finally got going again and climbed out of Bommer into Laguna Coast Wilderness Park (LCWP) and then went over to El Moro.
In El Moro we did Missing Link and Fenceline and then headed over to Rattlesnake. Now a quick note about Rattlesnake ... I was convinced that I had done this trail before but after talking to Corby I had started to wonder if I had indeed done it.
I can say now that I have for sure cleared 100% of Rattlesnake. I never put a foot down and I never stopped to walk. There was one section where I thought I was going to go over the bars for sure, but I somehow saved it. I'm starting to get used to going over little ledges and planting the front wheel in the dirt _hard_. The end of Rattlesnake is actually really fun and challenging. I enjoy riding the rock garden stuff.
Some guy riding down Rattlesnake:
From Rattlesnake we headed down Mach One and then up I Think I Can. I started to feel a little fatigue for the first time on the climb up I Think I Can. My favorite part of this section of the ride was when one of the docents (Keith) told a guy that he used to ride up I Think I Can in his big ring. He was explaining why he made the transition to a singlespeed 29er. The second favorite part was when a guy on a rigid singlespeed running 34-18 took off after talking to me for a bit. He didn't even need to stand to accelerate. He just went for it and was gone. Amazing.
We then rook the ridge over to another new trail for me called BVD. It's about halfway between the top of I Think I Can and Missing Link. It was really fun and not technical at all - just maybe a bit steep in a few sections and loose on a few corners.
After getting to the bottom of BVD we climbed out of what I guess is called "Emerald Canyon". I just love the word emerald. It conjurs up images of green trees and happy woodland elves. Oh and maybe some good singletrack or something.
Anyways the climb out of Emerald Canyon was tough in a spot or two, but overall not bad at all. I really, really, REALLY want to get back to this section of El Moro (or whatever it is) to do some exploring. We missed riding up "Erection" and I definitely want to try out that trail on the way down or on the way up. Doesn't matter which.
From the top of the ridge we tried cruising over to "the tennis courts" near Laguna Canyon Road, but got lost. We ended up riding down a long loose fire road only to find out we were at a dead end. We had to climb back up (which sucked) to get back to a trail called "Laguna Bowl". This whole area was new to me and again - I can't wait to get back to it to explore and see what's up.
The ride down Laguna Bowl was nuts. It was very steep and loose and this is the only time I've ever smelled burning brakes. Someone (I hope it wasn't me) had their brakes on fire and I smelled the carnage all the way down. I was actually looking around for ash in the air because I thought the canyon was on fire the smell was so strong.
From the bottom of Laguna Bowl we cruised over to Starbucks for lunch and a quick break. The break went longer than I wanted it to, but I felt fine afterwards so I guess it was ok.
The next part of the ride was what I had been waiting for. We were going to be climbing up Canyon Acres and then going over to Stair Steps. Canyon Acres has a reputation for being a very tough climb. I was mentally preparing for the toughest climb of my life.
Out of the entire group only Matt and I cleared the entire climb, but that's not to say we were the only ones who had the ability to do it. The three guys on singlespeeds could have done it easily if they had been on geared bikes - and I'm also positive on a different day that Andrew could have finished it.
It was very satisfying to finish the entire thing and it felt great to have Keith and Calvin cheer us on while they walked next to us on the climb. It's funny that they walked only a tiny bit slower than we were riding. Haha. Andrew also had the great idea of doing slow circles on the flat sections of Canyon Acres in between climbs to recover. Genius.
I remember when I got to the top I asked Keith maybe 3-4 times if we were at the top because I didn't want to get off the bike until I knew I had cleared the entire climb. I wanted to be able to say "I've ridden all of Canyon Acres without getting off the bike".
From there we went over to Stair Steps where I ended up riding maybe 80% of it. I was really excited to ride lots and lots of sections that I walked the last time I had ridden down it. I'm not sure how I'm going to "solve" a few of the tougher sections, but overall the trip down did a lot for my overall riding confidence. It still sucked though to see Calvin clear all of it on his rigid SS. Haha.
