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This morning I did some shuttle runs up and down Skyline Trail here in Corona, Ca with Patrick and Nick. After the big rain we had last week the trails were pretty rutted, but nice and sticky. I had a great day. I only got three runs in, but they were a blast. I finally cleared that big jump...

This was captured with my camera phone... Man, I need a better video camera for this stuff!

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 1/30/2010 10:17:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

For this year's Tour de Corona, I decided to repeat the ride from 2007, mainly so that my buddy John can redeem himself. He broke his leg on this ride two years ago and never felt the glory of finishing like the rest of us.

The proposed ride was up Bedford (everyone's favorite climb), across the Main Divide, down the Silverado Motorway, back up Maple Springs, down the Main Divide and back down Bedford.

We started with 12 riders:

Dave (me)
John H (the man of the hour)
Bob
Steve
Joe
Brian
Skippy
Domenick
Patrick
Adrian
John A
Chris (a friend of John H)

And 11 of us completed the entire thing.

A couple of really cool and memorable things happened on this ride. One was that my buddy Dom flew all the way down from Seattle to spend the weekend with me and my Southern California friends. I've been inviting him for years and he finally took me up on the offer. Jeff, who usually rides the Tour and is about the same height as Dom, let us borrow his bike, which was very cool.

Dom is a strong road rider who does about 5-6 centuries per year and this was to be his first mountain biking adventure off road. That made me a little nervous because this is a pretty difficult route that we had planned. I knew he'd do well, and at worst he'd have to simply turn around and wait for us at the house. But my main concern was that this ride would turn him off to mountain biking completely.

We woke up early and drove up Bedford in my wife's Highlander to drop off a big Arrowhead bottle full of water. I did this last time and it was a big relief for everyone. Plus, I thought it was a good idea to give Dom a hint of what's to come. Turns out it wasn't what he expected... at all!

The starting time was 10:00, but as usual, everyone took their time getting ready. Plus, we wanted to wait for Steve who was coming from his kid's soccer game. We shoved off right at 10:30.

The pace started off very casual, which was good. Climbing up Bedford is no picnic, and most everyone knew that. But, just like every year, Patrick takes off like a bullet. I was expecting John to follow him, but John waited in the back with his buddy Chris, who "hasn't done this kind of ride in years." Dom was in the back as well, getting used to the bike and trying to find his pace. We continued up to around 2,000 feet and couldn't see Dom and Chris on the trail, so I called Dom. They were by the main gate and Dom was ready to throw in the towel and head back to the house by himself. I was sort of relieved because I didn't want him to have a miserable time. I called Tricia and told her to expect Dom in a little while.

John A, Bob and I headed up together, and John H waited for Chris. Everyone else was way ahead at this point.

We got to the Main Divide and Patrick has been waiting for about an hour. I can tell he was on a mission... but the rest of us were just looking for a casual ride. We filled up with water, had a snack, and when everyone gathered I get a call from Tricia saying that Dom never made it home. "Oh shit," I thought... "what if something happened?" I quickly call Dom and he picks up panting. Turns out he decided to ride up by himself after all. I didn't like it one bit, but he was determined to at least make it to the Main Divide. The only thing I can do was to call him often, so I did.

The rest of us took off across the Main Divide, then down The Silverado Motorway. It was a little loose, but man, I love that trail! Steve got the first flat somewhere in the middle.

At the bottom of Silverado, we all congratulated John for making it past "the point". Skippy was awesome enough to stash more water for us at the bottom, and man, we needed it. It was a pretty warm day so far.

The ride up Maple Springs was nice and cool though, but holy crap was it hard! My knees were starting to hurt pretty bad, so I just wanted to take my time. Pretty much everyone was in front, but I think Steve was behind Skippy for most of the climb... I'm not sure. I rode a good portion with John A so I was asking tons of questions about his Ironman races. He claims any of us can do it with the proper training, but I don't know. It was inspiring nonetheless.

John and I pull up to Four Corners and see someone with a sombrero in the distance... "What the F?" We get closer and see that our friend Darrell drove up in his car with his two dogs and kindly set up a Tour de Corona Hydration Station. "Want a beer?" he said. "Oh, hell yeah!" That was the coolest thing I'd ever seen!

I get a text from Dom saying that Patrick was already back to the top of Bedford, so they road down together. I texted back "Having a beer at 4 corners!" I learned later that Patrick saw the message and told Dom that I was just messing with him. Too bad Patrick blew through Four Corners and didn't wait for us.

We waited quite a while for Chris and started to get a little worried. John H and Joe headed back down Maple Springs to see what was going on. A little while later they come back up, and Chris was hurting pretty bad. He didn't crash or anything, he just got his ass handed to him on this part of the climb.

When Chris arrived, he enjoyed the last beer that we saved for him. If he didn't take it, it would've been a bloody fight over who got it.

We all shove off together, but immediately, Bob gets a flat and Brian busted a spoke. There were a few more small climbs, and my knees were done! This was the first time I've felt this sort of joint pain. I know, I know... I'm turning 40 next year so I have to expect this kind of crap... whatever!

We get to the top of Bedford and had some guy in a truck take my empty Arrowhead water bottle down to the gate. I really didn't want to drive back up to get it. From the gate, Brian grabbed it and strapped it to his back the rest of the way down.

At home, Dom and Patrick were already cleaned up. Patrick was pissed when he found out I was telling the truth about the beers at Four Corners. That was pretty funny.

More friends and their significant others starting showing up, Patrick took over on the grill, and everyone else helped with the prep work while I fixed the TV. We enjoyed some well deserved beers, carne asada and chicken tacos and the UFC fight on pay-per-view.

The highlights were, of course, John redeeming himself, Domenick actually flying down from Seattle for the ride, and Darrell's awesomely cool hydration station at four corners. Besides Shogun loosing the main event in the fight, it turned out to be the best Tour de Corona so far. This will be a hard one to top. Can't wait until next year!

