East Coast rider goes west - Side-O
steveyo
Me and my family went to the Berkeley hills last week and I brought
along the muni with intentions of hooking up with some Bay area muni
folks.
First, though, on Friday morning, I went out and attempted the ascent
of 'Marin Ave in Berkeley' (http://www.inl.org/bicycle/deathride.html).
an unbelievably steep three-quarter mile hill. I didn't make it, or
rather, I made it, but I had a couple UPDs (the pavement was wet) where
my KH24 knobbies just slipped out from under me. Then, more towards
the top, I actually had a couple rest stops because my legs just
wouldn't pedal anymore. I'm a fairly seasoned hillclimber and believe
me when I say that this is the hardest paved hill I've ever tried.
Then, Sunday morning was our muni meetup. Tom(tholub), Nathan & Beau
Hoover, Kevin(phlegm), Mike, Lewis(skilewis74), Corbin, Ashley, Jeff
and myself met up and shuttled ourselves up to the top of Grizzly Peak
Rd to ride a trail called "Side-O".
Conditions were sunny and cool as we strapped on our pads and wheeled
away from the cars at about 10:30AM. The day couldn't have been nicer.
The view from the top curves of the trail swept 180 degrees of the SF
bay, and the air was so clear you could have counted the bolts on the
Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.
The trail offered sweet single track on wide open grassy hills, then
some dirt roads sections where Corbin and Nathan did some one footing
and a bit of coasting while Beau coasted down a good 100 yard section.
As can been expected with a group of 10 riders, there was a lot of
stopping for regrouping and repeated attempts of various skinnies and
steeps.
There were several crazy dropoffs off the fire roads, some of which I
tried and a few upon which I succeeded. My favorite part was a magical
section of well-packed single-track where we wound through a deep, dark
grove of young redwoods. This section ended in a few very tricky,
rooted paths and steep drops. You couldn't have pried the grin off my
face with a tire lever.
Reaching the parking lot where we'd left a car at the bottom of the
shuttling, we turned and pointed our wheels back upward. We climbed
some twisty paved roads for a while, and hopped a rock wall down to
some more paths. Some of the uphill here was ridable and some was so
steep and tricky even Beau couldn't clean it all. We paused for a
snack and then tackled a steep, sustained uphill on a fire road.
Beau made the first attempt and made it look easy. I tried next, and I
had a few UPDs along the way. Corbin and Nathan both made the whole
climb and everyone else finally gathered at the top after various
amounts of riding and walking. Another bit of uphill pavement gave us
some more spectacular views, and then we retraced our tracks down
through the single-track, fire roads, and redwoods once again.
After all was ridden and done with, I ended up quite late for the
family event I was to attend, but I did finally make it. I was
graciously granted forgiveness from my wife's family, and I'm glad I
didn't have to cut short this ride.
It was a treat to meet and ride with all you bay area unicyclists,
although I didn't get to meet mscalisi or maestro8. I hope they had
good excuses, (I heard the maestro just didn't want to get up that
early :eek:) but they missed a fun ride.
Hopefully Nathan will read this and post a link to his pics. The views
were most excellent.
--
steveyo
steveyo
..like having your own personal rollercoaster...
- a few 'uni race write-ups'
(http://home.nycap.rr.com/rduhan/uni_race_writeups/)
- muni and kokopelli uni 't-shirts, mugs and stickers'
(http://www.cafepress.com/steveyo)
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corbin
It was a ton of fun! What a great day. The views were amazing! It was
good to meet you, Steve.
-corbin
--
corbin
http://www.corbinstreehouse.com
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superiorbalence
Sounded like it was a lot of fun.
--
superiorbalence
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maestro8
Sorry I didn't make it! My weekend was packed with non-riding plans and
Sunday was my only day to relax...
Steve, look at it this way... now you've an excuse to return to the
left coast! There are many, many scenic trails to take in here: Tahoe,
Sacramento, Santa Cruz, and a myriad of locales in So. Cal.
steveyo wrote:
> You couldn't have pried the grin off my face with a tire lever.
That's poetry. Glad you had a blast!
--
maestro8
Those are my principles. If you don't like those, I have others. --
Groucho Marx
The only way to comprehend what mathematicians mean by Infinity is to
contemplate the extent of human stupidity. -- François-Marie Arouet de
Voltaire
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mscalisi
Sorry I missed it!! It sounds like it was a great ride! I had a family
outing I couldn't miss.
--
mscalisi
><> Unicycle for (reducing the) Buddha <><
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skilewis74
That was a blast! I chickened out halfway on the climb back up:(. I
didn't think I was out of shape, but that made me sound like a chain
smoking couch potato :p:(. I'm determined to not let that happen next
time.
steveyo wrote:
> First, though, on Friday morning, I went out and attempted the ascent of
> 'Marin Ave in Berkeley' (http://www.inl.org/bicycle/deathride.html). an
> unbelievably steep three-quarter mile hill. I didn't make it, or
> rather, I made it, but I had a couple UPDs (the pavement was wet) where
> my KH24 knobbies just slipped out from under me. Then, more towards
> the top, I actually had a couple rest stops because my legs just
> wouldn't pedal anymore. I'm a fairly seasoned hillclimber and believe
> me when I say that this is the hardest paved hill I've ever tried.
You should try 'Baldwin Street '
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Street,_Dunedin)sometime :p
steveyo wrote:
> ...the air was so clear you could have counted the bolts on the Golden
> Gate Bridge in the distance.
Do you have a zoom feature on your eyes? :p
steveyo wrote:
> You couldn't have pried the grin off my face with a three foot tire
> lever.
Fixed :p
steveyo wrote:
> Hopefully Nathan will read this and post a link to his pics.
> The views
> were most excellent.
Here it is. (http://nhoover.smugmug.com/gallery/3697804#211754617)
--
skilewis74
Ride everywhere and never just ride anywhere. If you can ride where you
are going within a hour, do it, and if you can do a trick 50-75% of the
time do it along the way.
Parafrasing a pro skater when asked for advise to kids who wanted to
get much better and maybee turn pro one day.
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skilewis74
skilewis74 wrote:
> You should try 'Baldwin Street '
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_Street,_Dunedin)sometime :p
Tony Melton has ridden up it on a 24" MUni, and I think Gizmoduck
also.
Edit: stories
Part one - http://tinyurl.com/2mwpdb
Part two - http://tinyurl.com/28ruas
tholub
I didn't get many people pictures this time (it can be hard when you're
leading a big group), but here they are:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/83189681@N00/h6w09M
It was an incredibly beautiful day; thanks for giving us an excuse to
get out and ride!
--
tholub
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