A few weeks back Ogre and I were allowed to borrow a friend’s mountain tandem to see if we would enjoy the experience.  We had played with the idea of getting one for a while, but I was nervous about the discrepancy in our ride levels.  I had heard that matching your cadence is really important in riding a tandem.  We ended our demo ride with big smiles and a decision that a tandem would be a great addition to our bikes.  Over the following weeks we began looking through ads and discussing what features we thought would be the most important to have on our tandem.  I personally wanted a rear suspension.  The demo bike had a Thudbuster seatpost, but I felt like more suspension would be a better option.  We talked about the tandem for a couple more days and finally decided to plan to get one for our anniversary in July.

Then this past week he comes home with the news that another friend has a mountain tandem that he’s getting ready to put up for sale.  Want to try it out, he asks.  Why not.  He makes the arrangements, we get up Saturday morning, load our gear, and head out.  Morgan has the garage open and is setting up the bike so we can try it as we pull up.  He lives close to Joaquin Miller Park and has an idea of a route we can use to demo the bike.  He rode along with us giving us hints and preparing us for anything tricky up ahead.  The funniest part was him telling us how he rides this section or that one with his son so we should be ok.  We manage to complete the route without any carnage and return to his house again wearing big smiles.  What a blast!

Ogre turns to me with one question, so we doing this?  Oh, yeah!  So now we have our own tandem mountain bike to hit the trails.  It’s going to take a little while to learn how to ride the tandem together.  Other tandem riders we’ve spoken to have given us lots of great advice.  The one thing that keeps coming up is that the captain and stoker must learn some commands.   Everything from which foot to start pedaling with to when to coast have to be communicated back and forth.  It’s going to be interesting learning all new skills, but I definitely think I’m up to the challenge.

We had almost no mechanicals and only one wreck in the group of THIRTY riders that come down with me. There were more BOMB riders that came down that day, not sure the total though. A lot of people asked questions (just other riders and hikers on the trail) about what the cross was for too – everyone asked me to forward on their hearfelt sypmathies to your family.

On a related note, someone from Colorado Springs contacted me and has volunteered to do a Memorial Ride for Sylvia on the Porcupine Rim trail. He said he would put up a small cross for her and his group would stop and remember her when they passed the place where she died. I told him I thought is was a great idea. As it turns out he scheduled the ride on May 5th, Char’s birthday. Anyhow, here is a link from his site where they scheduled the ride. The group is Colorado Springs Believers on Mountain Bikes. I haven’t asked but I get the impression that they would welcome anyone who wanted to join the ride (This is confirmed see comments below).
Char and I have discussed attending the ride but I’m not sure I could return and revisit those memories yet.

While I gone I plan on returning to Moab and Fruita and will certainly find many other places to ride on our trip. Other destinations at this time include South Dakota, Yellowstone National Park, Sun Valley in Idaho and lot’s of other places.

I’m getting an early start on getting the pictures up from our vacation by getting them up while we’re still on vacation. All family pictures so for (no riding) but there will be plenty of trail pictures later.
The first batch of pictures we are just outside of Portland spending a couple days with Martin and Elizabeth. Click here to check them out.

Cleanup – May 22, 2003

I’ve spent a bit of time cleaning up a lot of broken little things on my site.
Due to the self inflicted and forced changes which this site has undergone over the last few months I had about 20 broken links internal to the site. I fixed the broken links, bad email addresses, cleaned up the html a bit and will be trying a couple of new “gee whiz effects on the site.

We went to Henry Coe a couple weeks ago but the camera failed me. All I can say is that it is a phenominal place to ride. We rode about 25 miles and did about 5,000-6,000 feet of climbing. I am hoping to return soon to give this place a proper review and lots of nice pictures.

Web Chaos – May 11, 2003

If you managed to find my site then perhaps things aren’t as bad as I think.
My web hosting provider went out of business and in the process I lost my domain name “Ogrehut.com”.
As you can see I am back on the web now as Ogrehut.net but all the other sites which link me including all of the search engines have lost track of my site.
I am working to get all outside links back online, and also to reclaim my original domain name but in the meantime Ogrehut.net is here to stay.

Thanks for sticking with me.

Rockville – May 5, 2003

It’s been tough to get dry rides in during these late season rains but we managed to have a nice warm sunny ride Saturday at Rockville. We did get rained on a little bit but only after we had gotten two hours of great riding in. Look for a ride report from Henry Coe coming soon.

