I’ve been neglecting my riding so much lately that I’d forgotten about that moment… Or perhaps just set it aside for a bit. It’s going to be a busy summer as i try and get caught up.

After spending most of the last year doing a lot of fairly close riding or not riding much at all, I’ve been getting by but in gear again. A bunch-o-trogs made their way up to Pinecrest this weekend for some early season PCP.

Fiona dropped us off right at the top of Hamil Canyon and we tried to make it up to Eagle Peak. The route was clear for the most part, save some occasional drifts.

But eventually we were stymied by a big sheet of snow and the prospect of more ahead so we turned back.

After a bit of debate, we decided we’d try to climb up to a challenging trail called Sunrise. We ground our way up a steep 4WD road which most of us pushed up, but the views up top were spectacular and Sunrise trail is a real treat.

Unfortunately, we were blazing down Sunrise so I don’t have any shots of this great section of singletrack. Trust me on this one, it’s amazing.

After enjoying the descent, there was a brief climb up to the Pinecrest Peak “Bonus” trail, a section that was added to the beginning of PCP trail proper a few years ago.

The bonus section is short and I was really enjoying the flow so again no pictures, but after we were on Pinecrest Peak trail proper I took the time to stop and get some shots of the spectacular trail and views.

A huge part of upper PCP is giant granite slabs with thoughtfully arranged cairns spaced to maximize fun and keep riders from rolling off into oblivion.

Well actually, at one point you more or less do roll off into oblivion, or it seems like it. (Pinecrest Lake in the background)

The granite slab points down and it gets pretty steep, it feels like you are riding out of the sky. (File this under ‘steeper than it looks’)

(It was shortly after this that Joey did a nice endo almost going face first into a boulder.)

After boulder crawling and navigating slabs, we spent about 30 minutes picking our way through steep technical trails and rolling through high mountain meadows.

Then we hit the warp drives and blazed down some a fast bermed out section of serpentine trail. It was off the hook fast and my riding was on fire. The grin factor was maxed out, lots of whoops and hollering.

At the bottom, things get technical again and the speed comes down, but the grin factor doesn’t decrease as we bounced over boulders, slid down granite slabs, took chunky drops over tree roots, dodged stone outcroppings, ducked under branches, and threaded trees.

Then, all too soon, we were at the bottom, tired, sore, and feeling that melancholy we all feel when a spectacular day of riding is over. We crossed the creek, loaded up the bikes and headed back to Bruce’s trailer for some beer and some great grub.

Fiona and I had a great ride at Rockville with my good friends Stripes and her better half. I’ve been doing a lot of short-ish local rides but not a ton of trail riding lately so getting out was a blast. Here are some great slides Stripes put together including some good pics she took and some mediocre ones I took.

If you’ve never ridden Rockville, it’s a great small trail system just outside of Vacaville, in easy distance for a lot of Central Valley or Bay Area riders. Rockville is a bit of a rats nest of intersecting and crisscrossing trails with a great mix of rocky technical trails and reasonably smooth/ beginner friendly trails.

Riders anxious to test their skills usually bee-line for the aptly named Rock Garden trail on the ridge just west of the lake. It’s a great technical challenge and ridable in both directions. For even more challenging trails, expert riders can head to the south-east corner of the park and ride Manzanita trail down to Lower Tilly trail where they can try their skills on a sphincter-clenching-steep volcanic slab ride.

Beginning and intermediate riders just looking for some low-key riding can enjoy the flatter trails around the lake, and some of the trails on the south-west side of the lake. Arch trail, Lower and Middle Mystic trails all offer plenty of great low key riding which nearly anyone can enjoy.

I usually park on Rockville road and take quarry trail in, there is a nominal $3/ rider fee for park use, but the kiosk takes cash or credit cards.

I wouldn’t call Rockville park a ‘destination trail’, but it’s a great little park for local riders or occasionally worth a 90 minute drive. If you live in the Bay area, or the Central Valley and haven’t ridden at Rockville, you should take some time to check it out.

The bad news is most of my working out has been out the back door so not a lot worthy of posting on Ogrehut. The possibility of a pump track for the backyard is very high right now, a tractor is on my list of ‘must buy’ things and if (when?) I get it the pump track will be one of the first things I build.