Here are the stats:
Distance: 31.24 miles
Total climb: ~6,200 feet
Total time: ~7 hours
Patrick's record ride time: 3:52:59 (wow!)
Flats: 2
Busted Spokes: 1
Crashes: none!

Labels: mountain bike, Tour de Corona

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Posted: 10/24/2009 11:04:00 PM | Comments (2) | Post a Comment

I couldn't swing going to Moab with the gang like last year, but I did manage to tag along for a long weekend on the Gooseberry Mesa for mountain biking and in the Zion National Forest for an awesome hike to the "Subway". Here's a picture taken with my cell phone.

Day 1 & 2 Gooseberry
The first two days were filled with some epic mountain bike riding on the Gooseberry Mesa. This is now my favorite place to ride. It was my third time there, so I'm getting really used to the trails.

I blew my back out earlier in the week, so I wasn't able to ride, at all, the entire week. It was still a little stiff on this ride, so I took it easy in the beginning. Before you know it, my back was feeling great and I was shredding like nobody's business. I cleared a couple of very difficult climbs I've never cleared before and found a really cool 6 foot drop that Bob and I rolled.

At night, the wind picked up and was blowing our tents all over the place, and blowing our chairs into the fire. The highlight of the night was when the guys found a huge stump to burn. Everyone pretty much just backed up, stomping on the embers burning everything.

The wind continued through the second day, but that didn't stop us. We powered through an awesome sandy breakfast and headed out. We just didn't get as close to the 1,000 foot cliffs like we usually do. Strangely enough, the wind stopped as soon as we got to "The Point", where it's usually very windy.

Day 3 Zion
We were supposed to hike down from the top, repelling down water falls into pools of water. But with the continued wind and the drastic drop in temperature, we decided to hike from the bottom and stay mostly dry.

The hike was a strenuous 3 miles each way. The entire 3 miles was incredibly beautiful, especially when we got to the Subway. Seriously... words can't even describe it. You HAVE to go check it out your self. But for now, here are a few more pictures.

Labels: hike, mountain bike, trips

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Posted: 10/05/2009 07:10:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

My buddy Patrick and I bagged Gray's Peak today on our mountain bikes. Here's a picture of me at the peak with Big Bear Lake behind me. It was about 3.5 miles one way, all single track, kinda up and down (but mostly up, of course), and not too difficult of a climb. The downhill part, oh man, that was fun!

The downhill from Gray's Peak was like a roller coaster... very fast and smooth. We road down about 2 miles, then shot over to the Hanna Flat campground, which was basically more epic single track. The campground itself was really nice... reminded me of Mammoth... I'd like to take the family there before it gets too cold. Here's an interesting picture of one of the bathrooms. Which door would you choose?


We doubled back and ended up with about 14 miles and very sore legs... only because it was my first big ride in almost 3 months. Overall it was a great ride, about 25 degrees cooler than at home, and only about an hour away. I don't know why I don't go up there more often.

Labels: hike, mountain bike, peaks

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Posted: 9/13/2009 08:07:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Mountain biking in Mammoth was epic this year, mainly because my buddies Patrick, Nick and Craig joined me for two full days of downhill action. The highlight for me was landing the Flow Drop, which Craig referred to as "just like riding off a curb." Yeah, right! Here's a low quality video of me doing it...

I first saw this drop a year ago...
but I was by myself and I didn't want to risk it. So I've basically been thinking about it all year long.

The Drop is part of the Flow Trail in the Mammoth Mountain Bike Park. It's a 6 foot wooden platform, followed by a 5-6 foot vertical drop, followed by a 25-30 foot slanted wooden landing. Here's a higher quality version of someone else doing it to get a better idea of how cool it is.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 7/03/2009 08:29:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

At the bottom of the Troy Lee trails at Skyline (SoCal), there are a series of three nice jumps that are well maintained. They are much easier to hit on a downhill or freeride bike, but here's a pretty good photo of me hitting the second one with my cross-country bike. There's about a 4-5' gap that's not in the picture. Photo credit goes to my man, Steve F.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 2/10/2009 06:50:00 AM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

For the first time in the Tour de Corona's 6 year history, all of the riders completed the whole ride. Way to go!

We had a great ride this year. Nothing too strenuous, no serious injuries like last year, and no death march like the year before.

This year we started off at my house, as usual, took a 6 mile road ride to Skyline, stopping at Steve's house on the way. We went up Skyline, traversed the Main Divide, and descended Eagle Road. Here is the ride profile on Geoladders.

The ride stared (and ended) with 11 of us:
Dave (me)
Joe
Bob
John (quickly recovering from breaking his leg on last year's tour)
Adrian
Patrick
Steve
Skippy
Brian
Frank
Dalton

People started showing up at about 11:30am with the goal of taking off around noon. We didn't get out until about 12:20, which was a good hint at the leisurely pace that was in front of us.

I started out by giving everyone an option on the road portion... a quick, steep climb or a long, easy climb. Everyone voted for "quick and steep" to get it over with, accept for Joe. Sorry Joe... and up we went.

We get to Steve's house and he's lounging in the garage, shoes off, working on his laptop. So we cracked open a few of his beers while he finished up.

Going up Skyline and the Main Divide was very uneventful, except for the heat, which was in the upper 80's until we reached the Main Divide. It seriously felt like it was July. John, Brian and Adrian were always in the front, I was a usually a couple minutes behind by myself, and everyone else was scattered behind me. After a while, Brian and I noticed that John would effortlessly suck you into his conversation, and before you know it your lungs are on fire. Luckily, I noticed it pretty early and dropped back.

We thought for sure that Dalton wasn't going to make it because he kept walking his bike. With his full-faced helmet and skater shoes, he definitely didn't know what to expect on this ride. But, he held his own and finished with only a few problems.

