|   Tahoe Gathering - Saturday's ride Part I of II | wg
Jul 15, 2002 3:20 PM | | Two weeks ago, decide I want to go to the gathering at Lake Tahoe. I've never ridden Mr. Toad's and getting together and meeting a bunch of MTBR denizens sounded like too much fun to miss. Made reservations, packed the stuff and the family and off we went.
Fun.... yes. Abuse..... plenty
First and foremost I want to give a big thanks to BigBoulder to organizing this event. It was a blast! Lets do again next year!
Rolled into South Lake Tahoe around 5 PM Friday night. On the way in got to observe Mother Nature play target practice with lightning bolts. She was hitting the peaks where we would be riding the next morning. My wife and I were getting somewhat nervous. Open the curtains in the morning and the sun was shining away!
I'm basically a sea level dweller. This ride was an introduction to oxygen deprivation. 25 miles of trail. The starting spot is at about 7800'. Then goes up.... and up.... A good portion of the ride staying above 8500'.
For several of us, this was the hardest ride we've ever done.
Would I do it again? Definitely, sign me up now!
Considering the distance and what we rode over, there was surprisingly little carnage (bike or otherwise) for such a big group of riders. A couple of flats, broken chain, lost bite valve. People damage was limited to a couple of scrapes, sore parts, a separated shoulder and a twisted knee.
The supposedly official count was 26 riders at the start. According to BigBoulder a couple of other riders would join in on the way. I never saw them but then, the overall group splintered a bit as we got going. There was a collection of rather fast riders which included the OTB club etc. I fell into a secondary group of 6. Spiff, Suzy, JFR, JM, Jeremiah and myself. We stuck together for the rest of the ride.
Everyone collecting their parts, pieces and thoughts before the fun begins.
.jpg)
The trail starts as a steep sandy nasty trail. Not something to warm up with. Most people hiked it.
I forget his name but shortly after I took this shot, he crashed and tweaked his knee pretty badly. (How's the knee BTW?) He had to return.
The scenery was barely acceptable.
A brief rest stop before a nice little swooping downhill. Destination: around the backside of that 9080' peak.
Can sort of make out the trail cut into the hill across the way. About midpoint of the pic.
Same trail, can't ID the rider
Same trail, that's Spiff bombing down it.
.jpg)
More boring trails.
JFR feeling the altitude. I figured while I was looking for my lungs I could take a shot of someone else suffering.
.jpg)
|
| re: Tahoe Gathering - Saturday's ride Part II of II | wg
Jul 15, 2002 3:22 PM | | Rider approaching Star Lake recuperation area. Great spot to hang in the shade. A few folks went swimming. (Sorry ladies, I have no pics)
Its kinda scenic
Bike carnage
People....
I think this is Freel Peak
Altitude hurts. That bend in the trail is at 10000' This is the second and last time I see the faster group. They were gone by the time I got to that spot. Fast Eddy left a snowman behind to greet us.
Lake Tahoe in the distance
.jpg)
In search of oxygen rest stop JFR, me, JM
Looking southeast after Armstrong Pass. While waiting on a mechanical to be fixed we watched the T-storms drop buckets and bolts on the ridges in the distance. Yes, I was rather nervous hanging out next to a nice lightning rod. There were a couple of matchstick trees near us showing prior strike damage. I also was concerned about the last pack of riders who were probably an hour behind us at that point.
Same spot looking a little more southwest. Sunshine was visible in spots that way.
Groupshot: Jerimiah, FastEddy, JM, JFR, Suzy, Moutain Dirt (I think that's the handle) and Spiff
.jpg)
Same group but now I get to be in a shot.
.jpg)
Then we dropped to a very fun twisty downhill the warmed us up for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. High alpine plants, between trees, over and around granite boulders. No pics. Too busy hanging on and enjoying the ride.
