Willow Ridge was Mr. Mud's idea. Not sure why he wanted to do it. Last time we did it was on the Henry Coe Rustic Journey two years ago. It was a very tough climb. But his wish was my command, so I came up with a route that would take us to Willow Ridge with some flexibility. Flexibility was what we needed because we planned on an early start, and that plan did not get carried out. We got to the parking lot fairly late, and were happy to see some familiar faces, Skyline35, plymmer, and BigLarry. After a pleasant chat, we all went different ways. Would you say Henry Coe riders are anti social? Haha…

It was a gorgeous day at Coe. The temp might have been a little high, but we often times enjoyed the breeze, which made me smile. However, there were two steep climbs on this route: Dexter and Willow Ridge, with the latter being longer and even tougher. I made through the crux on Dexter, but unfortunately came off right before the end of the wall when the wheels fell into the loose rut. Pushed 15 feet or so. I think that climb is within grasp some day. However, the same, I'm afraid, cannot be said for Willow Ridge. I was pacing myself for the head wall, but still could not finish it without feeling about to explode. Pushed 40 feet or so on that climb.

When Mr. Mud topped out on Willow Ridge, I asked him how many times he had to push. "Once." Oh wow, I thought to myself. That's amazing for how "slow" he was since I waited for quite a while. "80% of the trail," he added. My jaws dropped, not knowing what to say to that. Only then, did he muster a smile, "I was joking on both accounts."

Without further ado, here are some photos to show What It Was Like Out There (Skyline35™).

Ford Taxi at McDonald's parking lot

Always good to see friends in the parking lot even though we don't always ride with each other.

Mr. Mud topping out on Dexter

Interesting body position

A butterfly that liked to land on us. Only managed this blurry photo.

Top of Willow Ridge Trail.

Here's ta sweat in your eye.

The hills are so green and the sky is so blue!

Related Links

• Skyline35's report
• Mud'nCrud Forum thread
• Mr. Mud's Strava with comments
• My Strava with comments
• My Garmin Connect

We had a late dinner near Downtown San Jose, which resulted in going to bed late. Glad that we didn't commit to a Coe ride the next day many our friends were doing. Instead, we slept in a bit, packed up, and drove down to Pinnacles. It was a great day at the Pinns. Perfect temperature. We did a somewhat usual East Side circuit: Plague, Stupendous Man, Broken Arrow, Wet Kiss, Big Pucker, Cantaloupe Death, Feed the Beast, and Rocket in My Pocket.

Satisfied on the rock, we moved on. Going from Pinnacles to Hunting Hollow Entrance of Henry Coe allowed us to take a back way, which worked out perfectly. We made it just in time that the Saturday's crew had just had dinner and had enough leftover to feed us and more. (Otherwise, we'd just drive in town which is not far either.)  We met a few of our Coe friends and had a pleasant chat on a very unpleasant topic — the idiosyncrasy of Department of Parks and Recreation in their policing actions on the Jim Donnelly Trail work.  Take a look at this MTBR thread for a peek. I had told friends before that I couldn't wait for the JDT work to finish just so I would not be remind of the DPR nonsense over and over again. I participated in the trail work as my little effort in expediting the completion. Mr. Mud joined the trailwork to show his appreciation to the few volunteers who put their heart and soul into this project in the past six years (esp. the last two years with intensity), who ironically were driven out of the project by DPR.  Argh, enough of that!

Sunday morning and early afternoon was the trail work. Friend Paul took this picture of us calling it our best sides. Haha…

Thanks to the DPR rangers who couldn't wait to get out of there, our trailwork wrapped up early giving us plenty of time for a ride. I should be tired, but the SportsLegs pills seemed to do wonders. I felt okay pedaling up Lyman Willson, so much so that I passed the Bowl Trail where we should turn left, but went for the summit. The only problem was the real summit was much further than I thought, but I simply couldn't turn around since I hadn't put a foot down.  It was quite a while before I finally reached the end of the trail. Turning around, my legs immediately felt tremendous fatigue — from the digging stance during trailwork.  On the whole ride, I'd say uphill was almost more enjoyable than downhill because of that.  I must be on a roll because I found myself not being able to resist going for all the walls in sight, including finishing upper Middle Steer Ridge Trail, Steer Ridge Road Wall, and finishing upper Spike Jones. My out and backs worked out pretty well for the most part because Mr. Mud was taking it slow going up, and we almost always reached the bottom around the same time.

