Before the ride, I could not find a GPS track online for the complete Middle Fork Trail, from Timpanogas Lake to Sand Prairie Campground. Most rides I read about were from Paddy’s Valley down. So, I had to ask for beta on MTBR and was glad to get confirmation that the top section was worth …more…

For $20 per person, we got a shuttle ride up for Alpine Trail from Oregon Adventures company. The trail is called the “Crown Jewel” of Oakridge riding. It was on a Thursday morning, but there were four other passengers in the shuttle too. …more…

We arrived in Oakridge late on Wednesday. It was a hot day. We heard that the high was near 3 digits. We took our time talking to the local bike shop and based on their recommendation, we settled into Arbor Inn. After unpacking, it was already after 7pm. …more…

This loop refers to: Ape Canyon, Plains of Abraham, Smith Creek, and Lava Canyon
If our friend Tom had been on the ride, I’m very certain that he would have proclaimed that this ride had a very high BS factor, and I would have agreed. …more…

Erik went into work in their Issaquah office so I had to entertain myself. It turned out not so hard. The guys at the Bicycle Center in town gave me detailed information on their local rides and even printed me a very nice map. So, my ride involved riding from the office to downtown Issaquah, and …more…

I didn’t know about this place until Erik’s friend Tom, whom we would be staying with the next two nights in Seattle, told us. We would be on our way up to Issaquah where Erik would spend a day working in their office there and Capitol Forest would not be too far out of our way. …more…

We were supposed to get on our way up to Washington, but since Post Canyon was literally right there in town, I wanted to check it out before we leave Hood River. We followed the most popular trail, Seven Streams, all the way (Trails 100 to 116) and got a taste what this place was about. …more…

Okay, I exaggerated… It was probably only 35.81 miles of awesomeness since there were a few miles on fire roads (still fun though) and 3 miles of grueling ascent on Trail 456 on Fifteenmile Creek (I didn’t mind the climb, but you wouldn’t see me with big grins on those steeps). …more…

This will be a short report because the drive back into town is short.
We didn’t get to Hood River until past 10am and went to Bette’s Place for a brunch (excellent Dungeness Crab omelet and free Wifi). Some more time was passed in a couple of bikeshops. …more…

Only one segment (okay, out and back) and only 7.2 miles? What happened? Well, it’s probably less embarrassing for me to say, “we are wimps” than for me to tell you what really happened… although we are indeed wimps in general. …more…

In the hindsight, I probably should have stayed home for the weekend. Our friend Brad needed Erik’s help both days for his Sonora Pass Climbing Guide Book effort and I know that they would be hiking around crags and pointing at climbs — not my cup of tea. …more…

It was probably 10 years ago when I was still in grad school that a friend told me excitedly about this innovative search engine, Google. It proved useful back then for academic researches, and today? It has penetrated in every seam of my life. …more…

This is my post to the related MTBR thread where more photos and stories can be found.
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After our (mudncrud, ratpick, mudworm) extra little play loop on Spike Jones and Timm, we caught the big group (Sorcerer, Tom, Brian L, Zener, Eric S, girl_from_pitt, plymmer) on Coit Road at the north …more…

This is my post to the related MTBR thread. (There are more stories and photos there.)
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This is about Charlie’s training ride for the thread bearing “rustic 10k” event. Just like last time, he sent an invite to a list of friends stating “the route should be long …more…

When I did the Tour on May 7th, I did an experiment to see what would happen if I only took very limited amount of water and food. I bonked. But was it really in the nutrition and hydration (n&h), or was it that 85+ miles on a mountain bike was just beyond my limit? …more…

This is my post to the MTBR thread:
It was going to be a warm summer day at Henry Coe after a long California spring, so I dressed accordingly for the occasion — long sleeves and leg warmers (with fleece liner). The sweat started pouring down my face shortly after I got started on the Anza climb. …more…

Daryl, Heather, and Lior kindly agreed to ride with me at Demo when I talked to them after the Hospice Ride yesterday. And they invited other friends too so eight of us came out.
We did the first slice of Canadian Bacon, and then dropped down Sawpit (I rode around the rock garden). …more…

Ride for Hospice, aka “Bra Ride”, is a charity ride for Pathways:

Pictures like below can be found here and here.

