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MountainBikeReview.com's Forum Archives - - Passion -
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krank and the 3 b!tches, or how I spent my Christmas..(essay (12 posts)
|  krank and the 3 b!tches, or how I spent my Christmas..(essay | krank
Dec 30, 2001 10:06 AM | | Hello all, I'm back from sunny southern california. I went to visit my family and to do some riding. It was a great time! Sunday afternoon rolled around and my bro-n-law hit me up for a ride, so of course I accepted. While we were getting readdy, the phone rang and a friend of his wanted to do some pedaling as well. So he came over. Then Brian's (my brother in law) neighbor saw us getting ready and went home to get his gear as well. We left the house and crossed the street to Whiting ranch. The trail head is practically in the middle of a strip mall, well it is Cali so I guess that's normal. We headed out in to some fun little quick drops and bridge crossings. Everything was really wet so the bridges were extremly slippery. After a mile of trying to avoid cactus and trying not to slip on the wet leaves, we hit a junction and now the fun began. A nice LONG climb that only got tougher as you went. I maybe made it 3/4 of the way up. Then I had to hike it. We got to the top and talked about doing the Luge, but then decided against it. So one guy went out to do it and the other 3 of us turned to a different route. We drop into some sweet but rutted single track. Obviously done by alot of people sliding down the trail, instead of riding down. Then the damndest thing I've ever seen on a trail, A SPEED LIMIT SIGN! I had to laugh. I told my wife about it and she asked, "But, what if you don't have a computer?" It was a great ride
Then on the day after Christmas, we went to the 3 bitches. GREAT RIDING! Oh man! Started off dropping into the trail doan some good size steps in a narrow culvert, not much wider than 6 feet and about 6 feet deep. Then over to some jeep trail for a short whileto get to the first of the 3 climbs. I was ready, so I thought. We started up and I left Brian behind I was feeling great. I can do this (as I shift to a lower gear). This is pretty hard but do-able (another shift, only 3 more gears left and 3/4 of the hill still left to climb)Now the hill gets steeper and I loose two more gears, the front wheel is trying to tell me that I should be doing a wheelie up this climb. I'm fighting to keep it down. 2/3 of the way up and the hill beat me. This scenario is repeated on the remaining 2 climbs, but now the payoff! Just out-right screaming downhilling with rock drop offs, banked turns and nice little hits that launched you. It's hard for me to describe, I'm not the best at writing this stuff up. All I do is babble, it was great and I can't wait to get back to visit again! |
| NICE! | brianc
Dec 30, 2001 10:25 AM | | Sounds like a blast. Sure beats what I did for vacation....Refinish a hardwood floor and load Hay for my dad in a snow storm.
YOu know what the first thing I did when I was your post below? Look up to the Peak to see the cloud that is engulfing it had pasted. no luck.
On the bright side they're calling for hardly any acumulation and 45F partly sunny. I was out hiking at Embudino (how the F- do you spell that??) at the top of Montgomery yesterday evening, it was only slightly tacky in the washes and beautiful the rest of the way. It should be good for tommorrow. |
| good post, now take some pics | AK Ken
Dec 30, 2001 11:55 AM | | Nothing wrong with that write up that I can see. I, for one, appreciate the straight scoop without some of the flowery prose designed more to showcase the writer's vocabulary than it is to relate the story. I had a perfectly functional mental image of your ride, and it looked like fun.
Now all you've got to do is post some pics so we can check if our mental images were right!
Keep up the good word.
Ken |
| Here's Krank riding for you | brianc
Dec 30, 2001 12:05 PM | | 
This is not SoCal, but this spot made it in BIKE Mag so I it will have to do.
How much snow do you have up there? |
| That's Krank? | AK Ken
Dec 30, 2001 12:32 PM | | Jeez, he has arms the size of my legs! Don't want to insult him out on some lonely trail, I'll bet.
Not much snow here, maybe a foot on the ground. We had two days of plus 45 degrees with 50 mph winds last week that really ate up the snow.
Ken |
| Hehe | brianc
Dec 30, 2001 12:40 PM | | YOu'd have nothing to worry about with him out on a lonely trail. He's real nice guy. BUt if you crossed him in a bar fight, that's a whole other story. He cheats.
We're geting a fresh coating on the mountain here in the desert. BUt that will be gone as soon as the sun comes out.
b |
| Refresh my feeble memory | AK Ken
Dec 30, 2001 12:43 PM | | Which mountain in which desert are we talking about?
Ken |
| The Tourist Board doesn't like to let that info out but... | brianc
Dec 30, 2001 12:59 PM | | The state is the only one in the Union to put U.S.A. on their lisence plates.
The state abbrv. is commonly used in a subject line of a post with No Message inside.
The Mountain is named after watermelons and Bugs bunny always misses the left turn here.
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Albuquerque, NM Sandia Peak. (photo from another mountain) |
| LOL, and a gut the size of a keg! (NM) | krank
Dec 30, 2001 3:02 PM | | |
| thanks..... | krank
Dec 30, 2001 2:57 PM | | I had my camera but was too busy riding! I wanted to get shots of my brother in law but he was too far ahead |
| Hey, you were right here in my home turf! | Billy Zoom
Dec 30, 2001 12:54 PM | | Glad you liked Whiting. I ride there usually 2-3x a week, and I love it. (I might have even seen you there.) You must have rode cactus ridge, that's where that 5mph sign is. There aren't a lot of especially challenging parts to Whiting, but it's a nice 7 mile loop with good atmosphere.
But you missed the luge, huh?!! On Thanksgiving a friend showed me where it was, and it was a blast. Fairly technical downhill singletrack with good sized drops, at least a few miles long. I can't wait to go back. Next time you might want to try it.
Anyway, next time you're in the area, throw out a call on the board here, and maybe some of us can hook up for a ride. |
| My bro lives right next to the trailhead.... | krank
Dec 30, 2001 3:03 PM | | His name is Brian Haas, I rode with a guy named Doug and a guy named Ryan. |
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