Four activities. I call it a rad weekend… except right now, two days later, I feel that I have been run over by a truck. Every joint in my body hurt. So great!

It started out as an email thread discussing "Just show up and ride on March 24", and then "Agua Extrema" on April 1, but somehow, it ended up being 2012 Henry Coe Spring Classic that actually took place for the 11 of us on this fine day, April 7. ElHombre was the proclaimed ride leader, but , Skyline35 seemed to always find a way to force ideas onto him by prefixing his sentences with "it's YOUR ride…" Those were excellent ideas as Skyline35 took us on many quality trails that we would not have known existed.

I tried to stay with the three Henry Coe Musketeers, namely plymmer, ElHombre, and ratpick, whenever I could hoping to absorb some of their awesomeness, esp. in climbing, simply by proximity. I think it really worked because I was feeling fairly strong all day. Was very happy to clean the Serpentine climb at the end of the ride.

Lots of goofiness on this ride, which made this long (near 9 hours elapse time with 5 hours of riding time) ride seem to go really fast. I enjoyed every moment of it, and I think one man contributed the most. Guess who?

Oh, Skyline35, this bears repeats: pie or no pie, you *are* my favorite. Now, thanks so much for that Marie C. Pie. OMG, that's the best apple pie I'd had in my life!

Without further ado, let's look at some action shots. (There are a lot more in my photo album.)

ID the riders topping out on Jim Donnelly Trail.

Did you get it? … The joke.

Skyline35 dictated, "A riders go straight up (taking Steer Ridge Road); B riders go left (taking Jim-Jones cutoff)." But I'm an A-wanna-B rider, so it confused me for a second there. But the cutoff is much more fun to ride, so I went left.

So pretty!

d-bug always puts on a happy face when he rides.

A cross above Hoover Air Strip.

Pacheco Falls are that way!

Come on, what are you waiting for? Pacheco Falls are down here! Um… where?

Rock in the pocket

Rock in the pocket

More, Rock in the pocket

A ride with TahoeBC is guaranteed to have a lot of laughs.

Except when he tries to steal your bike… my bike to be exact.

The three Henry Coe Musketeers at the top of Serpentine Trail, waiting for TahoeBC to emerge. It was five for five. Others should all have gone this way because it was guaranteed success.

A short video (with sound). Sorry about the fast transitions.

What's a ride without a track?

P.S. After a night of sleep, some more details started coming back to me. So, what did I miss in the first version?

Secret Squirrel staged a mechanical — ripped a side wall early on the ride. He managed to fail to mend it while the group were waiting, so that he could tell the group to move on without him. Guess what he did after that? He not only patched the torn tire, he went on his secret ride dodging the group. Mind you, Coe is a little place, but he somehow managed to stay away from us all day while having a blast of his own!

I missed taking a photo of tburger's new bike. Someone must have it, or maybe he could share it himself. What's really impressive was it is a rigid! I can really feel the bumps when I forgot to undo the lockout on my fork, so I can't imagine riding all day on a rigid bike. That should earn him a hard man badge.

Also forgot to mention d-bug and the Law's his and her Ibis Mojo's. Those are two fast bikes, so sweet together! It was great riding with the Law; I was not the only one bugging Skyline35 with girly questions. Can you picture Skyline35 utter "ugh" and roll his eyes when he was asked the second time 5 seconds apart, "what is that little pond's name?"

Tom, I think you should never fix your spoke. It's nice to be able to always hear you on the trail!