After that, since I was close, I went over and did a short ride at Skeggs:

For a while, Lyman Willson was my favorite start from Hunting Hollow. And then it rained, and then rained more. The creeks were filled. Last time I went out that way was on Charlie’s ride last December. Now water proofed with my Gortex socks, would I be afraid of  a few creeks? …more…

- Ahh… what a beautiful morning! Earlier at Windy Hill OSP, I was able to get a view of most of the Bay Area to the East including San Fransisco. I couldn’t help but imagine the hustle and bustle among those tall buildings in the SF Financial District on a typical Friday morning like this; …more…

The duration of my ride at this year’s Napa Valley Dirt Classic: 10:46am to around 1:50pm. Well, what can I say — mudworm finally got to play in the mud. Total immersion style, head to toe and inside ‘n out. What a day! It was hard but I had fun; then, it got harder …
When I …more…

The context was Napa Valley Dirt Classic.  I’m always interested in checking out the course of this unique race. The race seems to be well known because quite a few people I know have raced it; yet, it almost has that underground feel to it. …more…

Mei Tricked Me!
That was what Derek had been claiming all day, to himself and to anyone within earshot. Well, I didn’t really mean to trick him; it was some unforeseen circumstance. When Derek said the day before in an email he was planning to ride alone because he hadn’t been riding …more…

Finally, the search came to an end, and I am now the proud owner of this beautiful small carbon 2010 Titus FTM (short for Full Tilt Moto).

For the past year or so, I have considered nearly a dozen bikes and test ridden a handful (see my earlier post). …more…

It only took us one month to buy a house (from thinking about buying to putting down our offer — the only offer we made). It took me a year to buy a mountain bike. You can’t say my priorities are screwed up, can you?
It’s official now: I have placed an order on my new trail bike! …more…

Ever since I broken a pedal on my first and only hooky ride at Henry Coe, I had been wary about repeating it. But I had to do it today, a Thursday, aka a work day, for a few reasons: 1) the reason that I a demo bike with me was because I told the bike rep that for me to buy a bike, I had to take it …more…

It all started on MTBR. I strongly urge you to read the original thread, because you can find a lot of good information and fun conversation there.
As far as I’m concerned, that thread shows following (so you REALLY should read it IMAO):
1. …more…

It was our last day of riding, and it was Christmas. So, the ride had to be special. What could be more special than an epic ride. We wanted to check out this Kentucky Camp (near Patagonia, AZ) ride, aka IMBA Epic Long Ride. Despite our best intention, we didn’t get started riding until almost 10am. …more…

I wanted to go rock climbing at Mt Lemmon. After all, we transported all that climbing gear with us and would not want them to turn out to be some 50 lb dead weight. Tom wanted to ride down Bug Springs, Malino Basin, to Milagrosa (then home), so we dropped him off at the higher trailhead of Bug Springs …more…

From what we heard, Sweetwater is a new development and it has gained popularity very fast. I think some enthusiasm I sensed from online reading has spurred my interest. It seems to be a network of trails packed in a relatively small area. However, unlike Fantasy Island, this place offers some jagged …more…

Everybody said 50 Year Trail was a must ride. Somebody had the same feeling about Fantasy Island. But Tom was not interested in either. He had ridden both many years ago. Since today was his rest day, today I would be free to do any ride I wanted. …more…

Tom had done some research and found this trail in Cosmic Ray’s Arizona Mountain Bike Trail Guide: Fat Tire Tales & Trails. It turned out to be a very good introduction to desert riding. We did both the north side (3.5 miles to the creek) and the south side (8.4 to Three Bridges). …more…

Charlie sent an email to a list (not that long really) of people saying that he would be riding at Henry Coe on Saturday and he had expected one or two to show up. Who would have thought more than a dozen people came out on a freezing cold day to ride at Henry Coe! I call it Charlie’s Charm. …more…

Three Candies? I’m referring to the three climbs: Lyman Willson, Anza-Jackson, and Serpentine. I envisioned the elevation profile will show three distinct peaks, but it does not. Oh well, those were the three interesting climbs on the ride; hence, three candies.
It was a beautiful day. …more…

I took today off, but wasted the morning doing nothing at home. I needed to go to Pescadero to pick up an Olallieberry pie. Well, it’s not too far from Wilder, was it? I call it an exploratory ride, but I set out to ride the trails that I had not ridden before. …more…

