My good friend and Otto made the trip from the heart of Raider Nation, the isle of Alameda, with his son Vander to spend Saturday night with our family and do some riding. And ride we did!
I started off Saturday morning staring at my computer's weather report and hoping it would break 30 degrees before my road ride with the Retrotec/Inglis crew. By 8:50AM we were up to 34 degrees so all the layers went on and off I went. It's a great group ride, not too fast, great conversation and a coffee break in the middle before tackling the bigger climbs and rides. Today was a 20 miler as I had to prepare for Otto and Vander. Sure was nice though, the crisp air really felt great and I warmed up really quick-essentially not needing the bibs, thermal tights, wool jersey and thermal vest...
After the ride it was off to Oaktown and a visit to the Oakland Museum of California to check out a "Fungus Fair". Cari is taking an independent study art class and has been drawing mushrooms, so it was a perfect trip (get it, trip--I'm funny). Her drawings are incredible, and it was fun to look at all the different fungi.
OVS and Vander arrived a little after 7PM and set to meeting the family. After a tour of the west wing of our huge house, Otto and I set off on a nice little night ride-poaching Westwood Hills (directly across the street from my house). It's a fun little place to ride, used to be legal and provided about an hours worth of pretty steep singletrack adventures by an almost full moon and nightrider beams.
Sunday morning was cold again, but we were ready. Curtis met us in front of the house as we were loading the bikes and we planned to pick him up after grabbing gas and bagels. With my Mazda loaded up with 3 bikes on top, we headed over Trinity road (where I will be hanging out to watch the Tour of California come through my backyard in February) to the best trails I have ridden in a long time-Annadel.
Sunday did not disappoint. We met up with some more friends from our road riding crew (Andrew, Larry and more) as well as some local single speed hammers. They were going to guide us around both legally and illegally and I had no idea what an action packed 2.5 hours we were in for. I can not stop grinning and smiling at the shear joy the trails bring and I was far from alone! Everywhere we rode was like a 8" ribbon of trail snaking through some really great areas. It was easily summed up on the ride back with Curtis proclaiming, "Isn't riding bikes just great!". Couldn't have said it better myself.
Looks like I'm heading back again next weekend. Now all I have to do is save up for Retrotec singlespeed...
Even better news was how well Jake and his new buddy Vander got along this weekend. And an even bigger thank you to Cari for willingly volunteering to hang out with two rambuctious 4-5 year olds. The troublesome twosome spent hours building legos and then headed over to westwood hills to hike and look at animal pelts at the Nature Museum. Jake definitely looks forward to more time with his new buddy!
* Very limited pics to follow-we brought the camera, but never wanted to stop riding to shoot-hazard of a great trail I guess!
Here's our group! A quick picture before an incredible descent down Lawndale...
1 comment:
Maybe we should invent some 10 megapixel micro cams that are integrated into eyewear. Then when you blink really hard it would take a photo of what you see.
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