Mr. Mud managed to come home around 2am and speed read the post through his half closed eyes before collapsing in bed. His eyes only opened up wide for a brief second when he saw the "Area Closed" picture. He's off to work again. I hope his move is wrapping up soon and he can join our fun someday soon!

Last, but not the least, TahoeBC is such a goof ball! I look forward to riding with you again!

This is the bike after the ride. There was some mud, but not hard to clean off. Not seen here is the abrasive sandy clay that Skeggs normally spits at bikes when it's wet. It only took me 10 minutes to clean my bike before putting it away.

It started out as a fairly big group. I was happy to see some MTBR folks I'd met before, such as tburger, theseawind, Plim, Lambert, MarkMass, etc., and was also glad to meet a few new (to me) ones such as Zen_Turtle and EBRider as well as some MTBR lukers (shame on you!). On a whole, this is a strong bunch, boys and girls. Some are skillful and some are very fit riders (with overlap). I was especially impressed with Ryan G., not one to be confused with the thread initiator (where was he anyway?). He bombed down the technical narrow single track and the rocky fire road on his SS rigid 29er as if he was being chased by a pack of mountain lions.

I started off near the front stopping to take photos from time to time. The group I was with decided to "roll slowly while waiting for others to catch up" after having waited at the Tennessee Valley Parking Area for a while. Well, we all know how that would normally turn out, and it was no exception this time — The group split. We later heard that there were numerous mechanicals in the group behind. Anyway, we waited here and there, esp. with a long wait at West Point. adventuregirl and SO decided to stay to wait for the group behind, so the rest of us moved on to MB. In the end, it was us group of seven under Zen_Turtle's leadership. The rocky, super fun, descent was already behind us (sadly), and we took a right turn where we should have gone straight. I think that dropped us into Mill Valley. But as they say, all the roads lead to the pub. Sure enough, we made it there (may even have taken a short cut compared to the original route, so I suspect Zen_Turtle had planned on getting lost).

This is Zen_Turtle's look when he was told that it was a $2/pint day — anniversary — at MB. That is a great deal… if you drink! If you MTBR sis and bros are entertained, thank him for bringing the look back per my request after I reached for my camera. Next year, check with MB on the date of their anniversary first while planning the ride.

I didn't plan on being the only one riding back to GG after the lunch/dinner at MB. Lambert kindly offered to shuttle me back, but I was not ready to call it a day. After I rode back, I could appreciate the concern he and Paige had for me. There would have been no way I could have found my way back if I had not put a previous GG2MB track on my GPS as a course last night before going to bed! I was thankful I did; otherwise, I'm sure I would have wound up back to the pub after circling around for a couple of hours after all that's where all the roads lead to. Riding across GG Bridge both ways was not bad at all — actually very nice — even on this Sunday. Nice for the tourists to be able to get out there to appreciate San Francisco on such a fine day!

Since I didn't have the good fortune to actually enjoy Alpineberry's delicious pastry, I got myself a piece of Mud Pie to go from Alice's and finished it before Mr. Mud got home. Mmm… Happy!

A few more WIWLOT:

Some of us took this fun singletrack down. This is just the upper portion and the lower portion is even more exciting.

I'm looking forward to theseawind's photos (and anyone else's). That's a big camera to lug around with, girl!

The track is also available from Garmin Connect and MTBGuru.

============

Below is a quick write up of some of the early days of my climbing. I did not spend much time proofing this since I am short on time.

My first time using a rope was the main face up at Castle Rock. Not knowing what else to do we took 1" webbing and wrapped it around our waist a few times. That did not last long. For top rope anchors we just used lot's of knots. I think this scared someone more than they could manage so they showed us how to tie a harness and how to make a water knot of our anchors. My partner quickly bought a harness and I found a swami on sale. We eventually took a class at Indian Rocks located in the East Bay foothills. Do not know how we survived that initial break in period.