The official MTBR Henry Coe Fall Circus happened on Saturday. But we could only do Sunday, so we did our Post-Fall Circus Henry Coe B Ride (as opposed to the Pre-Fall Circus Henry Coe B Ride I did with Derek and Charlie last week).
To recap from my previous blog post, here is Charlie’s route rundown …more…

Oh, another weekend when Erik had to work (cliche by now). Not sure if we could join the MTBR Henry Coe Fall Circus ride next weekend, I got curious to check out their B ride. And Derek wanted to ride too. Great! When we were in the parking lot, Charlie and Roy pulled in and Charlie decided to join …more…

I had always wanted to help out at Low Key Hillclimb Series and finally my chance arrived — on Week 3 in the 2009 series for Tunitas Creek climb. When I drove over, the sky was still a bit gray, but when the riders arrived at the Bike Hut on Tunitas where registrations took place, the weather …more…

Note: I wrote this while watching a movie, so I was mainly rambling here. I found it so hard to read that I couldn’t even go over it once to proof-read.
I rode Old La Honda with other Low Key climbers. My personal best on it so far (before today) is 21:50. That was on a Wednesday after work in May. …more…

And my husband is in love too. Only that I with a Santa Cruz Blur LTc, and he with a Santa Cruz Tallboy.
Ever since April, I’ve been on a quest for my next bike — a new bike, that is.  A small problem I have is there are so many good bikes out there. …more…

Kids, do you know what happens if you play hooky and go ride your bike? Your pedal falls off.
Like this:

And then, you have to ride home like this:

But I know, it’s just too hard to resist when you suddenly receive an email inviting you to go ride your mountain bike at Henry Coe even though …more…

What happens when the SO cannot go out and play? Well, Jeanne and I rode at Skeggs on Saturday, and Wilder+UCSC on Sunday — we had fun!  I concluded the weekend with a spin up Kennedy Trail (near Los Gatos) on my drive to a dinner party. …more…

Erik, Derek, and I were actually the few that signed up early (before September 10) for the Henry Coe Mountain Biking Challenge. And we showed up this morning geared up and ready to go. After the race announcement, the racers left for the gate at the end of Gilroy Hot Springs Road, the official start …more…

My first time riding there. We took Monday off. We stayed with Jeanne, Iztok, and Tim in a condo in S. Lake Tahoe for Saturday and Sunday nights. Hanging out was fun except that Erik’s work place had an IT melt down before his trip, so he worked before and after riding every day — poor guy. …more…

Did this ride with Patrick and Derek because Erik was on call, again. We followed the sport course of the Henry Coe MTB Challenge.
Sport/Expert Course About 24 miles
Climbing 5000+-
Start Coit Road
Left Cross Canyon Trail
Right Willow Ridge Road
Becomes Crest Trail
Right Kelly Lake Trail
Left Coit …more…

This ride was initiated on MTBR, plenty of stories and pictures there. Christine took this picture of mine on the ride:

Here is my ride track:

Another short post just because I’m so behind.
Started out in China Camp. Derek and his co-worker Cherie joined us. We did a smaller loop than I had planned for because we ran out of time while there were people waiting to meet us for Camp Tamarancho in Fairfax. …more…

I give up. I’ve meant to write up a blog about the clinic after editing the video, but it took me forever to get to the video editing, and I still cannot find time to write a long post about it. So, I’ll be brief. I found out about the clinic from an MTBR thread. …more…

When we arrive at the Hunting Hollow Parking Lot, there are only two vehicles. The big lot looks very deserted. I wonder if we have missed any important announcements such as the park has be closed to public. Oh well, we drop four dollars into the collection box nonetheless and roll off to Hunting …more…

No, I was not that crazy, but Erik was!
We parked at Gate PC05 of the Purisima Creek Open Space (i.e. on the Half Moon Bay side).  It was a gradual but continuous hill climb towards El Corte De Madera. Erik found out that his rear brake was gone because the pin that held the lever had fallen out (the …more…

We wanted to make the most out of this trip. So, after yesterday’s Death Ride, we rode the Lake Alpine Loop near Bear Valley on our way back. Here are some pictures.