Going down Eagle was a blast. Eagle is a closed fire road, so it's somewhat over grown with a single track blazing down it. You get up to some pretty high speeds (I clocked 28mph at one point), with little jumps mixed in, and a pretty sketchy cliff on one side. It was a lot of fun to say the least.

Dalton crashed twice on Eagle. Once just flipping into the brush, another bending his big chain ring on a boulder. Steve and Adrian helped him remove the chain ring so that he could at least get home.

Then we took the road back to my house. And that's it! Like I said, pretty uneventful... but I have to say that I had a blast and can't wait to do it again.

The party back at my house was great as well. A bunch of other riders and neighbors showed up for the burgers, dogs, beer and UFC 90. It was great to hang out and catch up with everyone. Other than the disappointing Silva vs Cote fight (Cote blew out his knee in the 3rd), this turned out to be the best Tour de Corona so far. It's going to be tough to beat this one.

Stats...
Distance: 24.12 miles
Lowest Point: 889' (my house)
Highest Point: 3804'
Total Elevation Gain: 6155'
Ride Time: 3 hours, 22 minutes
Total Time: 5 hours, 15 minutes
Flat Tires: 0!
Crashes: 2 (by the same person)
Mechanicals: Bent chain ring

Can't wait to do it next year! Here are some Google Earth photos of the ride...



Overview of the ride.


Overview of the ride, facing South-West.


Overview of the ride, facing South-East.


Overview of the ride, facing West.

Labels: mountain bike, Tour de Corona

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Posted: 10/25/2008 11:00:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Big "thanks" to Steve, Brian and Bob for a great week of hard mountain bike riding. Special thanks to Jesse for showing us the local spots.

Day 1 Gooseberry
7.93 miles, 1h 59m
Bumps and bruises - I bumped my left shoulder on a tree pretty hard, which left a scratch. I also caught my right knee on a sharp twig, so it was bleeding a little.
The ride was fun, of course, but I was so friggen full from a huge lunch and dinner that the whole ride was completely uncomfortable.

Day 2 Gooseberry
14.1 miles, 4h 41m
Bumps and bruises - banged my inner right ankle on my pedal, left a scratch. My palms are starting to form calluses.
We woke up super early, before the sun was up. Over a 6 hour period, I got about 2 hours of sleep. I ate a light breakfast so I wasn't as full as yesterday... And I felt great, felt strong and had an incredible ride. By around the 4th hour, it was getting hot, we were starting to get sloppy and it got a little dangerous, so we called it a day. When we did this ride last year, I had a slight cold and it was still my favorite ride of the year. So today's ride has to be considered my favorite ride of all time... let's see how it goes in Moab.

Day 3 Slick Rock
9.9 miles, 3h 27m
Bumps and bruises - none, but extremely sore legs from very steep climbs.
We did the loop the "hard" way, thinking it would be more technical (i.e. fun), but it was _really_ hard, especially the climbs. So much so that it sucked all the fun out. We might try it again the "easy" way later in the week. I can't leave Moab with sour taste in my mouth about Slick Rock.
After dinner, we drove out to see "the arches" in Arches National Park. The sun was just setting, so we didn't get to see everything. But it was still cool.

Day 4 The Electric Toilet Ride (UPS & MPS)
7 miles, 1h 30m
Bumps and bruises - ran into a tree that took a gouge out of my helmet and right middle knuckle.
We met up with a friend of a friend, Jesse, the owner/operator of Coyote Shuttle, just to say "hi" and ask about some trails. We wanted to ride Amasa Back, but Jesse offered to take us up to his cabin and ride a secret loop instead AND ride Amasa Back with us on Thursday. So we said "what the heck." His cabin was amazing... the first thing anyone would notice is the 13 ft wide windmill, whistling in the 40 mph wind. Turns out he made it out of mostly recycled parts (this is his 9th prototype in about 10 months). The rear triangle used to be a Yield sign and the front dome was his dog's bowl. That, along with a set of solar panels, gives him way more than enough energy to run the house. Very impressive, indeed, but the most impressive thing was the electric toilet! Yes, electric... no water. You basically put a large coffee filter in the bowl and it incinerates your stuff. We hung out at the cabin for about an hour while a storm blew over. Oh yeah, the ride... We quickly climbed what seemed to be a few hundred feet, met up with a couple who were about to be "nighted", and rode down UPS and MPS, which were really fun along the rim with a 3000 foot drop.

Day 5 The Whole Enchilada (Burro Pass -> Hazzard -> Kokopelli's -> UPS -> MPS -> LPS -> Porcupine Rim)
29.9 miles, 6h 45m
Bumps and bruises - none
Only two steep climbs (at high elevation) and the rest very technical downhill. We were dropped off at 10,600 feet and climbed to 11,400 feet. We started our descend basically through a forest of Aspen trees and crossing the creek 4-5 times. At the top of Hazzard, we took a curvaceous single track through a bunch of cows while hitting a few of the jumps that were set up. Hazzard felt like a roller coaster video game. Kokopelli's was mainly a jeep trail which went through the remains of a forest fire that occurred the week before. UPS (Upper Porcupine Singletrack) through LPS (Lower...) was my absolute favorite. Over boulders, through trees, with small patches of sand. Porculpine rim was harsh. We were already tired but faced with a series of 3-5 foot dropoffs and sharp rocks to maneuver through. Good times.
The only mechanical was Steve's pinch flat. Bob had a minor fall towards the end. Other than that, it was definitely my favorite ride of all time.