I climbed for at least six months in running shoes before picking up a pair of Fires. Crappy fitting shoe for my foot but wow what a difference. Within the first year I ended up going to Yosemite with a guy from work that climbed but spent most of his free time in a kayak. From there we ended up going to the Pinnacles and that was it. The place just hit a chord with me, I was not able to stay away. Went there every weekend in the Fall, Winter and Spring. Sometimes during the week and a couple of times before or after work ( I have pretty much always worked in Mountain View).

My first wall was the Nose on El Cap and a true adventure in every way. We had the official Hall Bag From Hell that a friend of mine sewed up the week before. It was made of black cordura with red 1" tubular webbing. The 1" webbing shoulder straps were pure mind numbing agony after 100 yards. The haul bag was so flimsy that it would wrap up and hang on every tiny little over hang. It was heiness, slow, maddening, epic fun (for me anyway). Fortunately we brought a full roll of duct tape because at least half a roll was used to tape up the holes in the haul bag at the end of each pitch. By the time we topped out it was mostly duct tape and beginning to actually hold its own. The haul rope was my lead rope which was some cheap ass 45 meter thing that came up short on a couple of occasions. Food, Powerbars had been out a few years and I was still psyched on these things so I insisted we buy half a case and go with that. Water, well I had read some story of Harding doing a wall with 1 liter of water a day or something, so that was it ( My partner snuck in some extra so we ended up having about a liter and a half of water per person per day). Weather, absolutely fantastic 100+ degree heat wave. It was so frigging hot the Devil himself turned on the AC. After lift off we actually had The Nose to ourselves. The start, we had no idea about leading the first four pitches then hauling. We lead and hauled the first four pitches then bivied on Sickle. The rack, lot's of stoppers and a little over one set of cams. I dropped about a quarter of the rack, on the second day, when the webbing came untied on my Alpine my harness (remember the self ties gear slings on those, they stretched).

Toward the end of the second day we were moving a bit slow as we approached Dolt Tower. I was trying to figure out what to do as I did not have enough rope to get to the anchors and I had spun around mid pitch so the haul rope and lead rope were all messed up. A rescue helicopter flys by and is hovering around behind us. I finally turn around and look and they are signaling if we need help and my partner is obviously saying yes. I flip them the bird and wave them off for a few minutes before they go away. After way to long we get to Dolt, my partner, well this is a good opportunity to introduce my partner.

He came up from Mexico and spoke very little English and really struggles to comprehend what I have always tried to pass off as Englis. In some ways it was really bad and in others we were blessed. The thing is he was running out of time on his VISA and really wanted to climb El Cap before he went home and finished his degree. He was really struggling to find someone that wanted to go up there with him since no one understood what he was saying. We climbed together for a couple of days before I figured out he wanted to climb El Cap. My time was running out as well so we were co-dependent partners. For a warm up we went down to the Cookie and climbed the Nabisco Wall. That is when I found out his longest route until then had been a short two pitch climb and he was some what scared of heights. With short climbs the lack of communication was not to bad. On El Cap we would just yell at each other until we got frustrated then do what ever seemed right.

Well back to day two. We made it to El Cap Tower, he was to tired to talk me down at Dolt and even from Dolt the nice size and comfort of El Cap Tower is obvious. Once on that big ledge we were both to tired and hungry to argue so we ate and dropped of to exhaustion. I was up at first light it took no time to rack up since we did not have much. He wanted to go down but we continued. I really think he was just to parched to talk all that much. The heat was unreal. The walls were mostly empty. In later years I was shocked to see people all over the place. The were two guys over in the middle, somewhere by South Seas. They were easy to pick out since one guy had a big sombrero. I still remember throughout the wall hearing gals laughing and splashing down in the Merced. Back then you could park right next to the river below El Cap and there was a rope swing. We could see that big splash, here the gals laugh. Somehow we made it to Camp 5.