Granite Bay & Pacheco Pass – April 23, 2003

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a new ride report, so I’m over due. I guess I’ve saturated most of the good rides within a couple of hours of here :) Here’s my latest report from Granite Bay which is on the north shore of Folsom Lake. I also rode at Pacheco Pass with the guys from TROGS. Unfortunately when I rode Pacheco Pass I had some problems with my camera so I don’t have any pictures of the ride.

Racing – April 17, 2003

The Prairie City Race Series for 2003 has started. Every Wednesday night they set up a different 3.5 – 4 mile course at the Prairie City OHV park for mountain bikers to race on. Beginner classes race 2 laps, Sport and Clydesdales 3 laps, and Experts race 4 laps around the park..

For the second year in a row I am competing in the beginner class. I am racing much faster this year than last, this week even with a small crash near the beginning of the race and loose seatpost I had to adjust mid-race I still managed to post a 9th place finish which is my best ever. My goal for the year is to win one beginner race and then move to the Clydesdale class.

Changes – March 22, 2003

Things are much better now, the site is about 95% fixed. Almost all of the URLs for the trail reviews have changed so I put up redirects so links from outside sites will still work. If you find problems with the site, please let me know.

Changes – March 22, 2003

I am migrating my site to a new server and there are lots of issues. Pretty much everything is broken. The site should be fully functional again by the end of the weekend. I am also implementing some major changes in the site which should result in a better website overall. If you would like to browse my trail database it in it’s “Work in Progress” State feel free to go to The new Trail Tree

SGW - March 8, 2003

I am hosting the photos Land Park Criterium and the Mather Criterium for the Sacramento Golden Wheelmen, yeah I know it’s a road bike race, sue me. The Mather Race Photos are up now.

Forest of Nicene Marks – January 21, 2003

I had to go to Santa Cruz last weekend for work so I brought my bike and invited my oldest daughter Liz along to ride with. On Friday evening I decided to ride at Wilder Ranch, we had a late start from Stockton and didn’t get to Santa Cruz until 4:00PM so I strapped on my new Headlamps and we had a fun night ride.

On Saturday we headed out for Forest of Nice Clean Parks Forest of Nicene Marks (I fixed the link). The scenery is beautiful, the trail is smooth, and the grade easy which makes this is a very popular place for the locals to take their families. If you decide to show up on a weekend expect lots of dog walking traffic.

Salmon Falls – January 14, 2003

The Salmon Falls ride report is complete, we rode the Sweetwater/ Salmon Falls double loop again last weekend so I have put the photos in from that ride and cleaned up the ride report. For those who haven’t tried it the Mickey Mouse Downhill at the end of Salmon Falls is one of the most challenging in the Sacramento area. I have also posted the pictures from our recent ride near Angels Camp on the Parrot’s Ferry Downhill. This is also a very fun ride, but was soured when my frame cracked. Right now it’s pictures only, I should have a ride report up soon.

Sweetwater – December 28, 2002

I have finally posted a ride report for the Sweetwater Trail pictures which have been up since July. The Ride report is from a recent double loop we did with Sweetwater Trail and Salmon Falls. I have also posted a ride report for Salmon Falls even though I only have one picture right now. When we rode the other day we were trying to get as much riding in as possible before it rained so I don’t have much time for pictures.

Action Alert – December 4, 2002

Please take a minute to go to this page on FATRAC’s website. Currently the State Parks are working on the Folsom/ Natoma Lake General Plan and they are currently soliciting comments. Go to the page, fill out the form and mail it to the address indicated on the form. A simple “Hi I am a mountain biker and I enjoy riding in this area, please include plans for mountain bikers in your new general plan” should be enough. We all complain about trail closures and limited trails, now is your chance to put in your two cents worth.

Also, while you are at it go to the IMBA site and fill out This internet form to send an e-mail to Sen. Diane Feinstein to tell her that you feel the current draft of the Wilderness Bill which is being rammed through Washington by Barbara Boxer is too extreme. There are better ways to protect the environment than to ban mountain biking and OHV use on huge tracts of land.

Foresthill Divide – December 2, 2002

I was going through the site and I realized that the old ride report for Foresthill Divide pretty much stunk. So based on a killer group ride I did recently which included Foresthill and the Clementine Loop I have created a New Foresthill Divide Ride Report. I hope you enjoy the ride report as much as we enjoyed the ride.

Ride News – December 2, 2002

I haven’t been posting any new ride reviews lately. This is not because I haven’t been riding, I’ve actually gotten quite a few miles recently. Mostly I have been riding places which I have ridden before. Short days, Holidays, and weather have put a crimp in my schedule. I anticipate a slew of new ride reviews in spring and early summer. I am not certain I will be able to keep up the aggressive pace I set for myself early this summer because it’s gotten a lot harder to find new (good) places to ride without driving 3+ hours.

