The last two weeks were a big weeks for me on the mountain biking front.  Let’s see.

• Danny taught me how to jump doubles
• Attended the IMBA trail building clinic
• Rode Tunnel and Knapps trails in Santa Barbara
• Tommy came to town!

Tommy came to town

Tommy came to town last week.  Very cool indeed!  I mentioned in my last post how Tommy and I were riding buds 13 years ago.  A few months ago he found me on Facebook and got in touch with me.  Tommy was my wingman or I his when it came to mountain biking.  We rode all over the damn place in Florida.  I know, Florida doesn’t have mountains!  But it does have some pretty cool trails.  He shipped his downhill bike out and followed shortly on a plane.  Very stoked to find him again and have my old riding buddy back.

Jumping!!!!

This is something that I am OK at, but not very good.  Especially when it comes to doubles.  For those non riders, a double is a jump that has a gap between the take off and landing.  The gap part is what freaks me out.  If you come up short, it can be very very very very painful.  Danny, being the great guy that he is rode with me at out an undisclosed riding location named after a former baseball star.  I followed him a couple of times up to the approach to get the speed down.  Then I went for it!  And landed it!  It wasn’t graceful by any means.  But, I did it!  And then I did it again!  I’m pretty stoked about that.  I was also able to stick a nice drop on the first try.  Pretty awesome day and I totally appreciate Danny taking the time to show me how to do it right.  And explain how it all works.  I don’t have a problem with drops or table tops, just the ones with a gap.  I still need to master getting the nose down so I land the transition smoothly.

IMBA Trail Care Clinic

A few weeks ago Alison and I attended the IMBA Trail Care Clinic put on by the San Diego Mountain Biking Association.  We had met Inga and Jason the night before at a small dinner get together and then had the pleasure of their instruction on Saturday morning.  Jinga (As they shall be known in this post) work for IMBA sponsored by Subaru as the IMBA Trail Care Crew.  The first half of the day is a classroom session followed by going out to the field and practicing what they taught us.  From what I understand, typically they do a few things, we learn, and then we come back and do the trailwork for real later.  Well, SDMBA has a different idea on that apparently.  We finished .5 miles of trail and cleaned up some additional trail that just needed to be cleaned up.  Very informative and educational experience. (Not to mention dirty)

We got to learn a lot about Jinga and what they are doing.  They are on a two year contract traveling North America teaching people how to build sustainable trails.  The program only takes couples which is very interesting.  Basically you are a team for two years so they want to make sure you can co-exist very well.  I think it sounds like an awesome idea.  I wish I could convince Alison to sign with me   I hope to keep in touch with Jinga and ride/work with them again in the future.  You can find out more about them at www.ihatebikes.net.

Santa Barbara – Tunnel and Knapps Trail

I also got to ride some of my favorite trails up in Santa Barbara.  After doing the Trail Care Clinic I went up the coast to see my parents as well ride with Jason from Jinga.  Great riding!  Great company.

Next installment.  Trip to the Shipyard!!!

Last week a long lost friend Tommy came out to visit.  I haven’t seen him in 13 years.  When I left the Army I moved back to San Diego and we lost touch with each other.  Tommy and I were mountain bike best buds.  Since we lost contact he’s worked at bike shops, as a machinist, and most recently as a yacht engineer.  A few weeks ago we were talking and I mentioned since both of us were unemployed he should fly out and we’ll go ride!  He took me up on the offer.

So, last weekend we took him on some super fun rides.  Tommy sent out a downhill bike to ride, so, obviously we had to go on some downhill rides!  Saturday we took him to Anderson Truck Trail and did a couple of runs.  He was super stoked.  (The funny thing is, he owns a downhill bike and never downhilled it until last weekend).  We were able to get in two runs.  No major crashes so that was good.  But somewhere along the way he smashed the chain guide with a rock and cracked the ISCG mounts on his brand new Intense M3. (More on that later)

Long lost buds

Sunday, we took him to ride Noble Canyon.  Our local epic ride.  Since it is more of a cross country ride I ran around trying to find a bike for him to ride.  (Riding a downhill bike there would suck).  Finally it occurred to me to go get my old cross country bike from Vaughn.  I grabbed that Sunday morning and did a once over.  Needed new tubes, brakes bleed, derailleurs aligned, chain cleaned and lubed and a good once over.  I guess it had been sitting a while.

The plan was to meet Ryan and Michelle in Pine Valley around 12:30 and head out from there.  We lagged a little bit.  Alison, Tommy & I caught up to the on the highway so our laggery was of no consequence.

We loaded the bikes up in the truck and shuttled to the meadow off Sunrise Highway.  (I know, we’re shuttle-monkeys)  A bit chilly but sunny so it was all good.  Pedaled up the old decomposed road and cruised on down Los Gatos Ravine to the Big Laguna trail.  Went around the west side of the lake and over to Penny Pines.  From there it was full steam ahead for Noble Canyon!

Tommy had never ridden this ride and the last time I rode it was over 10 years ago on a hard tail.  What an incredible trail.  I wish I had done it sooner and will definitely do it more often.  Just beautiful!!!  Everyone did great riding up and down including the chunky rock sections.  I have helmet cam footage I’m editing currently to show off more of the ride.  By the smile on Tommy’s face at the end we could tell that he truly loved this ride.  We had only one mishap, Tommy smoked us all and got way ahead.  And, instead of waiting at a fork in the trail he motored on.  We had a little drama due to this, but, at the end we all reunited at the car and shared some delicious adult beverags, peanutbutter & jelly, and Nutter Butters!!!

Check out the rest of the photos.  And, keep your eyes out for the video.