Last ride?

 Dave from Victory Vello wanted a tour of the local trails. With snow on the forecast I told him it had to be this week. He brought Terra with him and we decided to see how many shuttles we could get in.

 Terra and Dave were all smiles all day.

 It's hard to decide where to take someone new to this area. You want to make them happy they came. Dave already had someone take him out on the hardest stuff and try to make him hate it, so we did kind of a greatest hits. We rode; The Bonus trail, Upper PCP, Lower PCP, Willow, Snakedance, the top of Moraine, and bottom of Ridge trail. Not bad for one day self shuttling. I think everybody was tired enough that we didn't feel like we missed out on anything. Awesome day!

I rode my new Enduro and played with my suspension settings for the first half of the day. By the end the bike just felt capable of anything. 

We picked up a Pair of New York noose chains from Kryptonite. Hopefully this will make life more difficult for the bike thieves. This things are burly! 

More fall riding

 I think Katie may have ran her last ride. I have always hated it when Katie killed squirrels on our rides.  Now she killed something rare. This Pine Marten didn't make it. She found him near the top of Willow. Lucas and I took out my new Enduro on Willow and Snakedance first thing in the morning.

 In the afternoon I took Gage and Wendell for a shuttle down Ridge.

 Looks like my Solstice found a new home. Wendell has a lot of unlearning to do.

 Sometimes trees are right where you need them.

I was proud of him for riding it out after almost falling off the rock.

This is going to be my ride for the BC bike race. I just picked this Specialized Enduro 29 elite up from Victory Vello in Auburn. 

City people suck!

After my boy's did the Super Kids Triathlon we took them to Pizza. We parked in a super busy parking lot in front of Trader Joe's in Santa Cruz. This is what we came out to. You can't tell me that know one saw two bikes getting cut off our rack. There was so many cars we had trouble taking pictures. Santa Cruz PD didn't really care they want us to file a report on line. I watched the people coming in and out of the area and the taxi driver seemed real interested in what we were doing. It wouldn't surprise me if they weren't spotting for the thieves. I guess we have been lucky so far but the kids were totally crushed.

Oakhurst and Auburn

 I would like to have shown you the pictures from riding in Oakherst but I deleted the picture before they were saved. I rode Mary Jane, Willow creek, and three sections of 007. I like the Pinecrest trails way better but if you are near there you should check it out. 

 Before you go you absolutely have to get this map. But don't wash it like I did water proof not washer proof. Stop in to Yosemite Bicycle and Sport on HWY41. www.yosemitebicycle.com. The guys there are super friendly and are more than willing to tell you all about the trails and bikes or anything else. You will however get lost. The map is actually pretty good but there are virtually zero markings on any of the trails and the roads are almost as bad. I almost destroyed this map on the trail unfolding and refolding over and over. I don't think I have ever had to refer to a map so many times in a ride. 

If you do go and you like the Pinecrest area I suggest the Mary Jane/Willow Creek run. 007 has more of a rough jump trail feel to it with not enough flow for me. I will be spending more time over there so I will try to explore more of the system.

 Today Sean and I went up Auburn. We started off with a loop of; Manzanita,Clementine,Tunnel,Mammoth Bar, and Stagecoach on the single speeds. That hurt more than it should have. Then I demoed a Specialized Enduro Epic on the same loop. 

This bike is scary fast! I got yelled at, apparently there is a speed limit on Stagecoach. It is so hard not to let this thing go. The less you touch the brakes the more it will blow your mind. It eats everything in it's path faster and smoother with less effort than my Uzzi DH bike did. I found myself trying to find the    trashiest parts of the trail just to see what it is capable of. As of now it's limits are far beyond mine. Oh yeah it climbs pretty dam good too. But you will forget all about that at the top.