Bryn sent me this one.

Overall, I felt decent considering I just did my longest ride the day before, but there were times …more…

In two months, we’ll probably be on our way up to Whistler again, and this time, I want to be better prepared. I must have thought to myself out loud because Erik started building these structures in our backyard and put them together on my birthday. …more…

MTBR thread
It was one year ago that I attended the IMBA monthly Henry Coe trail work the first time. I wanted to do it every month, but life got in the way and I only managed one other time. However, I had decided nothing should stop me from attending this one since it would be my Coe trailwork annyversary. …more…

First time for both Erik and me. We met up with Derek, Jeff, and Gil around 10am and set out for a fun ride. It’s indeed fun. Enough challenge (being rocky) to keep it interesting and yet, not too much to make it too taxing on the body and mind. We also scattered our laughs all over. …more…

We had a late start after sending off the little tweety bird to the rescue center, but we weren’t going to let it deter us from riding Coe, especially on such a nice day. While gray, foggy, and miserable at home (on the ocean side of Skyline Ridge), it was at perfect temp in the Bay Area at …more…

I went to the La Honda Creek Open Space Master Plan public hearing held in Half Moon Bay. The public access (user conflict) issue has always been a sensitive subject in meetings like this one. From what I heard, it had been the norm that mountain bikers were portrayed as the ugly monsters out on the …more…

I had known about ROMP’s monthly group rides at Skeggs for a while and this was my first time attending one after seeing Josh’s reminder on MTBR. We started with five of us, but we lost Hank shortly into the ride after he over-shot the turn off to Blueblossom. …more…

Update: After the searches described below, check out what I bought in the end.
My List:

Ibis Mojo
Specialized Safire FSR Expert Carbon
Yeti 575
Santa Cruz Blur LTc (current favorite)
Pivot Mach 5
Turner 5.Spot DW (have not tried)
Trek Fuel Ex 9. …more…

My friend Jeanne and I are both in the market for a new mountain bike with around 5″ of travel. We spent Saturday trying out various bikes at Santa Teresa County Park where Trai Head Cyclery is holding a demo weekend. The two husbands were there too. …more…

It all started from this MTBR thread: The Belmont Half Mountain Adventure, started by Krishna (kpd) in the beginning of April.  Adventure? I think Krishna is too mellow to call it, but it’s in its essence a race (or at least a challenge), only based on honor system. …more…

It was exactly a year ago that I went to ride a Sea Otter Classic course with the dirt divas. (See Mudworm Went Riding with Eight Dirt Divas. Hot!) I did it again today.
I hooked up with Cindy, Michelle, and Lesley. Unlike last year’s ride, we all did the course for the sport class at the coming …more…

It’s funny how after an exciting event, the memories keep popping up randomly, for example, before you go to sleep, when you wake up, and when you are driving. That’s what’s happening to me these days. The bits and pieces during Boggs IV kept flashing back, which prompted me to write …more…

I do not want to accept it, but I know when people look at the results in the future, that’s what they would think of me (or rather, that name printed on the result sheet because they don’t really know me in person). I can’t change the fact that I not only won the Beginner Women’s …more…

Crosspost from MTBR:
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Remember this Henry Coe ride a bunch of people did last year? (I wasn’t there because back then, I had never heard of Henry Coe yet. Oh, what had I missed out?!) Well, it happened again this year, but only quietly. Why? …more…

We went up to Napa Valley for a mountain biking action packed weekend.  The weather was perfect on Saturday. It drizzled on Sunday, but as people say, when it rains, ride at Boggs and Angwin; that's exactly what we did and the trails were just fine. …more…

Like this muddy…

It’s Erik’s birthday again. I think the last time it happened was a year ago, but I’m not sure. Ever since two years ago I surprised him with a trip to Hawaii (he did not even know we were flying until I dug out the suit cases buried under camping gear when …more…

This is my trip reported posted to MTBR.
I still could not commit last night. Erik had an orthodontist appointment this morning. I felt that I should wait for him and do something locally together in the afternoon, but Charlie just made the Coe ride sound too enticing. …more…

Today was another ROMP’s trailwork day at Coe (MTBR thread). Erik had made plans though to do some rebolting of a rock climbing route at Pinnacles (the equivalent of trailwork to mountain biking). Guess we would be paying dues to two park goddesses on the same day. Sweet! …more…

