Friday, November 26th, 2010

Black Friday Ride at Henry Coe

There was nothing black about it — it was a sunny day. We all expected a crisp temperature. Actually, when we left home, it was below freezing.

31 degrees

And there was hard ice at the parking lot when we got there before 10am.

hard ice

Either the ice was too hard, or Charlie was too light — he and the bike combined was not able to break the ice! (Um, you might want to turn down your volume before clicking play.)

Two days ago, I sent out an invitation to quite a few people, and on the morning of Black Friday — the day after Thanksgiving, we were joined by, with MTBR handles in parentheses, Charlie (Skyline35), Patrick (ratpick), Roy (plymmer), Chris (Diesel~), and Jim (Zener) — yeah, the usual suspects.

group

group2

Everyone was bracing for freezing temperature, but the frost on Spike Jones Trail was probably the only reminder of our “fear” (as Jim said in his email, “you know how us skinny guys love the cold!”). It was perfect for the climb though as Charlie here would have agreed.

charlie on spike jones

The rest of the ride saw us sun bathe comfortably throughout like here at the top of Timm Trail. That, my friend, I call a perfect temp.

sun bathe

Okay, let me raise the pace a bit because otherwise, I’ll never reach the end of the post. Here are a few pictures I took on the ride.

Charlie dropping down Timm Trail:
Charlie dropping down Timm Trail

Here is a trail sign, now where is the trail?
Here is the trail sign, now where is the trail?

Tallboy’s virgin voyage to Henry Coe. That’s Erik’s new Santa Cruz 29er.
Tallboy's virgin voyage to Henry Coe.

I’m breaking the photographing 101 rules here — shooting into the sun.
shooting into the sun

Chris (Diesel~) taking in the view of Henry Coe.
Chris (Diesel~) taking in the view of Henry Coe

While everyone else is going down Cattle Duster, Chris decided to check out the climb on upper Cattle Duster. To be exact, Roy coaxed him into it. Here, Charlie set up his camera. “Okay, you can go now.”
charlie and chris

Before long, Chris became a little dot.
Chris

I just realized and you might have noticed — I don’t have many close up shots of everyone on the ride. It’s not my fault. Most of the time, they were so far ahead of me that no amount of zoom can find them in my view finder anyway. But considering that I was riding with a bunch of guys, there was plenty of chatting on the trail at almost every intersection.
regroup

regroup

regroup

Route:
Hunting Hollow Parking Lot -> R: Gilroy Hot Springs Road -> Coit Road -> R: Spike Jones -> R: Timm Trail -> R: Coit Road -> R: Anza -> R: Jackson -> Elderberry Spring Trail ->R: Rock Tower Trail -> L: Jackson Road -> L: Domino Pond Trail -> S: Cattle Duster Trail -> L: Coit Springs Trail -> S: Grapevine Trail -> L: Anza -> L: Coit Road -> S: Gilroy Hot Springs Road -> Hunting Hollow Parking Lot. (17.7 miles / 3529′ ascent).
GPS track is available: Garmin Connect , MTBGuru , Plus 3

Photos and Links:

All our photos are in our photo album .

This MTBR Thread has many rad photos from Patrick and Charlie. Here are a couple samplers:
(from Charlie)
(from Patrick)

Erik wrote his own ride report . (I think he stole some of my pictures.)

Oh, by the way, it took me a while to put the report up. Well, after the ride, we stopped by a couple of bike shops (no Black Friday sales), went to the gym (for shower), went out for dinner (yummy Korean Tofu Pot), and then hung out with a friend from out of town at a bar. Didn’t get home until midnight. This morning? We just got a little too comfortable to get out of bed. All their fault!

3 Responses

  1. Dirk dBon 27 Nov 2010 at 5:07 pm

    Nice photos and it seems like I missed out; but I’m happy at least I didn’t spread out my germs in Coe; I know that the cold Kennedy Turkey ride wasn’t going to do me much good and afterwards I was sneezing all over the place.

  2. mudwormon 27 Nov 2010 at 10:22 pm

    Dirk, don’t you know Coe has healing power??? Sorry we missed you, but you probably did the smart thing by resting (not counting the ride up Kennedy on Thursday though).

  3. Patrick Herlihyon 30 Nov 2010 at 3:39 pm

    I think I’ve caught what you have/had, Dirk. Although mine feels like it is going to pass in a couple of days.

    Thanks again for calling this ride – perfect antidote to bloated day-after-Thanksgiving!

    And big congrats on Anza-Jackson – I’ll remember my first forever (like you I flubbed in a stupid spot prior so was ecstatic to finally complete it).

    Great to see Erik too and very envious of his new toy 🙂