I set out for the 10:10 bus last Sunday, an ordinary Sunday, not all that different than the Sunday before. Well slightly different in that I didn’t have a set crew to ride with. I figured I’d see someone I knew. Sure enough Walt was there again with the Waltworks crew, plus Brent from the cruiser ride, and Botsy from BMA. Botsy and his crew were talking about riding some trails out by Gold Lake that I didn’t know about so that was intriguing. But first he wanted to ride Sourdough. I tried to tell him there would be snow on it above 9500 feet. We asked Walt and he said there would be snow on it. Botsy didn’t care. We got off of the bus and there was a big nasty cloud up north. No big nasty cloud down south. But I had gone south the last two rides, so against my better judgment, with the lure of new trails in my mind, I went north. What do you think happened on Sourdough?
Yeah we hit some snow drifts. It got progressively worse until we were mostly hiking the entire time, punching deep into the drifts with our feet. This is known as post-holing BTW. Ben slipped and put his knee to the snow one time. This is what it looked like. His sock is in his hand because he is wringing out the freezing cold snow water. Weeeeeeee!
So, hiking up through the snow was pretty dumb, because we weren’t getting to anywhere where we were eventually going to ride, since we were on our way up towards Brainard Lake, and the trail on the other side of the access road is north facing and would likely have even more snow on it. Oh, whatever. We’d hike through a drift, ride 50 feet. Pick up heavy snow covered bike. Repeat.
At least that big nasty cloud that I saw from town wasn’t pouring down rain on us right?
Right. By the time we got out of the trail to the road it was snowing. In June. Below 10000 feet. We descended with shorts and light windbreakers and got ice cube feet and Slurpee headaches. Luckily the Millsite Inn was nearby and we got to warm up.
And drink beer and eat wings! It’s very important to refuel properly for epic endurance rides. And doubly important to keep the spirits up!
So we got rolling again and within no time the sun was out and our jackets were off. We rode past Gold Lake and ripped down the fast descent into Jamestown. It was a good time, lots of water, and I was wishing for my full suspension and gears as I was the only one without.
Down at the the bottom we had a creek crossing that was a little hairy! Everyone had at least one wobble where everyone thought that the person was going in! That wouldn’t have been fun, AT ALL! After Jamestown we did a little more exploring before finally hitting the road back to town. That last climb over Old Stage put a sting into the legs then we cruised the Foothill Path back downtown. So that’s the story. You know how it is, sometimes you have to endure a little suffering for a memorable ride and a good blog post! CYA next week!
by stevez
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