End of April 2008:
Here are the most recent photos taken 4/26/08. The snowpack is between 2-5ft. depending on sun exposure. This includes from Berger Campground to Butcher trail. Our estimated time for shuttling is still Memorial Day weekend.
For more info check out the Downieville Outfitters Trail Conditions page.
I don’t race much, the plan is 2 races this year, the Lemurian and this last weekend the Coolest 24. For some reason 24 hour races are a fascination with me. The last few years I’ve done 4 man and 5 man team 24 Hour events. This year I decided to step it up a notch and race on a 2 man team, a big step up actually going from 3 hour breaks between laps to 1 hour and going from 5-6 laps for the race to 9+. At 12+ miles and 1500’ of climbing per lap, that’s a lot of riding. My team mate was a friend of mine I’ve been riding with for about a year now named Seth. I’ve been quite anxious about this race and my personal fitness and weight over the last few months. Not seriously training, just focusing on getting long rides in on the weekends and riding 8 miles to and from work every day.
Seth is faster than me and as such I had him do the first lap. Overall a great choice. Seth managed to be in the top 10 of the team riders out of the gate and then got back in 5th overall at 55 minutes, giving me a traffic free first lap. We managed to stay ahead of most of the traffic, leaving the dust and constant passing to the other teams. My times were about on par with the second place team but Seth continued cranking out amazing lap times, putting 10 minutes per lap on the second place team. By sunset our team was 30 minutes ahead of the second place team.
After sunset we started doing double laps. Seth got off to a bad start and had some problems with his lights and wound up coming back to the RV to swap out for his backup light. When he sees me Seth jokes “Hey, I didn’t know you were at this race too!” Referring to the fact that we’d seen each other for perhaps 10 seconds each lap prior to then. Then he tells me “Dude, we’re 45 minutes ahead of the second place team. It’s game on now.” Up to that point we’d just been trying to finish, neither of us had really seriously thought about being competitive.
Then it was my turn to pull a double for my 5th and 6th laps. The first lap was ok, maybe a little slower than my previous laps but not too bad. My second lap was tough. On previous laps I wasn’t worried about eating mid-lap. I would just eat enough between laps. I did eat on that lap but perhaps not enough or maybe too much between laps. I’m not sure. In any case when I finished my second lap, I was in bad shape.
I limped back to the RV and could feel my legs right on the verge of cramping up. I managed to shovel down a little food, some chocolate milk, then I got out of my sweat soaked riding clothes and crawled into bed and tried to eat a bowl of oatmeal. I was shivering uncontrollably and trying in vain to find a position I could put my legs in without them cramping up. Beyond anything else I just couldn’t seem to get warm. In spite of this, sleep claimed me with a half eaten bowl of oatmeal in my hand. Seth came in about 70 minutes later and I woke up still clutching the bowl which had somehow managed to not spill. He had more light trouble and had wound up following someone else in. I was so zonked and still hurt. I couldn’t even get out of bed to help him track down my spare light. When he left I was back asleep within a couple minutes.
At 4AM my alarm went off and I slowly started to get my senses together. I started to get dressed only to have a major cramp in my leg. I woke Fiona up and she massaged it a bit for me then helped me get dressed. We were still winning? I didn’t care, I wasn’t sure I could do another lap and if I blew up Seth would have to finish the race solo, not good. I ate a little more at that time. By the time I was ready to go Seth was all the way back at the RV. I’d missed our exchange. I talked to Seth for a minute and told him I wasn’t going to be able to do a second double. Then I pedaled off, hoping my cramping legs wouldn’t seize up on me somewhere mid lap.
My goal for my 7th lap? Just to finish the lap. I took it easy the whole lap, using the easy gear and walking the steeper climbs. Somehow my leg cramps just disappeared on me. My legs still hurt but it was just the ache of sore muscles, not the knife-stabbing cramps I’d been getting earlier. I was bundled pretty well and stayed warm for most of the lap and overall it was a good lap with some great dawn views, though I missed the sunrise. Somehow lap 7 wasn’t that near so bad as my 6th lap. I guess 2 hours of quality sleep does a body wonders.
After 7 I ate a nice breakfast thanks to Fiona and rested a little before my 8th lap. By the time Seth was back from his final lap at 10 AM, we were 2 laps ahead of the 2nd place team. All I needed to do was finish my 9th lap to cinch the win. I told every one my final lap was my victory lap and just took it easy. I had 2 hours to finish my lap and my worst previous lap had been less than 88 minutes.
I remember a bunch of people I know from MTBR cheering me as I rolled out and I spun up the hills in low gear. I walked all the tough climbs and of course chatted to everyone on the course. I stopped at the aid station and chatted with some of the crew while I drank a bit of sports drink. Then I ran into DJ from the Dirty Avocados. We rode together for about a mile talking about riding and adventure racing. My 9th lap didn’t seem much like racing at all. It was just plain fun. I wound up coming in at 1 hour 40 minutes.
Turns out we blew out the category. We beat the 2nd place team by 2 full laps. Looking at their team times, it looks like they were trying to do double laps in the middle of the night and their weaker team member cracked and couldn’t do his second lap. The third place team was a lap behind them.