I remember him splitting a liter of water. Trying to make sure we both got half. A couple of drops back and forth. Like some kind of life altering experience. The problem for me was I had decided to eat my one can of tuna fish. I was so parched I could barely talk. Anyone with half a brain would have realized the dire outcome of such an action. That tuna fish stuck to the inside of my mouth and went no where. Out of desperation I tried to swallow. This compounded my predicament by gluing my sarcophagus closed. I was watching in a slow agonizing death spiral as my partner meticulously divided the water. I was gagging and trying to ask for water, I could not breath, my eyes were starting to water over. A final act of desperation I snatched a bottle from him. It was all in slow motion. I can still see the shock and anger on his face because a single drop of water missed the bottle I grabbed.

I quickly gulped some water to free up the tuna fish and the result was an explosion. The coughing fit was the size of the route we were on as I sucked in oxygen, water, and mashed up tuna. After sometime I regained my composure and looked over at my partner. He had not moved since I grabbed the bottle. Same expression, still holding his hand out. Just looking at me like, why on God's good Earth did I come up here with this guy. I pleaded for more water but that went no where. I finally settled back picked tuna out of my nostrils and tried to look like I was a real wall climber. Little did I know at the time that being in the state that I was, I looked the part. We both did. Totally dysfunctional, filthy, hungry, thirsty, tired, pissed off, and at that moment just happy to be where we were, on a big ass wall, in the middle of the adventure of my life.

We finally topped out and made it down. We got lost coming out of the woods and I swear ended up half way to Camp 4. On the seemingly endless trek back to my truck taking turns with that hideous hall bag, a car came by and my partner put out his thumb. I figured I had to be hallucinating since it pulled over. A little tiny compact that was half full of crap. My partner started talking to the passenger and the driver of the car, the passenger and myself just stared. None of us had any idea what he was saying. But it was obvious he was happy and grateful. After a bit my brain kicked in and I said thank you can you give us a lift to El Cap Meadow. They kind of understood me, we were both kind of babbling. After there initial shock of hearing "English" they hurried us in. We got in the back and the passenger pilled our gear in on top of us. Soon all the windows were hurriedly being rolled down as even I, in the back seat, realized the the stench of the two of us was of another world. Soon at my truck they kicked us out babbling and gleefully extolling our exploits and begging for water.

We quickly drove over to Degnans. Knowing it was late and that they would most likely closed I drove took every chance and drove fast. When we got to Degnans they were closed. So we just stared. We should have left since the place was deserted escept for two lone guys cleaning up. But we could not bring ourselves to leave. After a bit one employee notices us and starts talking to the other. One guy cracks the door open and asks if we were looking for food and we both respond with a loud raucous yes, my partner is was trying to claw his way in. After a bit of "No Really we are Closed" the guy in the back asks if we just climbed El Cap. I square my shoulders just a bit and answer yes. He then asks "Did you guys just get off the Nose"?. I straighten up a bit more puff up and grow in stature by at least 4 inches and 20 pounds and very proudly answer yes. The guy looks me square in the eye and says, "You guys were slow", SAR has been watching you. I shrank down in my squalor and dehydration and looked at the ground. He must have seen the rebuff cuz they let us in, at which point we bought every thing we could afford including a quart of Gatorade.

I drank a ton of water but did not piss for close to two days. We were both broke, but happy. We pulled off the impossible, conquered daemons, cheated the devil, amused the Fates, proved ourselves right, and others wrong. I was thinking of going back to work and he was thinking of how he could get back to Mexico. I do not know if he realizes just how thankful I was to have him as a partner. He pulled of an amazing feat by climbing El Cap with untested gear, with a half crazed, rabid, temperamental, white trash redneck. I screamed, yelled, threw temper tantrums, dropped his cherished hand made Made in Mexico cams, cursed all Gods real and imagined, and ran shit out way more than any person with my abilities had any right to do. He put up with it all, I may have been the motivational force but he was the Rock of Gabralter. I did receive a couple of stern lectures. I do not know a quarter of what he said, but 25 years later I think I have an idea. But, we topped out. It was an experience that will last us both a life time.

