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Maybe that's exaggerating a little, but I had to stop and rest multiple times on the climb out. I consider that cracking.
I rode Flat Frog, Frog Lake (350' climb), Middle Ridge, Poverty Flat Rd up to Jackass Pass (600'), Jackass Trail up to Mt. Sizer (1400'), crossed a little pvt property to Hat Rock, down the very primative Rock House Ridge Trail, The Narrows Trail to Los Cruzeros, Mahoney Meadows Road (200' climb, still never made it clean), Lost Springs (400'), down China Hole (!), up the other side of China Hole (1200'), Manzanita Pt Rd (100'), poached the "no bikes" Forest Trail because it's almost flat (200' in 1.1 mi), goes around two decent hills, and I was hurting, and finally the climb home on Manzanita Pt Rd. (200').
So that's 4650' of climbing, and there's more that I didn't count. It was probably only about 28 miles, but it felt like 40. It took me about 6.5 hours, and we rode in D'ville last week for 8.
I don't know if I didn't eat enough, or if I should've brought some Gatorade. I suspect the combo would have helped tremendously. I ate only one clif bar, an apple and a couple boxes of raisins. It certainly wasn't too hot. I wore my pull-over the whole time, and got pretty wet from the moisture collected on the grass and trees. At the very top of Mt. Sizer, there were considerable puddles where the fog was collecting in the trees and dripping off.
Hat Rock
Hat rock is pretty cool. It's a big rock pile that's about 40' tall, and there's a large boulder perched on the top, the "hat". Someone had told me before not to take the singletrack down to it, but instead to climb to the top of Mt Sizer, and cross the private property. If I were to do it again, I'd take the singletrack. The detour to the top of Sizer was long, and there was a boring fireroad downhill. I would have rather gone down the singletrack, and climbed back out.
Rock House Ridge Trail, and Doug the Durt Dude (WTF?)
The Rock House Ridge descent was good, but not great. It was over two miles, and all down, but some of it was bumpy meadow trail. The trail is hardly noticable in some spots. There are pink flags along it's length to give you the feeling you're not lost. It wasn't as good as the trails that are closer to the entrances. Good for an adventure though.
Pictures linked without permission from here.
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