So, due to our scheduling mistakes, we moved our potluck with Sean and Steve’s families to the first day of 2009.  Because it would be at Sean’s place in Santa Cruz, we decided to go for a ride before the party. Sean had been riding there for years, so he made a perfect guide. …more…

We were supposed to go to a potluck with two other families on December 27th, 2008.  What are the odds both Erik and I did not make the connection between the date and the day, and we made our separate plans for Saturday: he would climb at Pinnacles and I would ride at Skeggs. …more…

It started out as a challenge after a “failed” attempt the weekend before (see the story below).  The goal is to ride 10k at Henry Coe, in one day, where 10k refers to the total vertical feet of climbing.  We first heard of this notion on MTBR, and for whatever reason, it had an immediate …more…

Erik was itching to go to Pinnacles. Pinns is great, but the type of climbing that Erik had in mind did not appeal to me much — he wanted to go new routing, which meant standing in one position hand drilling for hours. So, when his buddy Gilbert text messaged him about going to Pinns, I was as …more…

It’s 5 o’clock this morning. I am waken up by Erik’s coughs. Poor guy, he has been sick for a few days. He has looked forward to this Sunday to go climbing at Pinnacles.  It does not look like it’s going to happen. I pat him gently and fall back to sleep. …more…

We did not plan to duplicate last weekend, but it just happened this way.
Saturday: Low Key Hill Climbs, Quimby Road
We were planning to go climbing at Pinnacles today, but last night, we found out that our mountain bikes were not ready for tomorrow’s Coe ride that we had committed ourselves to. …more…

One is on Saturday; the other on Sunday. One is road riding; the other mountain biking. They deserve two separate reports, but I don’t feel like writing. Here is a quick run down.
Saturday:Low Key Hill Climbs, W. Apline

We barely got up early enough to make the Low Key Hill Climbs event …more…

For the longest time, I thought my climbing technique sucked. For example, there were a few spots in Water Dog that Bryn, my lunch break riding partner, and I had named as our nemeses. And there were two that I had never been able to conquer: one of the Three Sisters and one at the top of the switchbacks …more…

Day 1: La Honda, CA to Roseburg, OR
Day 2: MTB North Umpqua Trail: Tioga and Mott segments out and back
Day 3: MTB North Umpqua Trail: Panther and Calf segments out and back
Day 4: MTB McKenzie River Trail out and back
Day 5: Eugene, OR to McKenna, WA
Day 6: McKenna, WA to Squamish, BC
Day 7: The Fix …more…

The season is ending soon (we’ll be gone for two weeks), so I decided to write a report before it’s too late. I’ve gotten so much (friendship, practice, lessons) from these rides that it’s past due for me to show my appreciation in writing. …more…

Christine and Erin led a ride at Tamarancho in Marin. There were thirteen of us total who showed up.  The ride is pretty much a loop, and we went the “easier” way.  Still, there are quite a few sections, either due to roots, pointy rocks, or rounded rocks, that are challenging to most of …more…

This was an announcement from PTB newsletter.
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What: Women’s ride at Water Dog Lake Park in Belmont followed by dinner & drinks at Passion Trails Bicycles
Where: Passion Trails Bicycles, 415-C Old County Road, Belmont. …more…

Following is my post to MTBR.
Last year, I posted A (very) slow rider’s Downieville XC report here. In response to the generous encouragement I received, I promised I would come back. A promise is a promise is a promise. I did. So here I am again to report back. …more…

I confess: I’ve been lazy.
Not so lazy that I haven’t been riding Arastradero, but too lazy to write about it. After a few weeks away, Mei rode with us tonight. In her gentle way she gave me a small dose of guilt: “Has the group been riding? I haven’t seen any ride reports. …more…

On Saturday, we slept in as what most people did on the day after July 4th and did not pull into Hunting Hollow parking lot until almost 11. The sun was already cooking the ground by then. Perfect for heat training at Coe. Two riders returned from their ride of the day while we were gearing up. …more…

The weekend didn’t start out well. When we were about to board our shuttle on Saturday to Packer Saddle for a downhill run, I realized that I forgot my riding shorts at home. I had to spend $50+ on a pair of most uncomfortable MTB shorts (Mens’ Small was the closest I could find and they …more…