=========

I should point out that Mr. Mud went on and made many impressive climbing achievements. For example, he did the Nose (the route in the story that is one of the most prominent wall routes) in a day twice including once with Cathrine who was at our Yosemite wedding. He did the Northwest face of Half Dome with Steve in 18 hours car to car. He did Astroman, one of the most famed free route in Yosemite, countless times including the two times he did it with me. But it's always the memory of the early days that keep coming to you, isn't it?

I had requested him not to arrange work this Saturday because we were going to do something special. Saturday came, we got up unusually early. Because I had been quite excited about the day ahead of us, getting up was not hard. Two hours later, we were parked at Henry Coe headquarter.  It was around 7am, but we felt comfortable in our riding gear.  As a matter of fact, we were fairly comfortable during the three hours when we knocked off this classic Henry Coe loop.

Next stop, Pinnacles. We met up with old friends and made new friends at Discovery Wall. We thoroughly enjoyed socializing while making ascents on Wet Kiss, Big Pucker, Verdict, and Broken Arrow. All clean ascents for us. But it was especially impressive to watch Erik style the climbs, with an injured shoulder, and right off the couch. Now, if only I could find the data cables for our various cameras!

We would pretty much follow the same plan — Hunting Hollow to Middle Ridge and back, except that we would like to do more singletrack and less road (thus up JDT and down Spike Jones as well as returning via Anza) and we'd like to ride if we don't have to push (so no hike-a-bike on Creekside). It worked out well and I really like the route, esp. when Erik's socks came out of the ride pretty clean (usually we toss a pair after every Coe ride due to all the burs). All four shoes and socks are all soaked though because we rode through the deep creek crossing at the bottom of Poverty Flat Road. No biggie. (P.S. On a subsequent ride, we found that the creek can be easily crossed on foot over rocks without getting gear wet.)

I took photos, but none stands out (I ain't Skyline35). Won't bother posting.

A few things about this ride:

• When I told Erik I'd like to descend Timm, he said he wouldn't. But when he led the way down Spike Jones, he made a split second decision and went off Timm thinking that's what I wanted. But he was out of sight then so I descended Spike Jones trying to "follow" him. We normally regroup at every intersection, so I was surprised when I didn't see him at the bottom of Spike Jones. I waited for a while before riding on thinking he went ahead to Anza. Well, he burped a tire on Timm and had to pump it up, so when he came down, he waited for me at the bottom of Spike Jones (after I already passed) — apparently, he thought I was THAT slow!  It was not until the top of Jackson when we reunited, but it was not a good feeling to ride not knowing the whereabouts of your partner. Lesson learned — clear communication!
• Trails and weather were both in their top riding condition.
• We carried enough food and water that we decided to skip HQ since we didn't start the ride early enough. That was the part from our first Coe ride that we missed.
• I did alright on the climbs, but didn't manage to clean the whole of Anza-Jackson. So, I was quite happy when I cleaned the Mahoney Wall (after 29 miles and 7000' on GPS).
• I purchased a Bear Bell right before the ride. Most of the time, I had it completely silenced (sometimes, I would half silence it). But when I was going down hill fast (e.g. on China Hole descent and Flat Frog), I had it "unleashed". Erik was riding far ahead enough not to have to listen to it, but it worked very well with hikers and other bikers. Often times when I rode by, they were already well pulled over and seemed happy to have plenty of notice. I like it but I won't do a shout out on MTBR considering that some people may just leave it on the whole time whether needed or not, which sure would be annoying if you are going the same way.
• After we loaded our bikes in the car, two young women, Christin and Yuhong,  returned from their hike. We had a very nice chat. Yuhong called my name because she recognized me from my blog or MTBR . I was very amazed when she told us she had been hiking around and fly fishing in Henry Coe. She did trailwork too! That was a very pleasant encounter.

Here is the track. I'll post turn by turn directions tomorrow (since I do recommend this ride).