Day 6 Amasa Back
12.5 miles, 4h 50m
Bumps and bruises - none
What a great ride, not because of the incredible terrain, or beautiful scenery... it was because Jesse took us to a few secret spots that aren't on the typical trail maps. Plus, each section had it's own name, such as the Bowling Alley, the Mccoy, the REAL Mccoy, The Moon, and The Fat Lady (which kicked all of our asses and left Jesse with a goose egg on his ankle). Getting to the PotHole was cool because of a totally off-camber slope. I'm talking around 45 degrees, but with slick rock under your tires, it really wasn't that hard. Then, the Top of the World was truly amazing. I'd hate to say it, but this was definitely my favorite ride of the week, hands down.

Day 7 Thunder Mountain
14.8 miles, 2h 59m
Bumps and bruises - bumped left thigh during a tight switchback.
We parked at the Visitor's Center and started verrrry sloooowly up the bike path. After the dirt road and the beginning of the single track, I was wondering why everyone said it was such a great trail. We were tired from the previous six days of riding and we weren't really expecting all of this climbing. Then... oh man... we ended up smack dab in the middle of Red Canyon. Just absolutely amazing scenery AND a really fun downhill roller coaster ride. Mental note: do this ride _first_ next time!
After the ride, we scooted over the Bryce Canyon National Park, then drove through Zion National Park. Truly amazing stuff to see at both parks.

Totals (for me): 97 miles, 26 hours, over 15000 calories.
Bike parts (for all): 4 flats, 1 wheel, and a set of rear derailleur cogs.

My photos at Flickr | Brian's photos at Flickr

Video (high bandwidth required)...

Labels: mountain bike, trips

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Posted: 9/17/2008 04:51:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

This year's Muddy Buddy race was a lot of fun, as usual. Unfortunately, Tricia was in Connecticut so she couldn't make it. Her sister Gina helped take care of the kids though.

Jordan and I had pretty low expectations going in; not really prepared at all, and ended up doing better than we did last year! The results show us coming in 11th place at 47:30, but we have a very clear photo of us coming in at 46:45. But oh well, it's always a lot of fun. One of these years we'll actually train for it and take the podium.

Can't wait till next year... Here are the photos.

Labels: mountain bike, Muddy Buddy

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Posted: 11/04/2007 10:06:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

The attendance at this year's tour was much slimmer than last year's. Partly because I gave less than two weeks notice, but also because nobody likes to climb Bedford Road.

The proposal was to start at my house, climb Bedford to Main Divide, take a right and go down Silverado Motorway. From there we climb back up Maple Springs to Four Corners, back down Main Divide and back down Bedford.

And that's exactly what we did, with a nice long break at the bottom of the Motorway. John twisted out of his pedals wrong and ended up on the ground with his left foot pointing behind him!

The ride stared with 10 of us:
Dave (me)
Joe
Bob
John
Jeff
Adrian
Patrick
Nick
Andrea
Steve

...and ended with 9 of us back at my house.

We headed out about 9:30 am, for a nice, easy stroll up Bedford Road. Uh, yeah. The good thing was that nobody was racing this time, which took a little bit of the edge off. During the climb, we had the typical group splits, with Patrick and John in the front, followed by a strong Steve and Jeff, and me way in the back.

I planted 10 gallons of water at the top of Bedford so that we didn't have to lug full Camelbaks and bottles up that dreadful climb. I realized that it was a great decision when I saw everyone refilling and thanking me at the same time.

Going north on the Main Divide was pretty uneventful, except when Jeff slid out while trying to avoid going over the cliff on a sharp left turn at top speed. He ended up with a bloody elbow and knee, and a piece of his inner-tube coming out of his rear tire. So the engineers congregated and devised a plan to place many Gu packets on the inner wall of his tire... Chocolate was the flavor of choice today. Jeff filled his tire up to about 30 pounds and off we were.

Going down Silverado Motorway was a blast. This was my first time, so I was loving it. Miles and miles of single-track... that's what I'm talking about. Bob and I were the first ones down, followed by Steve with some bad news... "John broke his leg about a half-mile up." Oh crap, what do we do... we're almost in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no cell phone reception.

Steve and I proceeded to the nearest house and ask if we can use their phone to call 911. The woman literally rolled her eyes, sighed, and said "just don't give out our address or phone number". Apparently, this has happened once or twice before.

So I call, and we return to the base of the trail to see Jeff. He said the whole group only had 400mg of Ibuprofen, so I rushed up the hill to give him 600 more. Poor John was in some serious pain, but handling it like a true fighter. Three other guys were standing above him to provide shade, and we basically just had to wait.

Eventually we saw a Sheriff's helicopter hovering over us, then a Fire helicopter, then 2 paramedics hiking up the hill with full yellow fire-fighting suits on, then 2 more with a gurney, then 3 more, then 4 more... Of course it was the older guys in the back, huffing and puffing... but they made it. Eventually we had 11 or 12 firefighters up there on this little narrow trail, right on top of a huge washed out section just waiting to suck someone in.

They went to work, took John away in a helicopter, and Jeff caught the whole friggen thing on video. (.ASF 138 MB)

After it was all said and done, John ended up with a broken tibia and a cracked fibula. Because he got to the hospital fast enough (helo-ride) the doctor could reset/realign his tibia before his muscles contracted causing further damage. John said that re-setting his leg was very painful. After the realignment, the 2nd set of xrays looked good. He ended up with Intrameduallary (IM) Rodding and will need about 6 months to recover. Hang in there John!

Brian met us in the canyon, but was too sick to ride. He resupplied us with water and snacks, then he was kind enough to take Jeff's bike back to my house (Jeff rode John's bike because it was more reliable) and join us for the bar-b-que.

The climb up Maple Springs was looooong and tough. Of course, I ended up in the back again with only Patrick and Nick behind me. Eventually, I see a Jeep drive past me with Nick in the back smiling back at me. That little bastard! So I plug along, Patrick catches up and we continue up together to regroup at Four Corners.

Now the fun begins with the rest being pretty much all down hill. We basically blazed down the Main Divide and Bedford, hitting some of the final single tracks towards the end.