Then we hit Mr. Toads. That was the most technically challenging trail I've ever done. Drops, rocks trees all with multiple options. Someone even built a stair set. I wish I could have kept up with JFR, JM and FastEddy just to see the lines they took. I had to walk several sections. Near the bottom of the technical area people were regrouping. I was one of the last people in so I had an audience for my special "Clear-the-Double-Log Crossing" trick. Augured the front tire quite nicely and was promptly and harshly introduced to the Sierra dirt. Knocked the breath out of me and whacked my shoulder hard. Was told by my doctor today that I've separated the shoulder in two spots. Just friggin' lovely. The bike was OK!
Everyone else took off while I slowly coasted and walked the rest of the way. Damn fine trail to miss. I can just imagine how much fun that bermed single track portion was.
Back at the vehicles, get a beer and a quick shoulder diagnosis from RollingBones (you were right on). Its two minor separations in the shoulder. I'm basically out for 2 months or more.
So, it was great riding with all of you. It great to meet folks and put faces to names. Lets get together again!
BTW, if anyone wants the full size files of these pics let me know and I'll email to you. I posted just about everything that wasn't blurry so people could see different angles etc.
Werner |
| Good write-up! | Finch Platte
Jul 15, 2002 4:19 PM | | Been waiting 2 days for something like that.
Hope the shoulder heals quickly- that sucks.
fp |
| Great - brings back painful memories. Sorry to disappoint... | Biking Viking
Jul 15, 2002 4:27 PM | | ...but Freel Pass is only 9,600. Bigboulder's crappy map showed 10K, but fourarm had a much more detailed map, which agreed exactly with my altimeter all the way. Doesn't matter though - there wasn't much air up there anyway.
I bet Paul J and I are still your wife's favorite passionites.
Here's the story: Since we were riding with fourarm, we got back first (how can you not when you're riding with him). We had also started at a different point and could ride back to our cars - the rest had to shuttle. So we went back to the campsite, had a shower, then went to the brewery to sample the product offering. When we got there, nobody else had shown up yet. On our way across the parking lot, a young lady with two children in the back seat wondered if we knew anything about the MTBR gathering. We told her that we'd been riding with some of the gathering people for a while, but finished ahead of everybody else - and had no vehicles to retrieve. She seemed very concerned about her husband, Werner, who she told us goes under the handle "wg". She even showed a very nice wedding picture in order to assist our memories. However, it's hard to recognize people when they put on helmets and glasses, and since we'd seen nobody riding in a tux up at Freel Pass, it was hard to make any absolute statements on her husband's whereabouts and well-being. We assured her that nobody in the two main groups had returned yet and he's probably completely OK.
How wrong could we be. Heal fast.
BV |
| She told me about searching around and meeting | wg
Jul 15, 2002 6:18 PM | | MTBR people at the brewery. She had a thought that we would be done by 4. By 8 she was quite worried. The wreck didn't change my return time much since we had to wait for all the other folks anyway. She was somewhat comforted by your help.
Tux on a bike? LOL, That would be a little hot. I've skied once in a tux but that was many years ago.
Here's a pic of my send off crew:
|
| Look ma ! that's me ! | Spiff
Jul 15, 2002 4:33 PM | | Great pics Werner ! Nice write up too.
Gui |
| re: Tahoe Gathering - Saturday's ride Part II of II | Jeremiah
Jul 15, 2002 6:26 PM | | Thanks for the great pics Werner. It was great to ride with all of you that day!
Jeremiah |
| our lines sucked | Jm
Jul 15, 2002 9:05 PM | | ok, not really, but that sucks about the shoulder, anyway ive been there and done that, its not fun and it especially sucked cause it was the side i usually sleep on, it will take a while to get back to normal, but light riding shouldnt be too far away.
We had a blast down toads, it was sooo fun, we were flying off drops and jumps like crazy on the lower section, the upper was ok, kind of like northstar, but i think we really liked the bottom the best. |
| sWeet | Zaphod
Jul 15, 2002 4:07 PM | | Was in Tahoe the weekend previous. We did "Medium Toads" which T's into your ride @Armstrong pass. Sweet work on the "Long Toad". Sad to have missed it, especially with the dramatic weather and the mtbr crowd.
Zaphod |
| |