After Stair Steps we headed up Willow and then went back into El Moro to hit Missing Link and Fenceline again. Finished by riding up to the back entrance to El Moro and then back under the freeway into Bommer and finally back to our cars.
I felt really strong on Willow and really strong towards the end of the ride as I was able to hammer in my big ring for the last few miles of fire road. Even though I felt good for most of the ride and only had to walk one small section of all the climbs - I'm not satisfied. I realized that Vision Quest would essentially be two laps of this ride elevation wise. That scares me.
One final note before I forget ... there was this one "headcase" on the ride that I got pretty mad at a few times. He was riding some old crappy hardtail and even though he was slow on the climbs he was a madman on the descents.
Normally I wouldn't care, but he almost took me out TWICE. Two different times I was going down a fire road at about 25mph and he came flying up behind me at 35mph and almost clipped me and my bike.
The first time he came up really close behind me and then passed in a bad section and almost cause me to crash. The second time he passed BETWEEN me and another rider on a fire road. There was no room for him, but he made room. I never ever want to experience that again. A real jerk that guy.
(I tried really hard to find pictures of Canyon Acres but couldn't ...)
Saturday was an IRLR (Irvine Ranch Land Reserve) ride with Matt and Andrew. IRLR means that we were led by a few docents through areas of Orange County that are normally off limits to bikes. The majority of the ride ended up on public land, but it was still fun to see a few areas that I've never been on.
The Ride:
There is good and bad with IRLR rides. The bad is that usually riders show up that stink and they slow the group down. The good is that riding with slow riders makes me feel better about my own riding ability. We had about 16 guys on the ride on Saturday and even though some of them were slow, no one really fell apart or totally bonked.
We started at Quail Hill and rode through what I think was Bommer Canyon for a bit before coming to a singletrack that was new for me. Even though it was early in the ride a few riders had started to distinguish themselves at the front and at the back.
I was a little nervous going down the singletrack because it was new and we were told that it had some pretty technical rock drops towards the botom. Only one guy in our entire group actually cleared the entire thing and he was on a big downhill rig. In fact only two people actually tried the drop at the end, so it was definitely gnarly. In retrospect if you knew the section and had ridden it before you might have a good line down it, but it's really hard when you go down a trail for the first time to pick the right lines.
After re-grouping at the bottom we climbed a bit before getting to a tough singletrack section. The trail was narrow, steep and very soft. No one cleared it (that I know of at least) and everyone had to get off and walk. I tried _really_ hard to make it, but ended up tipping over on my side. I couldn't get up and had to have someone else help me get my bike off me. Haha. (As a side note I bruised my left calf pretty good due to this "crash").
From this point we cruised down some more new singletrack in Bommer before coming to "The Challenge". The Challenge is a super steep (40% grade) short climb that runs along a few telephone poles. Long story short, tons of guys tried to climb it all, but no one was able to do it - except for Matt. Is this really a surprise at this point to me? Not really. I am convinced I could do it if I had tried more than one time, but I didn't want to wear myself out. While Matt was climbing I remember 3-4 guys started yelling/cheering and I kept looking around to see if some mountain lion was around or if someone had broken an arm or something. It was that kind of response. Haha.
We finally got going again and climbed out of Bommer into Laguna Coast Wilderness Park (LCWP) and then went over to El Moro.
In El Moro we did Missing Link and Fenceline and then headed over to Rattlesnake. Now a quick note about Rattlesnake ... I was convinced that I had done this trail before but after talking to Corby I had started to wonder if I had indeed done it.
I can say now that I have for sure cleared 100% of Rattlesnake. I never put a foot down and I never stopped to walk. There was one section where I thought I was going to go over the bars for sure, but I somehow saved it. I'm starting to get used to going over little ledges and planting the front wheel in the dirt _hard_. The end of Rattlesnake is actually really fun and challenging. I enjoy riding the rock garden stuff.
Some guy riding down Rattlesnake:
From Rattlesnake we headed down Mach One and then up I Think I Can. I started to feel a little fatigue for the first time on the climb up I Think I Can. My favorite part of this section of the ride was when one of the docents (Keith) told a guy that he used to ride up I Think I Can in his big ring. He was explaining why he made the transition to a singlespeed 29er. The second favorite part was when a guy on a rigid singlespeed running 34-18 took off after talking to me for a bit. He didn't even need to stand to accelerate. He just went for it and was gone. Amazing.