Amazingly enough, there were no flat tires this time, although Patrick ended up with a slow leak towards the bottom.

We returned around 5:30 PM. We scarfed down some well-deserved burgers, dogs and beer, and watched the UFC on my back patio with a nice warm fire pit on the side.

Can't wait to do it next year! Here are some Google Earth photos of the ride...



Overview of the ride from my street, facing south-west.


Overview of the ride facing north-west.


Overview of the ride facing north.


Overview of the ride facing east.


Overview of the ride facing south.


Overview of Silverado Motorway, where John broke his leg, facing north-west.

Labels: mountain bike, Tour de Corona

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Posted: 10/20/2007 11:38:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

This year we started at 9:00, went up Bedford, up Main Divide all the way to Santiago Peak, back down the same route, hitting the single tracks, back to my house to enjoy some tasty beverages, grilled meat and UFC 65.

Here's a cool map of the planned route...



The ride started with 16 of us:
Dave (me)
Rich
Brian
Joe
Bob
Skippy
Frank
Patrick
Bart
John
Cody
Jeff
Jeff Jr.
Tony
Adrian
Lamond

... and ended with 8 at the top. Here is my attempt at showing the losses suffered by the Tour de Corona 2006. The thick yellow band represents the size of the group at each position...



Inspired by "probably the best statistical graphic ever drawn" by Charles Joseph Minard, here is Napoleon's March.

Can't wait 'till next year!

Labels: mountain bike, peaks, Tour de Corona

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Posted: 11/18/2006 10:29:00 PM | Comments (1) | Post a Comment

This year's Muddy Buddy race was the best so far. The kids were way more into it and our team did pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. After last year's race, Jordan and I both said we'd shoot for top 10. Out of 62 teams in our division this year, we ended up at a respectable 14th place. Not too shabby. But besides all that, we had an absolute blast.

Ethan did great this year by just getting dirty. Last year, I had to carry him through the mud pit, but this year he was a trooper. About half-way through the pit, I let go of his hand for a second to lift up the rope. At that very second, he slipped, catching himself with his hands and splashing his face with a good dose of muddy water. I knew right there that he would either get really freaked out, or totally get into it. Fortunately it was the later; he thought it was great. So he scurried across the finish line with a stern look of dedication and grabbed his medal.

Ryann was simply awesome. Last year, she basically tip-toed through the pit like a little girl, but this year she literally dove right in. For some reason, she figured that the fastest way through the flagged ropes would be to duck her head deep into the muddy water. Quite the contrast from last year!

Next year, Tricia is talking about doing the race as well. She'll at least have to go through the pit with Ava.

Good times... can't wait 'till next year!

Here are the photos

Labels: mountain bike, Muddy Buddy

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Posted: 10/29/2006 10:03:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Today I did the Muddy Buddy Race for the second year in a row. The Muddy Buddy is a running and mountain biking race you do with a partner. I was supposed to do it with my neighbor Eric again, but he was cool enough to let me race with with my 14-year old nephew, Jordan. Thanks Eric! Yes, you're supposed to be 16 to race, but hey, what's wrong with a little heated competition from a young whipper-snapper.

I came into the race on the verge of a cold, plus I threw my back out the week prior playing Ultimate, so I had no training time whatsoever. Jordan's been kicking ass on his cross country team (they just won league championship), but he's never ridden a mountain bike before. So I had to basically show him how to switch gears in front of the house, on flat ground, which is not realistic at all. I also showed him how to change a flat, just in case. So basically, we had low expectations going into this and simply wanted to have fun. Our team name was Pythagorean's Serum.

Turns out, we actually did pretty well. We placed 25th in our division of 62 teams, and beat all of my riding buddies. So I had to rub it in a little.

I created this logo as a friendly reminder of how they got smoked and told them I'm going to make them t-shirts for Christmas. Then they all complained about how I basically "cheated" by using a minor and they joked about turning me into the Muddy Buddy authorities. So, I updated the logo to make them feel better about the situation. No more responses after that... I call that the virtual smack down.

There was also a kids race, which was a blast. The kids had to go through a small obstacle course then through the mud pit. I took Ethan through the course, but right when he got to the pit, he didn't want to go in. So I picked him up and started to walk through the mud, thinking that he might see it as fun. Instead, he started crying. So I'm stuck carrying him through the mud, trying not to laugh. My friends are on the sideline yelling "Throw him in! Throw him in!" I just couldn't. I saw those tears and with my luck it would've damaged him somehow and he would spend the rest of his life freaking out at the sight of dirt or something.

Ryann did the race with no problem. She tackled the obstacle course and basically tip-toed through the mud like a little girl. Totally appropriate.

Here are photos of the event. Can't wait for next year!

Labels: mountain bike, Muddy Buddy

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Posted: 10/23/2005 08:14:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

This past Sunday, I was riding with 3 other guys up the Indian Truck Trail. One guy, named Dan Frei, in his mid-50's, suffered a massive heart attack and died right there on the trail.

We started at 6:00am to beat the heat. On the way up, we took a lot of breaks, drank a lot of water, and snacked. There were the usual complaints from all of us about being out of shape and a little about the heat, but nothing whatsoever about anything related to this.

Dan fell behind us like he usually does. Sometimes one of us road with him and other times he was alone. At this particular break, about 4 miles up the trail, the three of us waited a good 10 minutes before Eric headed back down to see what was up. Another 10 minutes went by before Rudy and I headed down.

After a half dozen turns I see Eric on the phone, and Dan just lying there on his back. I knew it wasn't good. I get closer and Eric says he's not breathing and doesn't have a pulse... and my stomach drops. He asks "Do you know CPR?" and my stomach drops further.

Surprisingly, neither one of us knew CPR. The person on the phone, who was from the Riverside Fire Dept, said not to move him since he might have broken his neck. And they couldn't instruct us over the phone how to perform CPR.

