Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Annadel State Park, Santa Rosa, CA

December 19, 2004

After two months off due to elbow surgery I got word from my surgeon that it was OK to start riding again. I did about three hours at New Melones (GH) one week ago and I did a two and a half hour night ride there a few days later. So I felt it was time to try some more serious stuff. Coincidently, Tim (UncleMTB) had also been off due to a cracked rib. So I let it be known on mtbr.com that we would be doing a slowpoke ride at Annadel and others were welcome to join us. The response was overwhelming and between 15 - 20 riders showed up. The bike gods were smiling upon us that day because I drove through 140 miles of fog and just five miles away from the park it cleared up and turned out to be a spectacular day. 

It was obvious that not everybody was a slowpoke so Tim and I, and a few others set out up Richardson fire road, expecting everyone to catch up to us. I tried riding through that small gate opening at the bottom of the trail and I banged my still sore elbow on a gate post. Despite wearing elbow pads it hurt quite a bit. I felt surprisingly strong and I made it up Richardson and South Burma probably as fast as ever. We waited at the picnic bench at the top and people started showing up a few at a time. Much to everybody's delight Impy showed up on her new singlespeed. Ironically, she missed a farewell ride at Annadel prior to her move to SoCal so this ride would make up for it. After everybody showed up and rested a bit we then headed out to Lawndale and then up Schultz and Marsh, eventually ending back up at the same picnic bench a few hours later. We occasionally stopped to regroup and I often rode ahead to take photos, and to also keep my knees warm. So for perhaps 3/4 of the ride I was fairly close to the faster riders.

On the Marsh trail I flew down one of those dips trying to keep up my momentum to get up the other side, and I fell and hit my sore elbow on a nice slab of rock. That hurt quite a bit, shook me up, and I think it affected me, at least mentally, the rest of the trip. After going down South Burma and then down North Burma I started feeling tired while climbing up Live Oak. I lost contact with everyone except Impy and 8Trak, who occasionally waited for me. On Cobblestone there are some big boulders and a tree you have to weave though. I slipped, caught the tree and ended up sitting on the boulder with my leg wedged between my seatpost and rear wheel. I could not get it out by myself, but fortunately 8Trak came to my rescue, un-entangling my leg. Impy made us do that short Cobblestone loop with the short steep hill at the end, and after that I was defiantly ready to head home.

BigLarry brought along a GPS unit and measured the route at about 25 miles with about 3,000 ft. of climbing. Here is his elevation profile for the ride. Here is the trail map and photos and comments by others are posted here. It was a great day of riding and I met many cool people I hope to ride with again! 

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Beautiful day	Pfunk wild shorts	Impy showing off new SS	8Trak	Carl	Break time
Plim? 8Trak?	Jrm, Pfunk BigLarry	Melt on the phone	UncleMTB	Impy shows off her wound	BigLarry
Break time	Impy having fun	Pfunk BigLarry	8Trak	BigLarry	Impy
Moschika	Jrm	Impy, Plim?, ?	Hit my elbow on this	XC_Climber	UncleMTB, Pfunk Jrm, Carl
Elevation profile courtesy of BigLarry

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