Turn-by-Turn Directions: (~39 miles / ~9K feet of ascent)

Hunting Hollow parking lot » Hunting Hollow Road  » L: Jim Donnelly Trail » R&L-ish: Cutoff to Spike Jones » S: Spike Jones (optional L down Timm which merges back to Spike Jones) » L: Grizzly Gulch Trail » R: Coit Road » R: Anza Tr » R: Jackson Tr » L: Elderberry Spring Tr » L: Rock Tower Tr » L: Domino Pond Tr (to a wooden structure at top of the mound) » S: Cattle Duster » L: Coit Spring Trail (to a sign post by a fence)  » R&L&R: cutoff then Cross Canyon Tr (incl short steep section) » L: Coit Road » S: Mahoney Meadows Road » L: China Hole Tr (to a creek crossing) » S: China Hole Tr » R: Manzanita Point Rd » Optional out and back to HQ » R: Flat Frog Tr » S: Hobbs Road » R: Middle Ridge » L: Poverty Flat Rd » R: Shafer Corral (the intersection comes 0.1 mi after Mahoney Meadows Rd intercation) » R: Narrows » S: Narrows (1st time crossing Mahoney Meadows Rd, don't take the Rd) » L: Mahoney Meadows Road » R: Lost Spring Tr » R: Mahoney Meadows Rd » S: Coit Rd » R&L: Cross Canyon Tr (back to that sign post by a fence) » R: Grapevine Tr » L: Anza Tr » S/L: Coit Rd » S: Gilroy Hot Spring Rd (paved) » Hunting Hollow parking lot

The track is also available for download on Garmin Connect.

Prior to her adoption, she lived on our deck for many months (in a shelter we put together for her). We witnessed her fend her food against a group of raccoons and at another time, even chased an adult raccoon across the yard. We called her a bad@ss girl.

The GPS track would take us up Jim Donnelly Trail, a novelty for me, so up we went. Oh my god, I could not imagine how much effort had gone into that trail! I learned from Paul (pliebenberg) later when we talked to him in the parking lot (after he and his wife went to do some trail flagging) that the 2nd Saturday trail crew did most of the work. Thank you, thank you!

I think this was the driest at Coe that I had seen, especially on Kelly Cabin Canyon Trail. It certainly was nice that I came out of the canyon with dry socks, but I kept thinking to myself, we need some rain before the coming trail work day.

I was glad to find that I had not lost all what I'd learned about mountain biking after my long sabbatical. I was still able to ride no-hand on the paved road at the end. I came off my bike at the very last wall on Jackson and had to push 20 yards or so, but that was already better than I had expected. My endurance has regressed though. I used to consider myself lucky for not getting cramps often on long rides, but on this ride (not really a long one), they started on the Cross Canyon climb out. Luckily, I was able to keep them at bay by pedaling delicately (gearing couldn't be high nor too low). The cramps would come on when I got off my bike with my legs extended or when I was crawling. Um, yeah, I crawled under that big fallen tree on Domino Pond trail. Why hadn't Roy (plymmer) ridden though here yet?

Mr. Mud had a little set back on the ride – one screw in his left cleat came out of the worn threads while he was coming down Timm Trail, and we didn't have the right Allen wrench between our two tool sets to loosen up his pedal, which he just (over) tightened yesterday. Being a tough guy he was, he rode all day without being able to unclip the left side when needed to. There were a few low speed tipping overs (hehehe… oops, did I chuckle out loud?), but he pulled it off. On Cross Canyon climb, he pulled away from me. Ok, his endurance shone. But, I beat him on JDT and Anza- Jackson climbs. Oh, on down hills, I always let him pull away from me – drop me to be exact. Not that we compete with each other or anything.

Another wonderful ride. Coe never disappoints. We'll be back!

Oh yeah, it seems that posting rides on Strava is the fad nowadays. Here is mine.

A few photos from my camera. (We've yet to find the micro USB cable for Mud's camera.)

A lone bike at the top of Jackson Trail.

Mud came up Jackon.

The bike is no longer alone.

Lunch break at Kelly Lake.

The giant fallen tree on Domino Pond Trail. Mud climbed over it, and I crawled under.