Steve's Mountain Bike Page
Turlock, California

Palm Springs, CA
February 12, 2006

Take me to the video. About a year ago MTBBill posted a great video and he described an epic 30 mile ride in the desert above Palm Springs, California. Shortly thereafter I convinced him to lead some of us on that ride and we had a blast. For nearly a year I'd been trying to get back down there but I couldn't get anybody to come along. So about two months ago I hatched a plan that ultimately worked. Tim (UncleMTB) is turning 50 this month so I put out a call for an UncleMTB 50th birthday Palm Springs ride. Meanwhile, I thought I'd better get in better shape so I broke my one ride per week rule and rode three times in one week around Christmas. That was really stupid because my knees got really inflamed, I had to get cortisone injections, and I had to take some time off the bike. So I got in only one long ride between Christmas and yesterday. I was really concerned about my fitness level but I had promised to drive Tim down and to add him on to my motel room for free. So I really couldn't back out.

MTBBill took up the task of organizing and leading the ride and 28 riders from all over California showed up for it. Unfortunately, however, Bill had a family emergency at the last minute and he could not do the ride. However, he still printed out maps, packed a cooler full of drinks, and drove the two hours from San Diego early in the morning just to shuttle Tim and me to the trailhead, and to give last minute instructions on how to find our way. What a guy!

It seems my memory is fading in my old age because for the past year I have been telling people that except for pushing our bikes uphill for two miles in deep sand at over 100 degrees last year, I didn't remember the ride being too difficult. Well, before my memory fades again let me say this a very difficult ride. About 20 miles into it, while pushing our bikes up a steep hill Daryl said to me: "Steve, I would not take my worst enemy on this ride". 

About a half hour into the ride I felt very sick and I thought I was going to die. I was both quite embarrassed and very concerned. I was already the slowest in the group and this made me even slower. There was no turning around and nearly 30 miles of the toughest riding I've ever done awaited me. Brad and another guy (who ultimately fell into a cactus and spent a half hour pulling needles out of his butt) stuck with me and they gave me encouragement. About a half hour later I realized what the problem was, my Denny's Grand Slam breakfast wanted out. The sickness and slow pace continued for several hours and occasionally I'd have dry heaves, but it just wouldn't come out.

At one point the trail got really narrow and I tried fitting in a tight space between a Yucca plant and a big rock. I stalled and fell into the Yucca. When I put my hand out to break the fall I learned why the common name for this plant is Spanish Bayonet. A sharp leaf drove into my finger like a nail, and simultaneously some lower leaves drove into my ankle. The finger hurt so much that I didn't pay much attention to my ankle until someone pointed out my sock was immediately soaked with blood. When I pulled the sock down blood was kind of gushing out of a hole. I'm really squeamish so I sat down and asked somebody to take care of it before I got sick. Two good Samaritans immediately got to work and one wrapped gauze around it while the other got some big bandages and duct tape out of my pack and they taped it up pretty well. Thanks guys! I don't remember when my other sickness went away but I think this took my mind off of it.

Despite all this the ride was great, I did a lot better this year than last year, going a bit faster and making more hills and technical stuff, and the scenery was spectacular. Last year we went down a really sandy wash and this year Bill plotted a "trail" around it. It seemed like we did a fair amount of bushwhacking and near the end there was a very technical section that few in my group rode. We were actually able to ride about a mile and a half of the two mile sandy section we had to hike through last year. Again, the temperature was quite warm on it, but not dangerously hot like last year. Fortunately I had no flats nor mechanicals, but since there were many among the others, I was never the last one so I didn't feel like an anchor.

There aren't too many long flowing downhills suitable for video so I was happy to finally reach the Hahn Buena Vista trail. This trail is very rocky and very narrow with steep drop-offs sometimes hundreds of feet below. I was trying to keep close to Daryl and Tim when I had a pretty good fall. Fortunately my armor gave me great physical protection but the fall really shook my confidence, causing me to take it easy for a while. About the time I got my confidence back I had another pretty good fall near the bottom of the trail so I was happy to be done with it. Somewhere on the ride I cut my face up, probably on some thorny bushes which lined much of the trails.

By the time we reached the last bail-out point I was really pooped and there was perhaps 45 minutes of daylight left. I was happy to see that nearly half the riders wanted to accompany me down the nasty fire road back to our starting point. About 30 minutes after we finished the rest of the group, who were pretty fast, came down the singletrack just as darkness was settling in. So we made a wise decision by bailing out when we did.

I want to thank everyone who came along and I'm sorry I was too slow to ride with many of you. Thanks to Winston and Eric for leading us and special thanks to Bill for planning the whole ride and showing up despite the fact he couldn't ride it. Congratulations to Daryl for completing his first wilderness epic! Once he got the hang of it he looked like he's been doing it all his life. And happy birthday to Tim!

Winston has some great photos and four videos posted here.

Photos by others are also posted here.

Click on an image to enlarge it.

Tim	Kernville crew	Bill and sons	Almost ready	Almost ready	Most of the crew
Winston (center)	Hike-a-bike	On the trail	On the trail	Ready to  move	Mechanical?
On the trail	Tim Daryl	On the trail	On the trail	Tim	Tim
Mechanical problem	On the trail	On the trail	On the trail	On the trail	Eric, Tim Brad
Creek crossing	Creek crossing	On the trail	On the trail	Brad	On the trail
On the trail	Break time	On the trail	Sandy hike-a-bike	The oasis	Birthday boy
On the trail	On the trail	On the trail	Daryl Tim	On the trail	On the trail
Lot of flats from this	Daryl, Tim Brad, ?,  ?	Hit a few thorns	Me post ride	My ankle	Eric

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