10/27 Wed to Dawson Saddle with Hillbasher

Finally Hillbasher dragged my butt up to Dawson Saddle. It was my first time past Crystal Lake. I must say, nice ride but it was COLD! Very windy in some section and very very cold in the shadows. "You guys are crazy!" was the comment we heard from some of the construction workers that were up there. Most dressed in hooded jackets. It was nice to see that there was help available if needed, even up in the mountains. We stopped to add layers when some of the workers drove by asking if we were ok or needed help. We were good but it was nice to know it's there! We started at the gate so our gain was a little over 4,200ft.

I did skip on the Camelback trusting Hillbasher's judgement of the spring water. I was worried but WOW that water is CLEAR! I drank it no problem. Matter of fact, it looked much better than the junk I drink at at home, at restaurants and on the trail. Not bad at all!

Man, it was COLD, did I say that already? Well once we got up to Islip Saddle, it was windy! Wow, what a nice road ACH is, not much traffic at all. A few workcrew trucks and 2 Harleys, that was about it. Heading across Angeles Crest Hwy, temps and wind settled down some. A couple of turns with some high winds really slowed our speed down, well more than what it already was haha! I started to think Uh-oh, this aint going to be good but it too settled down once we changed directions. Nice little visit at the top then down we go! At the higher elevation (Dawson Saddle 7901 top elevation), it was cold but on the return but it really warmed up to a comfortable temp on the lower section below Crystal Lake. If you go up there, better be prepared for the cold, it's much colder than GMR! On the descent, my ears got so cold that I could swear I was wearing big fashion earrings. Oh what a feeling!

SUNDAY 10/24/10

Sunday 10/24/10 on the trail. Met up with Lorraine, lady did some ultra distance runs in Crocs (those funky rubber shoes). Nice strong rider and very nice lady. Turns out she new Bad Rob from the Haircut Crew back in their racing days. El Monarcha and Gina started the ride with me but like usual, ran into a few others along the way. Saw EvilEuro, thinking he might ride with us a bit for some video footage since he chose the song for this one! BadRob, Greg and BoyLd at the coast. Plus had a little chat with Herb and Alice. We met long ago but and see them all the time on the trail but the recorder said, "interview" haha!

On the way back we were joined by a hot inline skater chick. We met her a couple weeks ago on the way to the coast. Today she rode back with us. Right before her stop (Moon Park), she was hammering. I don't know the skate term for hammering but whatever it is, she was doing it. 24 mph!

GMR, Tammy & Alan First Timers

Hahaha! Just as I thought, Tammy climbed GMR for the first time and like I've been saying all along, she wants to do it again. That's the attraction of GMR, once you've done it, you wanna do it again! Alan did the ride too, I know he liked it although he won't thank me for the suggestion. That's cool, just getting a rider to do GRM is the reward, there aint no way a rider can't like it!;)

So Tammy started off strong, she vanished within a minute or so. Alan hung back with Gina for a while and I stopped to chat. Not sure if his Wheaties kicked in but he soon left Gina behind. I was even further behind after a couple of stops to chit chat with the famous bloggers Glendora Mtn Rd and BicycleFriends. While trying to catch back up to Gina, I ran into Pinoybentr. Now I was even further back but luckily Hillbasher was waiting up the road to tow me back up to Gina. Well, now that T&A have ridden with us, now they know that when we say Gina will be the last one up, we mean, Gina wil be the last one up haha! But she makes it!

Finally up to the shack then met up with Bong (sp?) and Jose from Rivervelo. Two studs returning fom the lifts. A few laughs at the shack then headed down. On the way I ran into Julius form AdoboVelo. Turned back upwards for a short bit to say hi and get a quick chat. Wow, what a busy ride today! Even met up with Jason at the start. He used to visit the forums but his racing may have gotten in the way. Payed off, he won the DeathValley race. Cool!

I tried a few new (to me) tricks in my video today. Let's see what happens.

Video below for space saver purposes haha!

SUNDAY SART Tandem 10/17/10

Says Monday but actually Sunday, I posted late.....An ez tandem ride today. Haven't been on the tandem in quite a while so today, with a threat of rain, it sounded like a good idea haha! Got lucky, no rain while riding on the trail. Met up with a couple of Hernandez Dudes at Edna Park. Then Rob, a little bike chat then we were on our way. It was pretty empty today but after being at the coast for a while, ran into tammy and Alan (T&A). Then another dude I had met before (year?) but forgot his name, but he had a darn cool bike stand. Wouldn't mind having one but with the two cams, I don't think I'd have the room hehe! Leaving the coast, I asked Alan to get some footage of us on the tandem since I don't have much at all. Gina tried early in the ride but EEESH! Well you'll see, I popped it in at the end of the video hahahahaha!

Me & ABEC on SART 10/16/10

A cool dark day on SART. Not many riders. Gina sat out due to a baby shower (grandkid #8 on the way). So ABEC and I went at it alone. Not much happening at all. We did see a few of the RiverVelo Boyz but none of the regulars at the beachstop. ABEC did talk me into riding along the beach looking for a place to eat. I don't get it, these skinny guys eat and eat but never get fat. I watch him eat but I gain the weight haha!

On the last strip to the coast we rolled by a guy pulling his girl on one of them Bobtail, Bobtrail(?) thingies. We were rolling pretty good at 19-20 into the headwind at this point. The dude jumped on and kept up the entire strip. All I heard was Daddy! Daddy! Slow Down Daddy! I got home looked at the video, haha, the dude was sticking his tongue out at the cam!

Yes, I know what he's thinking!