Eric was instructed to ride down to meet the fire department and Rudy and I were there... with Dan... lifeless... for what seemed like forever, but turned out to be a good 45 minutes before a helicopter arrived and landed near by.

About a half-hour into it, we got ahold of Eric who was driving up with the firemen, and they were able to instruct Rudy, over the phone, on how to give CPR. Rudy went at it like a champ for about 15 minutes, but it was really hopeless. The guys from the Mercy Hospital helicopter took over, pumped him full of adrenaline and other drugs for another 15 minutes, but to no avail.

They said is was most likely a heart attack, and the coroner, after hearing our descriptions, said it was a massive heart attack (or Sudden Cardiac Arest) and in these conditions, CPR was totally useless. Even if he had a massive heart attack in an Emergency Room, chances of him making it were very slim.

At the time we didn't know it was a heart attack. In fact, we had no idea what had happened. But sitting there with him for 45 minutes, being ABSOLUTELY HELPLESS, was the WORST feeling I've ever had in my entire life. It was the longest 45 minutes I've ever had to experience and I never, ever want to feel that again... I wouldn't wish that feeling on anyone at anytime.

So, I set up an adult CPR and First Aid class for us with the American Red Cross at my house on Saturday, June 18. EVERYONE MUST ATTEND!

The only excuse that's acceptable is that you are already certified AND up to date. Nothing else.

If you can't afford the 50 bucks, let me know and I'll gladly pay for you.

Where
My House

When
Saturday, June 18th, 9:00am - 4:00pm (one-hour lunch break, lunch provided)

Afterwards
I was thinking we could do a little up and back on the Bedford Motorway, and hopefully NOT use what we've learned that day. Then back to my place for a Bar-B-Que (bring some meat to throw on the grill).

Let me know by June 3rd so I can get an accurate head count. All are welcome.

~D

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 5/23/2005 11:57:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Tour De Corona 2004

This year's tour was a great ride overall, even with all the flat tires and crashes. I estimated a 30 mile-ride... I was a little off. The path was right on, but I messed up on the calculations somehow. Here's what we road:

Started at my house
Temescal Canyon road ride to Indian Truck Trail
Up Indian Truck Trail to Main Divide
Up Main Divide to Santiago Peak
Down Main Divide to Bedford Road
Down Bedford, through the orange groves back to my house.

Everyone met at my house around 7:00 am, including a couple of new faces. Jeff, who I only rode with once before, invited a couple of friends to come along. Which was totally cool because this past week a bunch of people backed out for one reason or another and I thought for sure that nobody was going to show.

John and Mike pulled up shortly after Jay and introduced themselves. Totally cool guys. Jeff warned me that John was a hard-core rider and rides like 5 times a week. So John starts talking about doing this ride in the middle chain ring, and I'm thinking - Okay he's definitely with the wrong crowd, but oh well, let's see how it goes.

Everyone else shows up one-by-one, eating their Jack in the Box breakfast and getting ready for the big ride. Bob finally shows up and we shove off around 7:45.

All together it was:
Me
Joe
Brian
Steve
Bob
Jay
Jeff
Jeff Jr.
John
Mike

The road ride on Temescal Canyon was a subtle incline, but we went way too fast. This was supposed to be a mellow warmup, but I had to stay in front of the pack to direct everyone. Everyone else kept passing me, so the whole group just went too fast. At this point, Jay already blew his load.

Climbing up Indian Truck Trail was nice and steady. It was interesting to see all the ancient Indian furniture on the side of the road. I'm sure that La-Z-Boy was comfortable in a tee pee at some point.

As we started the climb, Mike asks "So how far are we going?"

"All the way to the peak!" Apparently he got the email, but failed to read it. Details.

Jay started to fall back, so Steve and I waited up for him and harassed him into keep climbing. "Come on Jay, it just around that corner." Hee heee... works every time. Just before Holy Jim Trail, he threw in the towel and turned around. He probably could've went down Holy Jim to get to his house, but his truck was still at my house.

At this point, everyone was way ahead except for me, Steve and Jeff (Jeff probably had 50 extra pounds of equipment on him, including a GPS device, a walkie talkie, an MP3 player, a Hamm Radio and enough water for both him and his son). I pulled ahead slightly, and was so tired I could've sworn I saw the Indian Truck pass me by with a real life Indian smoking a pipe in the drivers seat. I looked at him, he looked at me and said "how". I blinked, shook my head and he was gone. Dehydration perhaps? They say nobody ever saw the Indian Truck and lived to tell about it, so I started to worry a little and considered it a true hallucination.

By the time I reached the top everyone was cursing at me and giving me high-fives at the same time. It was a little awkward to say the least. But I, along with everyone else, felt a great sense of accomplishment to bag the peak. I don't know what it is that keeps us coming back to these torturous rides because during the ride we think "what the fuck are we doing?" then once we reach the top we're like "hey, can't wait to do it again!". It's a very strange, unexplainable phenomenon and it happens e v e r y - s i n g l e - t i m e.

I've been up to Santiago Peak once before, but from the Orange County side. This was the first time from my house, which I've been wanting to do every since I moved to Corona two years ago.

Now comes the fun part... the downhill ride. Mike and I pulled up front for most the ride, until I got a flat. From that point on, it was flat after flat after flat. I got two, but changing my second one resulted in another because of a bad stem, so I used 3 tubes total. Similar thing happened to Joe with 3 tubes, but he had some kind of mysterious hole in one of his and Brian was determined to find it come hell or high water. He blew it up to the size of a truck tire but to no avail. He was getting so pissed.

The wierdest flat was Jeff Jr's. As we were waiting for Joe and Brian, Jeff Jr was just standing there... let me repeat... just STANDING there with his bike for a good 20 minutes. Then he said, "Do you guys here that?" We didn't hear anything. Then all of a sudden... 'psssssssssss s s s s' His tire flattens right in front of us. Very strange... Did this have anything to do with the Indian Truck I saw? Hmmm...

