|   SoCal SS Gathering recap & pics - Day 3 | Hollywood
Nov 19, 2002 11:53 AM | | Here are some pics from Sunday's SS gathering near Pasadena, CA. Nine of us started, including a few geared brethren. We started off with a long, relentless, winding climb up into the Angeles Crest/Mt. Wilson area. Then we took the bikes out of the trucks and started riding!
i whew
A real variety of trail conditions this ride, as touched on in terminauts recap' post. A perfect, warm SoCal day and plenty of beautiful scenery. Everything from dark, wooded canyons to sunny rock gardens, all with plenty of technical challenges. We were fortunate to catch the yellow Sycamore leaves still dropping in places and coating the trail with a thick padding of leaves, almost like a fresh powder run kinda like floating on the trail. I'm pretty sure this weekend was officially "Fall" in L.A. Lots of water crossings and as few dabs as possible, but still some very wet socks upon return to the cars. Also some nice exposed singletrack, where to the right of you is hillside and immediately to the left of your tire is 600 ft. of tumbling, Wile E. Coyote death.."look straight ahead, look straight ahead, everything is fine, breath, in breath out, my chakras are
i not
sh*tting their pants."
A fairly fast ride overall with minimal climbing, minimal mechanicals & flats. I had the pleasure of dropping a chain on an out-of-the-saddle climb, and doing the old "spin n tip" maneuver. Luckily no damage to the groinal area. With every water crossing my freakin SPDs would get more n more reluctant to release, leaving me with hapless, clipped-in tips into the brush whenever I stalled. Nice. The guys were all very cool and Andy and Tam really put together a great event. They were nice enough to hang back and wait for my cruising a$$ ("look at the funny squirrel!!"), saying such motivational things as "We'll see ya back at the cars" and "If we're not there when you get back, it means we went to eat". (kidding)
We also hooked up with Al aka aosty for post-ride chat and joined us for dinner. Cool guy.
On to Show n' Tell:
Loading up the truck for the shuttle up the hill. L to R: Andy, Shiggy, Jamie.
Andy giving us proper braking instruction before the ride
L to R: Jeff (Hollywood), Kenny (Krash), Ken (gpsser), Tam (terminaut), Andy aka Rut, Steve, Dan, Jamie. Kneeling: Don (Shiggy)
Rut on the rocks, ain't no big surprise.
Hollywood, rockin' out
terminaut showing us up on his stinkin' rigid Huffy!
Shiggy warmin' up with a little trials action (note the lynched rodent dangling from his seat. Hello SPCA?)
Standoff between gearies and SS'ers.hey why is everyone looking at me smiling? WE'RE FOES DAMMIT!!
i sigh
term workin' his way down the rocks with Andy in queue
Terminaut up in a tree for a better camera angle. Still not sure how he did that.
Andy, rollin' his own.
one of the many water crossings and rest stops. This one had waterfalls & pools down below to the left.
gpsser cruising down the trails
i Fin |
| Nice!... | terminaut
Nov 19, 2002 2:22 PM | | That shot of me "in the tree" is pretty funny. Great to have met some of our brethren to the north... especially in such beautiful weather and trail conditions. |
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