Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Auburn, California
March 15, 2008

Today I did the 25 mile Auburn ride with Cohenfive: up Clementine Trail, out the Connector Trail, around Forest Hill Divide Loop, back via the Connector Trail, and down the Culvert and Confluence Trails. It was a bit cool at the start, but sunny. However, at the farthest point of the ride, on FHDL, the temperature dropped considerably and it really started to rain. The trails became quite slick and all those short little climbs on the way back seemed to take considerably more energy than usual. Although we both still had a few clothes in our packs, we pushed on in order to stay warm. But after about an hour and a half of cold wet riding, I started to consider the possibility of hypothermia.

Fortunately, at the end of the Connector the sun came out for a bit and warmed us up. We stopped for a few minutes before heading down the Culvert to the Confluence. As always, I was wearing knee/shin pads and today I also wore elbow pads. While stopped we both joked about the elbow pads, which I probably really didn't need, but I said they were really to protect my knees. I'm still terrified of falling and on one of those little technical rocky sections on the Confluence I hesitated a bit, ended up going way too slow, and I had my first fall since my knee replacements. It was a pretty good fall on my right knee, on some pretty rough rocks, and I instinctively put out my elbow to break the fall. Thanks elbow pads! Although the fall hurt quite a bit, I'm glad I finally got it over with, and learned I can survive them.

Once the rains started we put away our cameras, so we took very few photos. Below are a few of mine, perhaps Cohenfive will have a few to add.

Cohenfive coming out of the Culvert.

Snapped a bit too soon.

Heading home.

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