Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Annadel State Park, Santa Rosa, CA
January 20, 2007

Today I had a great ride at Annadel with several new people, and some old friends I haven't seen in many months. The weather was great and the trails were in the best winter condition I've ever seen. Mostly dry and fast except for a few sections that have experienced several freeze/thaw cycles, and were a bit muddy. I'm not a big fan of going down Lawndale because it's usually a bit slick and too smooth for my meager skills. However, today it was bone dry and quite fast. We started out on the usual slowpoke 25 miler and a few peeled off at the Marsh/Ridge intersection, a few more left us and went all the way down North Burma, VTT and Mroh left at the Rough Go/Cobblestone intersection, and GuruAtma and Presslab joined me for a ride to the bottom of that great, rocky Rough Go.

My legs felt pretty slow and tired much of the way but every time we did some fast downhill the adrenalin seemed to revive them. I felt I needed to build some capillaries and confidence for the upcoming July Tahoe "Extreme Punisher" ride, so at the bottom of Rough Go I went back up into the park for about two more hours and at least another 1,000 ft. of climbing. I climbed up Canyon and Marsh, up and then down South Burma and upper North Burma, across that aptly described (by GuruAtma) "annoying" Live Oak again, then across Rough Go, and then down Cobblestone for a total of about 37 miles.

We met CrazyAndy and his Team Hamana in the parking lot. And the highlight of the trip was meeting Badass Bob, who at 72, is only the second mtbr rider I've met that is older than me. He has had a total knee replacement, which I'll need two of in the not too distant future, and he gave me some great information on the procedure and recovery. I told him my doctor said that would be the end of my biking and Bob said "get a new doctor".

As far as I know there were only two falls. I stalled right at the top of that steep rocky climb at the bottom of South Burma, unclipped, but I did a backward summersault down the trail. On Lawndale I came up on Mroh's bike in the middle of the trail, with him sitting beside it shaking his head. I guess he went down pretty hard. But after a few minutes he seemed to recover. I snapped my chain within sight of the Beer Bench on South Burma but Presslab fixed it in seconds with a quick link. Thanks, I owe you! Great day and great ride folks! And thanks for waiting for me.

Click on an image to enlarge it

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top of
Lawndale		 Middle of
Lawndale		 GuruAtma
Lawndale		 Washedup
bottom Lawndale		 Chad
bottom Lawndale
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GuruAtma
Schultz		 On Schultz On Schultz Climbing
Schultz		 Presslab
Schultz
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Mroh
GuruAtma		 VTT
GuruAtma		 Blurry
GuruAtma		 Blurry
Chad		 On North
Burma
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Washedup, Chad
North Burma		 Presslab
North Burma		 GuruAtma
North Burma		 Mini Mae
North Burma		 Mroh
North Burma
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VTT
North Burma		 GuruAtma, Presslab
VTT, Mroh		 GuruAtma
Rough go		 Presslab
Rough Go		 Presslab
Rough Go
 

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