Sunday, SSFTA met up to shuttle (I know, I’m losing all my cred with two shuttles in one weekend) up to the Unal Trail, followed by Just Outstanding and finally Old State back down to town. It was a ride to help Marcelle celebrate her 21st birthday in style, with the ride to be rewarded by tasty beverages (and fish tacos) at the Kern River Brewing Co..
Someone dabbed at the front of the line..
After mugging for the camera, Tim nearly hits the (wink wink) little tree in the (wink wink) middle of the trail
Sessioning rose to the surface at this switchback near Unal Summit. Of course, STIL, pretty tight turn, with some rocks to negotiate on the top.
Jim zealously attacked the problem carrying a bit of speed.
Having made the turn, Alan is looking for the magic line up the rocks
The birthday girl gave it a good try
Mark committed himself to cleaning the rocks
with his back
After a brief st descent, followed by a not so brief dirt road climb, we hit Just Outstanding (with a cloud of dust following each rider). The st and flow was far too good to interrupt with picture taking. Until, at a road crossing, this alternate line was pointed out and much playing ensued
Jim riding down
Jim riding up
time passes…time passes..
With the aftertaste of descending fresh in everyone’s mouth (not to mention the dust and dirt) we continued the day at the Kern River Brewery
Obviously I had already had too many Class V Stouts (they were great analgesics) by the time that Marcelle was id’d. How many of you have been id’d by an Olympic Silver Medalist?
her first Legal drink was a Lindeman’s Framboise Raspberry Lambic. Just missing the umbrella..
After exchanging 21st birthday stories, an Oreo cake suddenly appeared (from Tim’s truck)
as always (almost) more pix can be found in my gallery
so, about that time lapse, just before that time lapse occurred, an all too famous expression was heard.
Estoban, “Here, hold my camera. I can ride that”
ooops..
this simple mistake will have me off the bike (and my left ankle) for a while (2 to 8 weeks) .. X-rays do not show a fracture, when the swelling goes down a little more, I can return to the doc and obtain a more accurate prognosis. For now, it’s a class 2 or class 3 sprain, and I’m crutching around, which will be mucho fun for the next two days as I participate in a Process Hazard Analysis walkthrough at our gas processing plant. I wonder if crutches are even permitted in the process area. Might be piggyback time..
S!
You’re injured? You should come hang out in the junkyard w/ Hil and I! We’ll entertain ya! Tonka (the cat) can keep you entertained, too. It’ll be a party. And it will be fun. And we won’t make you ride anything that will hurt you. But we may ask you to take pix of us riding in the snow!
jjj
Crashing sucks. Goal for next year, crash less ride more..
That\’s just cruel.. we\’d have to rig a sled from your rock skis, and a lawn chair. attach a harness to your seatpost, and voila, pix of your backside riding in the snow (Do you think that Ed would mind?).
I could even carry a thermos of hot chocolate for the two of you, in fact, I could carry just about anything, you\’d be doing all the work..
Heck no I won’t mind as long as you’re carrying hot chocolate (w/ a dash of Strans!) for THREE….me too, me too.
Sucks that you got hurt, heal up! Did you hurt the Walt?
Ed
Awww… crap, sorry to hear you’re injured man.
I’m sending good juju your way.
No problem Ed. Jen’ll be doing all the work, I can carry anything. Should we just build a two-seater bob sled? Though, with Hillary as her new influence, they’ll prolly just want me to shuttle them to the top of Belcher all day long..
The Walt is fine, I shielded it with my body all the way down the hill.
Thanks Brendan, as much as it sucks, I’m just glad that it happened after I rode with you guys..
Damn…sorry to hear about the ankle – but good that there is nothing broken. Get well!
Doh! Nice crash…AND you got it on camera.
Sorry to hear about the wipe-out. Here’s to a speedy recovery for ya!!
Why the eff would I want to shuttle WR? That place is no fun.
I don’t know. Why the eff would you shuttle Apex?
The single speed God’s where ajusting your karma or something… Maybe no shutleing more then once a weekend =)
Sorry to hear about the crash
Does the birthday Girl drink whiskey? Is she single =)
Nice full weekend! Lucky!
Awesome ride reports Scott. It takes a real man to post a picture of himself auguring in.
More man points for going to the Brewery before the ER!
Dave
It was an excellent, full weekend (also got in a cross ride Thursday morning), and I was soooo close to being lucky. Missed it by that much..
I knew that I was pushing my luck on two shuttles, but does the first one really count as a shuttle? There was a lot of pedaling between the cars, and quite a few mountains and ridges..
I did not offer Marcelle any whiskey, she seemed to have her hands full with the fruity beer.
Jim
Pictures of crashing are part of the game, and I don’t get too many of them. Usually the camera is still in my pocket when I crash. I just wish that Estoban shutter-finger hadn’t frozen. Only one picture, on a DSLR? Todd said that I fell forever..paraphrasing..you fell and rolled and rolled and stopped and then rolled and stopped and then rolled some more. Finally reaching the bottom..
Lots of time to take more pix. Notice me checking out my ankle in the background of one of the pix of you?
Of course I’d still go to the brewery. That’s no decision. Not like it was life threatening or urgent..
ouchie! crutches in a gas plant?? hmm…. hopefully the company car is an automatic…
Shuttling Apex is fun. Shuttling is fun. Climbing is dumb. That is all.