Busy

11/16/03

I haven’t been this cold in some time. Once your hands and feet go numb while riding, they don’t come back.

Odin and I set off for Green Mountain, with the ambitious aim of riding it backwards. But at the bottom of the Catalina Highway there was a flourescent sign that read “no bikes past MP 11.” Nice.

We were going to ride Molino trail, then the highway to Green Mountain, followed by coasting down the highway back to the car. The construction had other plans for us.

So we kept driving only to find that the “no bikes” section to Gen. Hitchcock was simply a rutted, muddy dirt road. We bottomed the car out a few times, while we all drove 5mph. We could have easily ridden through, all while passing cars–but how were we to know?

You couldn’t park anywhere in the “construction zone” (despite no work going on), so we continued up the mountain to Palisades.

The new Butterfly access at Palisades is very nice–technical but it has a wide tread. The other side of Butterfly is technical with almost nonexistant tread. But it was not nearly as overgrown as in August, so it seemed easy and I rode well.

It was cold. We brought clothes for Green Mountain (sub 7000 feet, most of the ride lower). Butterfly is mostly around 8000.

We saw a couple of dressed-for-winter hikers out there. One lady told me as I struggled through a rock garden: “That looks agonizing….”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way…”

45 dismounts later we were at the hike-a-bike and it was warm. Still no sun, but some nice fast moving clouds. The top section of the hike a bike is pure ReD RiDGe stylee–a great climb that I almost nearly made…..failing only on the last tough spot before it leveled out.

The dismounts continued on Crystal Springs. We stopped to check out the pachinko waterfall with its many channels.

The last part of the trail is pound of solid gold. No burn, good tread and full of rideable but challenging trail. A small reward for the suffering required to reach it.

As we climbed the legendary Control Road the wind snarled at us–biting cold, but survivable as we climbed. Two large deer shot off into the trees; I saw one leap what looked like twenty feet. At Oracle Ridge we stopped to stare at roasted Red Ridge, still closed and very burned. There were some beautiful cloud formations swirling over Reef of Rock.

Until we got to the highway things were fine. After the downhill it got ugly. The sun was setting and the winds power only grew.

Odin stopped to put his last bit of clothing on, but he chose the worst possible place–30 mph winds. We pushed on but it was sloooow going.

The sun peeked out of the clouds just in time to set, a burning red fireball. I was freezing but I had to stop to snap a few pictures. I said “We should get a picture of that…” and Odin replied “Good idea, why don’t you get a picture?” as he continued riding.

Soon enough we were back at the car. I was reminded of last Feburary, returning to the car at the top of Red Ridge after climbing it in the snow and under darkness. It was probably equally as cold. Without the warmth of the car we wouldn’t have made it another couple of hours out there. It’s interesting how life can be reduced to simple terms sometimes.

Backtracking…

11/11/03 – A cool rainy ride at TMP. We coasted down Gates Pass and got soaked. Golden Gate was fun, and we got separated (I went up the wash, Odin went tech pass) earlier.

At night Hottie, Odin and I rode bikes to El Con to watch Revolutions. Interesting show and a rarity for me: a movie worth watching.

On the way back a car squealed a left turn, nearly taking us out (he almost hit the corner on the RIGHT side of the street). I was in the rear so I put my foot down and shined my light directly in his face. We said nothing but he yelled, “NICE CAR!”

That’s right, we ride bikes because we can’t afford a car. Nevermind the fact that you just endangered our lives. Why is it that people cannot assume responsibilty and simply apologize when they do something that is obviously wrong? We apologize for simple things like brushing against someone, but nearly running someone down in the street?