I’m not sure what to do after this. Solo?
One of the Premier MTB races in Northern California the Lemurian Classic is a great race held annually in June. There is a long course which is a single 26 mile long lap, a shorter 20 mile loop, and the beginners loop is 8 miles. There is no sandbagging at the Lemurian, you chose which course to race on and a Pro class but otherwise it’s just simple age sex categories. Even better, the Lemurian course is mostly singletrack.
The real kicker that makes this the king of Grass Roots racing is the fact that the proceeds from the race all wind up going directly to improving the trails in the Whiskeytown/ Mt Shasta Area. Combine this with a great great atmosphere, awesome trails, and a laid back group that puts on the event and the $35 entry fee is dirt cheap.
For people in the South Bay area, you can head down to Fort Ord for a series of 9 weekend races (3 races are over already). These are put on by Central Coast Cyclo Cross (CCCX) and you can find a schedule of events here. There is racing for all classes and ages and from what I understand it’s a very fun series. Entry fees are $35/event.
Here’s some more fun for Sacramento area racers. There is a series of events at Granite Bay (NE of Sacramento) including several Friday Night MTB races, some Duathalons and mini-Triathalons. The races are put on by TBF Racing and there is a schedule if you follow that link. There are 3 MTB only races in June for all classes and age groups. Entry fees are $20.
I don’t race much, but there are a few races which I enjoy. These are generally the sort of grass roots or fund raising events where the fees are usually low and the atmosphere is generally awesome. I’m going to try and report on all the local/grass roots races in Norcal that interest me. Don’t expect to see Sea Otter or any of the big venues show up here. They just don’t interest me a lot and get plenty of coverage elsewhere. The first grassroots race I want to cover is actually a weekly series in the Sacramento area.
The Prarie City Race Series is a weekly mountain bike race series held at the Prarie City OHV park located between Rancho Cordova and Folsom off of Grant Line Road. The races are held every Wednesday evening at 6:15 PM (show up early for registration) starting April 2nd. The only prizes awarded on race day are random door prizes. This event has been growing significantly over the last few years and currently they average over 350 racers per week. The laps are short, 3-4 miles and the different classes all race varying lengths; 2 laps for beginner, 3 for sport class, 4 for expert and 5 for expert ‘plus’ (instead of pro). The course is very fast, SS friendly with lots of short ups and downs rather than any prolonged climbing.
Over on MTBR I stumbled across a thread with a fairly decent map of some of the trails near Folsom. Mostly just Dike 8 and some of the surrounding El Dorado Hills area urban trails. I don’t consider these to be destination trails but they are great for people that live in area or just happen to be passing though. It’s also a good place for beginning riders in the greater Sacramento area to get some mountain biking in without any huge hill climbs or super technical riding. Make sure you scroll further down in the thread to catch the second map with a few more urban dirt trails. You can also check out the maps below as well.
Read the rest of this entry »So after a bit of a break from updating the site Fiona has goaded me into action again. Strangely the update I worked on first is completely un-ridable right now since it’s under 12”+ of snow. However since Fiona is the one who prodded me into working on the site she picked the trail I updated first.
The Strawberry Loop is Fiona’s Favorite ride. Unfortunately until the thaw she just gets to look at the map and drool and speak of it wistfully to other riders. This is a great beginner/ intermediate friendly trail about 30 minutes east of Twain Harte off of highway 108. It also makes for some great bonus miles either at the beginning or the end of a Pinecrest Peak ride. Without further ado, here is the Ride Guide for Fiona’s Favorite, Strawberry Loop.
Incidentally some time ago I created a collection of Beginner Friendly Trails which sort of slid out there without mention. So if you are a beginning rider you might want to check them out. Many are spread all over Northern Califormia.
Well, with the first real rain comes the change in the riding seasons. Now it’s time to break out the winter weather gear. I’m not looking forward to cold, wet rides on one hand, but at least I can get in some riding. Every year I have to work hard to encourage myself not to be a fair-weather rider. I hate getting my face wet, but I love riding in the rain. I don’t mind cold weather, but I hate freezing. The challenges of riding on rain-slicked trails are kind of fun too. It just changes everything in even little ways. I’ve been finding myself making mental lists of the trails I plan on hitting within the next few weeks. I have the ‘it’s just rained’ list and the ‘woohoo it’s sunny’ list. I keep looking at weather reports and thinking which list am I going to choose from this time. I’ve come up with Lake Hogan and New Melones if it rains. Auburn and Folsom if it doesn’t. Possibly sneaking in rides a little further up the hill is a thought for adding to the drier days. Of course I couldn’t resist adding “reading about bike riding on the web” for those severe days when no one should be out on their bike.
I’ll have to see how this winter plays out. So far it seems to be like waiting for the other shoe to drop. There’s still barely any snow at Lake Tahoe and it’s the end of October. It would be great to get at least three rides in each week at the minimum, but I honestly expect to only be able to ride twice a week on average.
Posts about: Cycling