I don’t think I’ll ever get back into long endurance riding, not that I don’t feel capable, but the more I’ve looked into it the more it seems long endurance type events are ultimately destructive to the body. Longish rides are possible but 24 hour racing seems unlikely unless it’s on a four man team.

Been busy visiting my new grandbaby! More pics at Picasa.

I managed to get a little riding in also and I’ll post a ride review and some details on it a little later.

Our ride this weekend started at the Bear Valley store and climbed up to the Silvertip campground. From there we went east a bit on a paved path to Slick Rock trail and eventually cut behind lake alpine. The trail behind Lake Alpine is really challenging in either direction with a lot of rocky challenges. If you are going east as we were you have to be insanely good at technical climbing to ride some of the sections. Fred was on his A-game getting up some really impressive grunts, me? I did Ok, but even on my best days I’d have been walking.

Cap Horn Trail comes in at the campground at the east end of Lake Alpine and most people either shuttle it or pedal up the road and ride down it. We chose to climb it. The climb up to Cape Horn is strenuous, even more so on the trail and there are a few challenging climbs where it’s steep and a bit loose. We took it easy and slow pedaled up to to Cape and took a munchy break near the lookout.

From the lookout there is an optional extension to add about 1.5 miles to the top. I don’t care for the extension but if you are interested they can tell you how to find it at the bike shop.

Heading down from Cape Horn is a fast challenging downhill. It’s not quite a black diamond trail but if you take it at speed it’s close. Maximum grin factor on the downhill. Even beginning riders can enjoy Cape Horn Trail but for stronger riders it’s a blazing fast grin-fest.

From the bottom of Cape Horn we cut across to Alpine Trail. At this point I was blown up. I haven’t been riding enough lately so I was just done and even the small climbs I pushed. Alpine seems like it’s uphill in both directions but it’s a fun section of trail with lots of challenging rocky spots.

We finished the ride by climbing to Lower Ring Trail, Ring is a fast black diamond downhill with lots of rocky technical bits. In spite of my state of exhaustion I was grinning from ear to ear when we hit Powerline. After that it’s a short little spin over to the slabs which is a great finish for an awesome day of riding.

Overall… an amazing day of riding in a beautiful place. While you are in Bear Valley consider stopping by the bike shop, they are very active in maintaining the trails and you can usually get a lot of good trail advice and maps.

The Contact Form works again also so let me know if there are any problems.

Second trip, right after Christmas was a bit of house shopping. We’re seriously looking at getting a place in Oregon. Haven’t quite knocked out all the details but we’re trying to get as much cash together as we can to make a go at it. For now it’s likely to be a summer home or maybe even just a summer campsite ;) I did manage to get a nice ride in with Fiona on the Eugene bike trails which are very nice, comparable to the ones in Redding or Sacramento. Eugene is apparently a very bike friendly town which is quite encouraging. Finally on the last day up there I managed to wing a ride with the Disciples of Dirt and Randy from MBO on Larrison Creek trail. The weather report said rain most of the day but we were almost completely rain free. Overall a great trip, hopefully we’ll be able to get a bid in on one of the properties shortly.

My struggle with post recovery weight gain continues, I’m still about 15 pounds heavier than prior to my injury in June. All the travel and Christmas sort of bumped me back a bit but I’ve been riding more since getting back and while far from perfect my eating has been better. Hopefully come spring things will pick up.

My winter ride tip for everyone: If you can’t go where you want to ride, ride where you are.

I haven’t been able to get out much to ride so I’ve been doing a lot of local riding from the house. My suggestion is simple, find local close in routes you can hit on a moments notice. When you get bored jump on the bike.

Usually Ogre only enters a couple races a year at the most.  His primary race is the Coolest 24 hour race.  It’s a cancer fundraiser held on a trail system fairly close to home.  The promoter of this race puts on several others and  offered an entry in the Boggs 24 hour.  Ogre chose to enter in the solo 24 hour category, a first for him, having raced in the past on teams.  I would be the team support, making sure he ate, slept, hydrated at the base camp.  He would suffer through the riding.  His plan was to ride like an adventure racer, push himself, but not over-do-it and to take breaks to recover as needed.  I was more concerned that he maintain his eating regiment as this had been a problem in past races.