Steve started the crash sessions with a flying-leap-over-the-handle-bars-into-the-rocks-with-a-flat-tire-to-boot-trick. Very impressive. Mike crashed and racked up his knee to get the "Most Bloodiest Crash" award... until I crashed. I felt a little bad because there wasn't enough action going on for this ride so I saved my crash right until the very end. I crashed pretty good and ended up with blood dripping down my leg to take over the award.

We then returned to my house for some well-deserved burgers and dogs and very tasty beverages.

Everyone's computer said something different, but Jeff's GPS device seemed to be the most reliable. Here are his stats and images (Thanks a bunch Jeff):

Distance: 33.76 miles
Lowest Point: 889'
Highest Point: 5622'
Total Elevation Gain: 6138'
Ride Time: 4.5 hours average
Total Time: 8.5 hours
Flat Tires: 9
Crashes: 3

Labels: mountain bike, Tour de Corona

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Posted: 10/23/2004 11:24:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Cannel Plunge

We had an incredible ride at the Cannel Plunge this past weekend near Kernville, Ca.

32 miles, 8 hours, a couple catastrophic mechanicals (including a malfunctioning shoe), a ton of great scenery, way too much climbing, WAY too many people flying over the handlebars (including me, which Joe got a great picture of), sleeping in 26 degree weather, and of course, The Plunge... that about sums it up. Good times!

Of course, Julie chimes in with "Hummm... 4 mph average. Was it uphill both ways?"

I think "Wow, that fast?"

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 9/06/2004 10:20:00 AM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

This morning we all went up to Running Springs for a mountain bike race, and we had a great time. This was Ryann's first race and out of about a dozen kids of all ages, she came in forth place. She was very happy and we were very proud. Here she is getting ready to cross the finish line...



As for me... I got my butt kicked... Bad! Here's me "barely" crossing the finish line...



Here are the results. I'm in the Sport class, age 30-34.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 7/25/2004 10:03:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

For the first annual Tour de Corona, we took off from my house, did a short road ride through the neighborhood to go up Eagle road, up to the Main Divide. We traversed the Main Divide over to Bedford Road, down Bedford and back to my house for a bar-b-que and tasty beverages.

Besides the small fly problem in the house, we had a great time! Can't wait to do it next year.

Labels: mountain bike, Tour de Corona

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Posted: 10/12/2003 09:42:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode in the 12 Hours at the Summit mountain bike race today in Big Bear. This was my very first mountain bike race, and I had a great time!

We all drove up to Big Bear last night, just so that we can get a decent nights sleep and try to get acclimated to the altitude. We hung out, drank and cooked some pasta before hitting the sak at a respectable time.

It was me, Rich Rentrop, Steve Wilder and Bob Green, and it was a relay race. Ian joined us as our one-armed mechanic, cook and moral supporter. He made sure that our bikes were clean and well lubed before every leg of the race. My bike never worked so smoothly. Steve's wife also joined us to give us massages between each race. Needless to say, that was awesome!

I think we all did extremely well. There were no mechanicals and no crashes. For me, there were several close calls, but I managed to stay on my bike the whole time. We each did 3 laps, except for Steve who did 2. We ran out of time for him to do his third. Each lap was 9.5 miles, with about a 1500 foot climb in elevation and took about an hour to get around the loop. Surprisingly, I think I had the best average for my team of about 59 minutes. Overall, it was painful and very stressful, but I can't wait until next year. We're thinking about doing 2-man teams and joining the "Steel" class.

They actually messed up the results and didn't record my last lap. So technically, we actually came in 6th place, not 7th.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 8/10/2002 10:13:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode El Moro by myself. I did the main loop twice with an hour in between rides, and I did them without stopping. Still training for the 12-Hour Race in Big Bear. It took me about 1 hour and 6 minutes the first time, and 1 hour and 15 minutes the second.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 7/28/2002 12:35:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Did our usual Wednesday night mountain bike ride at Whiting Ranch. But this time I rode all the way to the top of The Luge (about 8 miles), without stopping. Usually, we take about 3 or 4 breaks, but I thought I'd give it a try. I actually did pretty good. I had a nice even pace going and I made it in about 55 minutes. Not bad for a first time. I'm kinda training for the 12-hour relay race on August 10th in Big Bear and I'm the weakest of our team when it comes to climbing, so I want to be ready.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 7/24/2002 10:41:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Spent a few days in Mammoth with Tricia's family. They go up there for a week every year and this year there were about 30 people all together. We had a great time hanging out with everyone and Ryann caught a ton of fish this year with her grampa.

Thursday I rode my dirtbike all the way up to Laurel Lake. When I did this trail in May, it was blocked off with snow. This time I was able to make it all the way. It was so nice and peaceful up there.

Friday I rode my mountain bike down Mammoth Mountain Bike Park about 4 times. And later that day I rode my dirtbike at the track for a little while.

Saturday I took a nice little mountain bike ride from the condo up to the village. I then caught a shuttle up to Ski area, rode about 1 mile up to Minaret Lookout, then about 2.5 miles up Hard Core to Deadman's Pass. The view from up there was incredible! I could see June Mountain and a large portion of the Sierra's including the Ansel Adam's Wilderness, which we are supposed to hike this fall. I rode back down Hard Core, down the Mountain View Trail including a kick ass single track, over to the Earthquake Fault. I then crossed over the 203 and jumped on the Downtown Trail back to the village. It took me about 3 hours to ride 12-15 miles climbing about 2500 feet. It was a great ride!

