Local roadies all want to ride out 68 and go "over the grade". They say it with a gleam in their eye, like it's something. Pardon me while I snicker. Cloacal roadies, get real! Carmel Valley is where it's at. Sure, there're the wine-drunk tourists sometimes, but over all the experience is much more good. You can talk about how 68 has such nice pavement after the winter's redo, and how it has the wide shoulder...and get blue in your face as you ignore the issue- commuter traffic and buses and trucks and the grade sucks, homie. It is hot, it is exposed, and it backs up with assholes driving way too fast teaching you a lesson by passing within a foot of you. And, then, you're up and over and down and you have CV to ride anyhow. (buzzer sound.)
On the other hand, shifting into your big ring and smoothly pedaling circles out the valley gets you past the village in practically no time and from there it's no-traffic one-lane goodness. To wit, Cachagua:
where you can get your hot exposed climb on with minimal cars, nice grades, and fantastic descending on the backside. Scary twisty and quick.
So I did that. But the ride was too short, even though my lily-white, coastal-fog-softened pins were talking. As I was headed West, I opted for a further climb up the South side past all those steep false summits. Hopped a gate that wouldn't open, and rolled through some more:
oak land goodness. Summer is here and the time is right, for riding in the streets. ~70ish miles of street biking.
At home afterwards, I stretched hamstrings and adductors and foam-rollered the legs. It helps. Don't sleep.
Never thought I'd make it, but I always do somehow.'m all right now.
...skip to :45.
Today is 4 weeks out from getting straight broke off. I feel better by the day. I been rolling my right IT band (ow! tender) and opening my chest. I cannot complain.
You believe how nice it was today?!? Man.
A little roundy round the rollier section of Ord on some fat tyres was the recipe for win. That bike is getting clownier by the day. I replaced the stock saddle with a Brooks Flyer. The extra springiness may or may not be a keeper- I will switch back and forth between a standard B17 and the Flyer and see. Also, I swapped the stem from 120mm to a 100mm, and changed the bars from the Salsa 17* flat to the Surly Open Bar. The reach is both shortened and lengthened (given the bendy nature) and I have 2 more hand positions, give or take infinity. I feel this will pay off big time when bikecamping or going for longer rides. I have aspirations to both in the future; may even combine them.
In further exploring the old Friday night SS loop environs (and happily, it is almost all open again! we need to bed some sections in more/again, so let's all ride there) I ran into B___ B_____ and we had an inneresting chat about trail right of way. He ran into some other cyclist recently while descending 50 at speed; which is how one descends 50. The other guy flipped out, fell off his bike and down slope. While B___ was leaning down, hand out to help him up, the guy began mouthing off about riding in control and claimed he had the right of way. B___, to hear him tell it, handled it extremely calmly/well. I think I would have told that dude to eat a dick and ridden away at that point. I agree that, all things being equal, the climber is accorded the trail. I further agree that, this being Real Life, it doesn't matter how "right" you are if you're in a bad situation. Getting lippy about someone else ripping legal singletrack downhill while you are laboring around a blind corner in the middle of the trail is bullllllshit.
B___ takes it so far as to climb the road around both 49 and 50, which, to my mind, is crazy talk. But that's what he does, just to avoid the possible crash since both of those are honestly 90% ridden in the downhill direction. I myself climb them both on occasion- though much more 49 since it actually gets you someplace from which it is fun to keep riding. And when I'm climbing these trails, I keep my ears open (no headphones or earbuds or whatever they're called when you are from) and I try to look around/through corners where I can. Because I'm responsible for my well-being on the trail; not the guy ripping down a sweet section of hero dirt.
It's prolly all 6s in here, and I do feel like I'm preaching to the choir, but. Look out for yourself and your riding buddies. Call out around a blind corner if it's a heavily used trail. (B___ has now collided with people who were coming up 49, 50, and Blair Witch). Be aware of what's coming. Call out the # of riders in your party who are still behind you when passing someone in order to keep everbody safe- which, if we're being preachy, it amazes me how few people do you this courtesy. If you yield, try to do it by leaning away from the singletrack while keeping your wheels on the edge of the trail. This keeps singletrack single. Don't put that in your mouth. Etc.
If hassles become legal matters, we will face all kinds of regulations. Trails designated directionally, etc. That would suck. Looking at the proposed diminishment of Fort Ord already, it is increasingly clear we all need to play nice.
I don't usually take that one cut through on weekends- cuz I'm mostly riding on the road (or driving) to get to work with more quickness- and while taking it today, I came across not only that one homeless guy I see every now and again (that I'm sure lives off that trail and who has shown himself to be careful and respectful) but an old guy who was hiking from Monterey to Carmel. He has a day in the woods, eats lunch in Carmel and then takes the bus back to Monterey. I like his style.
I was using a switch to clear a nuisancy stand of Poison Oak from the trail and he remarked that he'd brought his chainsaw up last week and sawed through some of the dead fall but had to stop mid cut on the last one from lack of gas. I replied that I appreciate his efforts (because I surely do- those were/are some thick logs) and did he know of any other good sneaks. I've got my eye on this one power line easement...but he didn't know of anything else.
So yes, trail riding was _ucking _un _or sure. I like it. After work I climbed back up that one trail that I took yesterday on the way home. It is (read this in a high pitched voice:) steep! Like balancing act on the rivet steep. Take that saddle and stick it where the sun don't shine steep. And you know what?
I feel _ucking great!
In spite of this rib/hip B.S. (which is improving now that I'm doing my stretches and using the tennis ball and the foam roller again....you'd think I'd get it through my brain pan that this is required at this point in Life. But I have to learn the hard way.) I gots good legs and smooth lungs. I picked these things up bit by bit at the top of many many climbs. And it feels good. I like it. Summer is coming. It was shirt sleeves all evening. That feels good, too.
The owls were hooting.
Do you know what else? As I was riding through that neighborhood to get up the hill to the trail, I noticed a park that lay at the top of several acres of wooded drainage which cries out to have a singletrack through it. This dirt commute business depends on multiple small-but-worth-it sections of trail; if we can keep adding a bit here and a bit there it really extends the dirt portion of the commute. And that's a Good Thing. All it takes is someone taking the time to lay it in...
I am hereby decreeing a Crusade: All of y'all extend the dirt options where you are.
After all this riding around on the Salsa Fargo, I can say: "Damn it feels good to get back on my custoptimized Black Cat cyclocross bicycle."
That thing is quick, where the Fargo is cumbersome. It is jumpy where the Fargo is sluggish. It is light where the Fargo is heavy. I notice I wish the Salsa Woodchipper bars had a little more bottom. (If only they were just hella flared Nitto Noodles, I'd be so happy.) I notice the front end will get a shimmy, both loaded and un-. People forget. Forget they're hiding. Now don't get the wrong idea- the Fargo is a fine bike, and it will serve it's purpose well. It is nice to spread the riding around so there's more of it to Love.
Anyhow, riding bikes is fun. I been keeping up with the foam rollering and boy howdy! is it making some nice differences. My legs/hips/back feel much better. For real. You should do it.
Also: In my current neck of the woods, a log across the trail with room to ride beneath is a "trail feature". Once it rots or slips down further, it will become a "trail blockage" and I will remove it. For now, I relish it for it's challenge and interest, and though it beats me every time it is part of the fun.