We arrived at Boggs and found some friends that were also racing.  Collette was going to race the 8 hour option and then become team support while Al and several other guys were joining Ogre in the 24 hour race.

The race started at noon.  Weather was just about perfect for racing, not too hot or too cold.  The trails were a little too loose and dusty, but not impossible.   Everyone came in from their first lap looking good.  This was going to be an exciting 24 hours.  I helped everyone get what they needed at camp and back out onto the course, then settled into wait for the next lap.

While I waited for Ogre to return to the start/finish line for lap 2, I heard the dreaded news that a rider had crashed in the race.  I was already a little antsy because he was running behind on his second lap.  I decided either he had stopped to help the rider down or had slowed down.   A friend, Tim, who was watching the race with me echoed these same thoughts.  Then it just hit me, “No, that’s Ogre down.”  I was convinced that I was just over reacting. He was always careful and a strong rider.  It wouldn’t be him.  Then one after another racer came in with more news.  Several people who knew me and Ogre relayed that my fears were real.  He had gone down about a mile from the end of the lap.  He was in good spirits, but wasn’t able to move.  They had heard he had broke his leg or hip.  The promoter had already started sending out a team to help.   I headed back to start breaking down and packing up camp.  I needed to do something and if Ogre was hurt where he couldn’t get himself out, it meant the race was done.  Tim helped me get the camp taken care of while we waited for news.  He recommended that I drive down to the heliport and wait for the ambulance.  The guys from the race would be taking Ogre there and then he’d be transferred to the ambulance or helicopter for transport to a local hospital.

A painfully long wait later, the ambulance arrived and joined me in waiting for Ogre to be brought down.  What was taking so long, I kept wondering.  Turns out that he had to be carried off the trail by four guys with a backboard, loading into the bed of a pick up, and then, slow to minimalize jostling, driven down to where I was waiting.   When he finally showed up, he was obviously hurting, but still in pretty good spirits.  The EMTs checked him over quickly and moved him into the ambulance.   It was now between 4 and 5 pm I think.  After the ambulance left, I headed back to the camp to grab the rest of the gear.  Tim had finished packing everything while I was at the heliport.

As a local, Tim knew where the hospital was and offered to accompany me.  I’m glad I took him up on the offer.  It was 6 pm by the time we got to the hospital and Ogre had just gotten back from being examined and xrays.   The xray technician called me over to show me the pictures on his monitor.  I still vividly hear his description “splinters”.   I had to decide whether they would operate or prep for transport to a hospital at home.  It seemed obvious.  How soon can you get him into surgery?  Well, as chance would have it, they had already called in the doctor for another patient and caught him before he left again.  At nine they rolled him into what was not going to be an easy operation, telling Tim and I where we could wait.  The doctor had estimated the surgery taking about 2- 3 hours.  Just before midnight he came out to tell me that all had gone well and Ogre was on his way to his hospital room.  We found his room and checked to see how he was feeling.  Loopy on the pain medicine it turned out.  The doctor and nurses were all very professional and it was obvious that they dealt with this kind of thing all the time.  Before we left they had him hooked up to a morphine drip and as comfortable as can be in the circumstances.

The next day we headed back to the hospital.  What a way to spend Father’s Day, cooped up in a hospital, recovering from surgery for a broken hip.  I expected to find him lying in bed, still loopy.  He had talked the nurses into letting him roll around in a wheelchair.   So much for lying around.  I think having his laptop and iPod are what helped him not go stir crazy.

Monday the doctor was willing to allow Ogre to check out.  Since he had managed to get himself in and out of bed alone, he didn’t need to stay.  Now for the hard part, a 2+ hour drive home.  I propped pillows under his hip and foot and tried to miss every bump.   It must have been horrible, but he hardly complained.  We had to adapt things around the house so that he could move about.

The weirdest part of the whole thing was having to be calm and tell everyone else what was happening.  Friends had already spread the word that Ogre had been hurt and while he was in surgery, I started fielding phone calls from friends and family.  I wouldn’t want to go through something like this ever again, but having to watch the look of despair on his face when he was told he could ride a bike for at least 6 months and being there just a couple months later when he first pedaled again meant a great deal to me.   It is amazing how much power is in the human will.