Monday, February 18, 2008

Dead Presidents Ride

All me today. E had to work. I was a little slow moving this morning from partying at the Tour of California Prologue so I jumped on the single speed after sitting around and drinking coffee, eating and stuff.

I climbed Kings Mountain Road, which is a little over 3 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain. I did the single track version of this climb with Joe last week with 32/17 gearing, which really sucked on the 29er, so today I lightened up to 32/18 which is still a bit stiff for the big wheels considering the climbing around here. I dropped a few roadies on the climb which is always fun and when i got to the top I decided to Head to Purusima Creek Open space preserve. I had never been there before. The trails are nice but most of the MTN bikers enjoy Skeggs-El Corte de Madera Preserve down the road, which has some sweet single track.

Well I Jumped into Purusima and decended imediatelly for a long time planning to link up to Skeggs.....This descending was disappointing as I knew i would have to climb. So I hit the bottom took a turn and started climbing....and climbing a good 30 minutes of climbing, (no need to hit the weight room)I got back up to Tunitas creek road, and hits some really beautifull pavement for a few miles, some back roads the led over to skeggs. At this point I was at about 2K in elevations with lots of trees, a very pretty part of the bay.

I was hoping to link over to skeggs but the first few trail heads had signs posted "no bikes due to wet conditions" so i kept decending on pavement, getting a bit concerned as i have no idea where this road goes.

I finally hit a trail head that i could ride....and well now I was in for another hour of climbing on some double track and i really had no idea where it was headed. It was good to be alone for a few hours, I finally hits some signs that directed me to some roads near Trail heads i was familiar with. After about 3 hours of riding, i hit the trails I knew, then stopped for some lunch.

I actually packed lunch today, Its somthing im going to start doing on the big days, you might as well enjoy the woods. Ill save the days of sucking down hitech shitty tasting stuff for race day.

I took some crappy cell phone pics of my lucn spot.




Any way got a good 5 hours of riding and 6K of climbing in for the day...good times.

6 comments:

Matt said...

What did you pack for lunch, and where the hell do you carry a packed lunch with no camelback? 5 hours with one bottle! I'd have bonked 2.5 hours in.

-matt

Pete said...

Haha, Turkey sandwich with pringles, funny you say that, I actually wore the Camel back today, since i couldnt find my other bottle cage!

Pete said...

Also, i ate a power bar and had a few packed with some enduorlytes if i needed em.

Jason said...

Looks like a great ride. I rode my office chair for 8 hours! Does that count?

Travis said...

Sounds like it was a good day in the saddle.....and good weather too, much better then the high of 35 with 20 mph winds here out of Philly

rick is! said...

definitely sounds like a sweet ride and that trail looks pretty killer too. I can only dream of 5 hours in the saddle right now. life is getting in the way.