Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Fort Ord, Monterey, CA
December 23, 2006

I've been off the bike for two weeks with severe knee pain, the kind that makes me want to quit. I can handle a day or two of pain after each ride but two weeks was too much. However, since they seemed to be calming down, and I have cortisone injections scheduled in three days, I decided to try an easy ride at Ft. Ord today (12/23). I was actually quite relieved that nobody showed up to ride with me because I figured with the layoff I'd be even slower than usual, and I had no idea how the knees would hold up. After gulping down four Motrin, two Tylenol Arthritis and a double dose of prescription pain reliever, I headed out on a fairly cool morning. Despite zigzagging all over the place I still ended up mostly climbing Trail 15, eventually making it to Trails 50, 49 and 43, which took me to the top of The Goat Trail. Since the knees didn't feel too badly at the bottom of The Goat Trail I decided to head up Oil Well and Skyline Roads to go down Trail 47. However, that long continuous climbing soon gave me nearly unbearable knee pain. So I cut off on Trail 10, which took me back to the top of The Goat Trail again. 

Dan51 and his group, which consisted of The Law, jdubsl2, addictionms, and Captain Kana, started about an hour behind me and I happened to run into them at the top of The Goat Trail. Apparently they needed an anchor so they asked me to join them. So we went down The Goat Trail and then Dan took us up to Red Rock Ridge via a route I hope he'll post. There was a lot of nice singletrack, often with a good bit of climbing, and some of it pretty gnarly. However, I think some adrenalin kicked in because the knee pain was not as bad as the first part of my ride. Dan had a nice fall on Red Rock but no injuries. We then took trails 50, 49 and 68, among others, and eventually ended up doing Blair Witch before heading back. It eventually turned out to be a nice day and everybody was very patient, waiting for me at intersections. I often kept going to save time and to also get ahead for photos. Thanks everybody for a great ride! And by the way my "easy" ride turned out to be nearly six hours. 

Click on an image to enlarge it

Captain Kana, jdubsl2,  The Law, addictionms	jdubsl2	Nice day	Goat Trail	Goat Trail
Goat Trail	addictionms	Captain Kana	addictionms	Captain Kana
jdubsl2	The Law	jdubsl2	Dan51 climbing	Much STIL!
Dan51, Red Rock	Dan51  Red Rock	Dan51   Red Rock	Dan51   Red Rock	Captain Kana Dan51
Dan51 climbing	Nice rocks	The Law Blair Witch	addictionms Blair Witch	Dan51
Trail 50	Trail 50	Top of Goat Trail	Looking back at Goat Trail	Captain Kana
The Law Goat Trail	Goat Trail	Dan51 Goat Trail	Dan51 Goat Trail	Dan51 The Law
Dan51	On Trail 50	jdubsl2	Captain Kana	Dan51 Blair Witch

The Goat Trail (click on it for larger view)

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