This last week I was extremely busy because I decided with the 4 day weekend that I would ride 100 miles on the mountain bike. I didn’t have the GPS or a trip computer for every trip so the mileage is a rough estimate.

Places I rode on my 100 mile quest:

• Salmon Falls/ Sweetwater Trail – starting at Falcon Crest (~15 miles)


• Coyote Point Trail On Thanksgiving Day I went miles further than I have ever gone on this trail (~15 miles).


• I also did the Stagecoach/ Clementine double loop plus we extended the ride by doubling back after finishing the Manzanita trail to hit the Flood Trail (~15 miles)
• 10 miles at New Melones Reservoir plus about 16 miles on farm roads in one day (26 miles/ day)


• Plus about 26 miles on unpaved roads and bike trails near my house
  

So perhaps I came up a little short of my 100 mile target but if I didn’t make the 100 mile mark for the week I was damned close (and I’m going to sneak a 5 miler in tonight for insurance :).

Latrobe Loop – November 15, 2002

This ride report is from a ride I did at the end of September, but I am only just getting arount to posting it. The Latrobe Loop is a 12+ mile loop on country roads which loops around the Rancho Murieta Community. The road goes through some scenic farmland and there are a few moderate hills but overall this is a pretty casual ride. Consider riding here in the winter time when it’s rainy and you just have to get out of the house. I also found out that it makes a great night ride.

Point Reyes Trip – November 5, 2002

I’ve been neglecting the site a bit, but I haven’t been idle so this week you should see a bunch of updates to the site. First, I have this ride report from Point Reyes. If you are looking for hard core Mountain Biking you will probably be disapointed but the good news is that if you bring your bike to the point there are some fun places to ride.

Last weekend was a killer ride weekend. No new trails but we did a monster 25 mile ride including the Clementine Loop and Foresthill Divide Loop plus as a bonus we rode about 11 miles on Sunday at Elliots Crossing. Look for updates and new photos on those ride reviews soon.

Web Site Problems – October 21, 2002

I came back from a trip this weekend to find that my web site was completely broken. My Web Hosting Provider has screwed me over (again!). I have put some temporary fixes in so the site works (mostly) but many of the nice features on the site are broken until they fix this. I am working with them to resolve the problem but don’t know when they will get their act together. Update: All Problems with the site have been resolved.

Oat Hill Mine Trail – October 17, 2002

I finally finished a major rework of the ride report pages, I also created a printer friendly page where you can print out a ride report. To show off these changes I made a special trip to Calistoga and rode the Oat Hill Mine Trail. If you like the idea of climbing for 4 1/2 miles of rocky, technical terrain and then turning around and bombing down it then you will love the Oat Hill Mine trail. I also went to Point Reyes this weekend so expect a ride report from there soon.

Reorganizing – October 7, 2002

Some major changes in the way the site is structured. My menubar was getting way to complicated, so I tried to group the rides into regions. I have created a Trail Locator Map to help you sort the whole mess out. Please let me know if you are having trouble with the new layout and I will try to straighten things out a bit. While you are exploring be sure to check out the onMouseover=”document.banner.src=’/Images/Banner7.jpg’”>Penn Mine Trail Ride Report which is located in Campo Seco, a small town north of Valley Springs.

Elliot’s Crossing (Rubicon River Ride) – October 1, 2002

This weekend I managed to get out of town long enough to find a real gem of a trail. Elliot’s Crossing (along the Rubicon River) is a fun trail which offers a rare blend of solitude, awesome singletrack, and a just enough challenge to add some spice to the ride. It is not the most technical ride, but it’s not a beginners ride either. It’s also fairly strenuous so bring along an extra lung. Read more about Elliot’s Crossing here

Northstar – Mountain Bike Park – September 22, 2002

Kevin had a free pass to Northstar that he wanted to use before he was out of commision for the season so this weekend we went to Tahoe and did some serious Downhill riding. I have photos up.

Skyline Park (Napa) – September 2, 2002

This Sunday we made the trip to Napa and rode Skyline Park. Skyline is beautiful park filled with awesome singletrack and some of the most technical terrain I have ridden.

Flying – August 25, 2002

Terry, a good friend of mine from our local Linux Users Group (CVALE) offered to take me and my family on a short flying trip. His plane is a Taylorcraft two seater so we took turns. While we were flying I managed to get some photos of our house and some trails that I ride on at Lake Hogan. He also offered to let us fly the plane while we were airborne. Check out the photos we took