Friday:
We took a three o’clock shuttle to Packer Saddle and did a DH run: Sunrise, Butcher Ranch, 2nd Divide. Sunrise is a very flowy single track. There is almost no obstacles. Butcher Ranch has some technical sections. You can see in this youtube video how the rock garden topples many racers. …more…

When Erik and I topped out on the Downieville Classic Cross Country (XC) course at Packer Saddle on our third day of riding, it was a very pleasant surprise to see and chat with a couple of divas, DH Jill and Heather. Four divas were still on the climb and they were going to wait, so we said goodbye …more…

[Note: This was my post on MTBR, where I learned about this event.]
8AM at Coe HQ? That’s just too early! But Erik said since we had so much fun on our last ride (note: my only Coe ride), we should give something back. That makes sense. …more…

[Note: Below was my ride report sent to the dirt divas.]
All I did was I asked, “So, Janet, you are not riding, but you are still writing the ride report, right?” “No, but Mei, you are writing it.” *kicking myself* Why did I ask? Okay, here is my assignment. …more…

One nice thing about riding close to home is when we found out that Erik forgot his camelpak at home, he could drive home to fetch it while I rode around the parking lot doing my drills. It was meant to be a short ride on the last day of our long weekend, so we just went around the perimeter clockwise …more…

It’s a long awaited three-day weekend, so normally we would have taken the opportunity to go somewhere that we otherwise couldn’t get to on a regular weekend. However, the weather in the Sierra looks crappy, the traffic in and out of the Bay Area sounds daunting, plus the gas price is …more…

It was two months ago, I made my first ride to Water Dog and immediately fell in love with that little city park. I went back twice during lunch breaks by myself, but I felt a little lonely. Plus, both times I saw an old man, once with a big stick in his hands, on the trails. …more…

I’m taking a Written Communication Skills class for ESL Speakers at work. The first feedback my instructor gave me on my assignments was “wordy.” Knowing my problem doesn’t necessarily mean I know how to fix it. But it enables me to warn you — this is going to be a long …more…

I’ve already posted my ride report yesterday. Today I made sure I had my camera in hand all the time.
Here is our group at Denny’s for breakfast on Sunday morning. Ryan whom Jeff and I rode with went home last night. Erik came down at 1:30 in the morning after work and went back to work …more…

I patted myself on the back — I did it, the Sea Otter Mountain Biking Recreational Ride (aka MTB tour).
I have to confess though my motive in signing up for the ride was not pure. Erik had ridden at Sea Otter a few times. Last year when he quit riding there (not interested any more), his …more…

I know there is a reason why people say it’s important to build a relationship with the LBS (Local Bike Shop). My LBS is Passion Trail Bikes. I met Jill at PTB and heard about this underground group of female mountain bikers — the Dirt Divas. (Oops, did I say underground? …more…

Once at Purisima and once at Skeggs (aka El Corte De Madera) on the same day.Our mountain bike ride started in the afternoon from Skeggs Point parking lot. After turning off Skyline, we took the Purisima Creek Trail down, a sweet fire road, to the bottom. …more…

Yesterday, I signed up for the Mountain Bike Recreational Ride (aka tour) at Sea Otter Classic 2008. From what I heard, Sea Otter is a big event in bicycling. Last year, we went to the Expo the last day. Along with all the vendor booths, there were some competitions such as free riding and BMX’ing …more…

[Note: I wrote this report after the race. I posted it both on MTBR and our Biking Forum.]
I can see the finish now. A few hard pedals, I’m there! I probably have let out a scream or two in excitement. The support staff tears off the bottom portion of my bib. It is a great feeling. …more…

[Note: This is my trip report posted on the forum.]
Another fun day! Strom and I camped near Bear Valley and met up with Delbomber, Nick, YETITIME, and my friend Melissa (I climbed with her three years ago). Uncle Stinky swang by and said hi. …more…

[Note: We hooked up with Uncle Stinky and he gave us a MTB tour of Bear Valley. I posted this TR on the forum.]
An awesome tour indeed. Uncle Stinky (Jeff S.) is great! To us, he is a god-send. The MTB guidebook in the sports shop is sold out. The trails in the area are more than confusing. …more…