We then rook the ridge over to another new trail for me called BVD. It's about halfway between the top of I Think I Can and Missing Link. It was really fun and not technical at all - just maybe a bit steep in a few sections and loose on a few corners.
After getting to the bottom of BVD we climbed out of what I guess is called "Emerald Canyon". I just love the word emerald. It conjurs up images of green trees and happy woodland elves. Oh and maybe some good singletrack or something.
Anyways the climb out of Emerald Canyon was tough in a spot or two, but overall not bad at all. I really, really, REALLY want to get back to this section of El Moro (or whatever it is) to do some exploring. We missed riding up "Erection" and I definitely want to try out that trail on the way down or on the way up. Doesn't matter which.
From the top of the ridge we tried cruising over to "the tennis courts" near Laguna Canyon Road, but got lost. We ended up riding down a long loose fire road only to find out we were at a dead end. We had to climb back up (which sucked) to get back to a trail called "Laguna Bowl". This whole area was new to me and again - I can't wait to get back to it to explore and see what's up.
The ride down Laguna Bowl was nuts. It was very steep and loose and this is the only time I've ever smelled burning brakes. Someone (I hope it wasn't me) had their brakes on fire and I smelled the carnage all the way down. I was actually looking around for ash in the air because I thought the canyon was on fire the smell was so strong.
From the bottom of Laguna Bowl we cruised over to Starbucks for lunch and a quick break. The break went longer than I wanted it to, but I felt fine afterwards so I guess it was ok.
The next part of the ride was what I had been waiting for. We were going to be climbing up Canyon Acres and then going over to Stair Steps. Canyon Acres has a reputation for being a very tough climb. I was mentally preparing for the toughest climb of my life.
Out of the entire group only Matt and I cleared the entire climb, but that's not to say we were the only ones who had the ability to do it. The three guys on singlespeeds could have done it easily if they had been on geared bikes - and I'm also positive on a different day that Andrew could have finished it.
It was very satisfying to finish the entire thing and it felt great to have Keith and Calvin cheer us on while they walked next to us on the climb. It's funny that they walked only a tiny bit slower than we were riding. Haha. Andrew also had the great idea of doing slow circles on the flat sections of Canyon Acres in between climbs to recover. Genius.
I remember when I got to the top I asked Keith maybe 3-4 times if we were at the top because I didn't want to get off the bike until I knew I had cleared the entire climb. I wanted to be able to say "I've ridden all of Canyon Acres without getting off the bike".
From there we went over to Stair Steps where I ended up riding maybe 80% of it. I was really excited to ride lots and lots of sections that I walked the last time I had ridden down it. I'm not sure how I'm going to "solve" a few of the tougher sections, but overall the trip down did a lot for my overall riding confidence. It still sucked though to see Calvin clear all of it on his rigid SS. Haha.
After Stair Steps we headed up Willow and then went back into El Moro to hit Missing Link and Fenceline again. Finished by riding up to the back entrance to El Moro and then back under the freeway into Bommer and finally back to our cars.
I felt really strong on Willow and really strong towards the end of the ride as I was able to hammer in my big ring for the last few miles of fire road. Even though I felt good for most of the ride and only had to walk one small section of all the climbs - I'm not satisfied. I realized that Vision Quest would essentially be two laps of this ride elevation wise. That scares me.
One final note before I forget ... there was this one "headcase" on the ride that I got pretty mad at a few times. He was riding some old crappy hardtail and even though he was slow on the climbs he was a madman on the descents.
Normally I wouldn't care, but he almost took me out TWICE. Two different times I was going down a fire road at about 25mph and he came flying up behind me at 35mph and almost clipped me and my bike.
The first time he came up really close behind me and then passed in a bad section and almost cause me to crash. The second time he passed BETWEEN me and another rider on a fire road. There was no room for him, but he made room. I never ever want to experience that again. A real jerk that guy.
(I tried really hard to find pictures of Canyon Acres but couldn't ...)
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