Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Cannell Trail & Cannell Plunge
Kernville, CA

Oct. 15, 2005

Today I had a great ride on the Cannell Trail and Cannell Plunge with Jerry (Jerry) and Martin. At least four groups, consisting of about 30 people, took the shuttles to Sherman Peak. At the 9,200 ft. drop-off it was perhaps 40 degrees, but a good wind made it feel fairly cold. Based on my conversation in the van with dirtmistress it was obvious she and her group were pretty good and since I would not be riding with them my little group set off first, knowing the rest would soon catch us. However, knowing that 30 people would soon come riding up my butt caused me to set out quite a bit faster than normal. As I predicted, most of the rest of the riders caught us after about two miles. Dirtmistress and her group were never seen again after that, while we managed to stay with a fairly large group from the Bay Area for much of the way. We lost the last, and smaller group after about an hour.

I brought the helmet cam along just to keep me moving, since I go a lot faster and try a lot more stuff while wearing it. Jerry set a pretty good pace and we went down all the gnarly stuff on the Cannell Trail fairly quickly. A bit after the narrow canyon a few miles before the Plunge I began to feel quite sick so we stopped for a bit while I ate and drank something and took it easy. At that point we lost the big Bay Area group, although we occasionally saw them below us on the Plunge. The rest seemed to help and no doubt the adrenalin rush on the Plunge also helped me feel quite a bit better. Despite being quite sandy again, we went down it faster than I've ever gone before. We had quite a few spin outs in the sand and a few minor falls. Near the bottom of the Plunge I started to have depth perception problems and after nearly falling off the trail I noted that only my right eye glass was fogged up. That seemed a bit strange and after stopping to clean the lens a few times I took off my glasses and realized my right eye was "fogged" up. The eye cleared up a little bit on the drive home but everything had a pinkish hue, so perhaps a tiny blood vessel burst. Needless to say, if the problem persists I'll see my eye specialist ASAP.

Jerry and I kept commenting that we seemed to be moving fairly quickly and a few of the climbs seemed a bit tougher than usual. We finished the ride a full hour faster than I've ever done before so we were indeed moving, yet we all felt great at the end of the ride. A cold front was supposed to come in late in the afternoon bringing rain, and it did. I don't think the temperature ever got above 60 degrees and we felt a few sprinkles of rain on the Plunge. Just as we entered town it stated raining quite a bit. Thanks for a great ride Jerry and Martin! Below are a few photos. 

Click on an image to enlarge it

A lot of bikes!	Jerry (left)	Near Big Meadow	Riding in the muck	Break time	Martin	Jerry and Bunny
Martin	On the Plunge	Lake Isabella from The Plunge	On the Plunge	Jerry and Martin The Plunge	Storm clouds moving in	Heading home

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