Pretty gnarly week for me on a personal level. A lot of death at work and huge wildfire that burned right up to within a few hundred feet of suburban neighborhoods. Almost 40,000 acres burned, included some beloved cycling routes. Commuting havoc because of the fire, too- one day I was tangled in commuting for 4 hours.
But I got some nice rides in, two on the new mountain bike.
The inaugural ride was maybe 5 miles up a fire road then down a little single track. I fell twice but low speed stuff which was no biggie. This is what the fire road looked like:
I didn't take any pics of the single track section, I mostly focusing (not entirely successfully) on staying upright. It was pretty fun, I can see the appeal, especially if you know what you're doing.
Yesterday I just did a quick 40 miles with a friend and then today I wanted something on the mtn bike that was easy- no single track, just me spending some time getting used to the bike. I talked two friends into riding a road called Old Ridge Route. In the days of yore, the Ridge Route was the road that took you over the mountains from LA to Bakersfield. This road has been replaced now by I5 but the old road is still there, semi-maintained because if the 5 is shut down, you can at least get emergency vehicles over the mountain on this road. The closed section we rode today is 17.8 miles one way, some good pavement, some broken pavement, some dirt/sand, some gravel. Rolling but mostly climbing going out. 38 miles RT with 3300 ft climbing.
I was very resistant to the idea of a hydration pack but obviously had to get one for a ride like this. So today was all about hanging with some good friends, learning that it's fine to ride over $hit on a MTB, enjoying the scenery and riding with that pack. Success on all fronts, it was a great ride. We encountered two people total all morning. Just beautiful & peaceful.