July 10-14, Wednesday-Sunday, 2002

Labels: family, moto, mountain bike, trips

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Posted: 7/14/2002 07:49:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode the Luge at Whiting today. Just barely recovering from last Saturday's ride.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5

Photographer: Rich Rentrop

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 6/26/2002 06:34:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Did a crazy 50 mile mountain bike ride with Ian and Rich today. We started in Irvine, ended up in Corona and looped back. Ian fills in the details here.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 6/22/2002 10:39:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Ian and I took our pregnant wives to Mammoth this weekend. They basically hung out and waited for us while we had fun. I didn't do any snowboarding this trip (actually, I didn't do any snowboarding all year), I don't know why, I just wasn't into it this year. But I took my dirt bike and rode the Mammoth Motocross Track with a few other guys that we met up there. That track is so fun! Instead of double and triple jumps, it had all table tops, which are much more forgiving.

Sunday morning I took off by myself to ride up the Laurel Lakes trail (everyone else was snowboarding). It was basically a rough fireroad for 4-wheel drive trucks, but it was pretty fun on my dirt bike. I had to take it easy because I was by myself.

I also brought my mountain bike and got to ride the Lower Rock Creek Trail. Man, that is the best trail I've ever been on. This is my third time going down it, but the first time on my new mountain bike. It's full suspension, so it was a completely different ride this time.

May 24-26, Friday-Sunday, 2002

Labels: mountain bike, trips

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Posted: 5/26/2002 07:06:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode the Luge at Whiting with the boys.

Picture 1
Picture 2

Photographer: Rich Rentrop

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 5/22/2002 07:12:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Went to our first Doctor's appointment. We found a new Doctor, Dr. Gonzalez of Los Alamitos, and interviewed her. She's a little too new, but we like her a lot. She did an ultrasound, confirmed that we're pregnant and gave us a due date of December 22 (my Mom's birthday). Tricia hasn't felt anything in the last day or two so she thought that the two home pregnancy tests she took were faulty because they came in the same box.

Rode the Luge again in Whiting Ranch. It was a little easier this time.

Labels: family, mountain bike

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Posted: 5/01/2002 07:59:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode mountain bikes with the guys to the Luge in Whiting Ranch for the first time this season. This is the ride we did every Wednesday last summer. And I totally forgot how hard it is. I almost died.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 4/17/2002 08:15:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode mountain bikes with Ian and Graham on the Aliso Creek Trail. It was my first time there and it was pretty cool. There was a great single-track downhill part, but by the time we got to it, it was getting dark. So we had to rush through it.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 4/10/2002 08:27:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

I was going to ride El Moro with Steve, but it started raining right when I was about to drive there. Not like a little rain would ever stop me, but they usually close the park when it rains.

So I went home early and cooked diner for Tricia. We then rented The Musketeer... what a piece of crap. I mean, the fighting scenes, coordinated by Xin Xin Xiong, were pretty cool, but definitely not realistic at all. The best acting in the movie was from a 12 year-old little girl.

Labels: mountain bike, movies

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Posted: 3/06/2002 08:01:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode El Moro Canyon today with Ian and Steve. It was a short ride, but Steve showed us this really cool single-track trail that winded the hillside while looking over Laguna Beach and the Pacific Ocean. It was pretty awesome.

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 2/27/2002 08:13:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode the Maple Springs Trail all the way to the TOP of Mount Modjeska baby! (13 miles up, 4500 ft) What a great feeling, although I'm going to feel the business end of that feeling for the next few days. This time it was was with Ian, Bob, Rich and another Bob. The other Bob got two flats on the way down. Rich and I took the single track on part of the downhill and it was so much fun. Too bad I was so damned tired to really enjoy it. I crashed twice. Nothing serious though. Just a few scratches.

Ian and I then went to Trevor's for his kid's birthday party, dropped off their gifts, and chowed down.

Trevor let me borrow SE7EN, one of my favorite movies. T and I watched it. It's a double disk set and I'm dying to see what's on the second DVD.

Labels: mountain bike, movies

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Posted: 2/24/2002 08:17:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode the Maple Springs Trail (Mount Modjeska) up to the Main Divide (8 miles up, 3500 ft) this morning with Ian, Bob, Steve and Eric. This was my second time up this trail and I felt great. Having more people to chat with really helped. I thought we were only 2/3 the way up when I saw the Main Divide... What a great feeling. I wanted to keep going to the top (another 1000 feet), but nobody else wanted to.

In the evening, we went to the Rodeo at the Arrowhead Pond. 1st time at a rodeo and I thought it was pretty cool. I was just too damned tired to enjoy it.

Labels: mountain bike, sports

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Posted: 2/16/2002 08:41:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode the Crystal Cove State Park (Laguna Beach), otherwise known as "El Moro". Ian crashed again and banged up his knee and good elbow quite a bit by getting stuck in a rut and thrown about 15 feet. I didn't see it happen but I saw the results and they weren't pretty. Put it this way... El Moro 1, Ian 0.

We did this ride a lot last summer because it's probably the closest. There is this great downhill called "Rattle Snake Ridge" that is pretty much suicidal if you're not careful. Good times!

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 2/13/2002 08:43:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Rode the Maple Springs Trail (Mount Modjeska) up to the Main Divide (8 miles up, 3500 ft) this morning with Ian. This was my first hard ride of the season and boy did I feel it. I was hurting so bad, I barely made it.... Can't wait till next time!!

Labels: mountain bike

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Posted: 1/26/2002 08:26:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment

Went for the usual Wednesday night mountain bike ride. It's getting dark so early now, we have to use our lights about half-way into it... which is not as fun. Only two more weeks before we lose day-light savings.

While I was moving the old dishwasher out to the trash, it got caught on a sidewalk crack and cut my shin open. It started bleeding right away and was dripping down into my flip-flops... it didn't hurt but it looked really cool. Tricia took care of me by cleaning it and stopping the blood.

Labels: misc, mountain bike

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Posted: 10/10/2001 10:08:00 PM | Comments (0) | Post a Comment