Great ride. We'll have more pics to post one of these days, they're safely stuck inside the camera at the moment. ;)
Chris, Shannon and I started off about 7:30 from the end of the dirt road. Man was it cold! A little frost on the ground is pretty extreme for us Socal types. ;) We kept a decent pace heading up the dirt road. I know on the bigger bikes it takes about a half hour to ride out to where most people had parked. I was a little concerned that we'd have a hard time catching up, but that wasn't an issue. One guy in a Jaguar headed down the dirt road while we were getting ready. I guess that didn't work out so good because he passed us again heading back out while we were riding. He did catch up with us near the top of Holy Jim though so I guess it did all work out.
Cranking up lower Holy Jim at about switchback #6 or so we came across Jeff, Ken, and Mike. I guess Jeff's chain had snapped or something. OK, so now we're not in last place any longer. ;~) There were a bunch of other guys heading up as well. One guy was sporting DFT style cheapy plastic pedals, but he went one step further because on the right he only had a spindle! Props though, because he was making some of the tough switchbacks.
We got to the top of Lower HJ and found the big group. Some guys headed off to ride up Upper HJ, that's definately not the fast way for me. After a bit we kept cranking up MDTT. That climb is in a lot better shape than it used to be. No real issue these days. At the top we had another big regroup before starting the Coldwater decent.
IMHO, the weather was pretty ideal. Maybe a little cool, but damn, it could easily have been raining on and off if that storm had moved in any quicker. :-o
Most of us started off down CW while Darin and Joel stayed at the top after deciding to wait a bit longer for the broken chain gang. Just before the CW turnoff from UHJ I almost ran into Ken. The broken chain gang had arrived! We managed to yell the news loud enough to save Ken, Mike and Jeff the rest of the climb.
Heading down CW I was amazed how good of shape the trail was in. The ground was tacky and all the bushes were cut back. Many thanks to all who bushwacked it!
Before long we got to the fun switchbacks. A group of us were gathered at the first really tough right hander when Darin came along and hit it at speed. Damn! I had all but dead stopped and hopped the front to make it clean. Maybe he just got lucky. ;~)
Mark, Shannon, Chris, and I worked the switchbacks quite a bit. We tried to get multiple lines on some of the really tough ones. Those things are fun! At that point we were way behind the pack so we blazed, did the two big hike-a-bikes and not surprisingly found the rest of the group at the top of the 2nd HaB. That's always a nice spot to hang before heading into the steeps!
The steeps start off steep, and then get steeper! ;) I can't claim a clean heading down that part. A least I only ended up with 2 or 3 foot dabs, and zero body dabs! Eventually we got down to the tricky chute, right switchback section. A few of us gave it a try, but no cleans. Darin did a very stylish flying dismount. ;~) The problem with that section is that the right corner is off camber and loose. If it was possible to retry I think we could get it, but climbing back up is pretty much impossible.
After that there's a bit more fun twisty steepish stuff, and then you drop out at the rim of the rock quarry. There was a nice sized peanut gallery of the fast guys on the next ridge watching the rest of us finish up. I'm sure it was fairly entertaining. ;)
From there we headed over to ITT and the sag crew with the water. Right at the start of ITT I found an unopened gallon of water just sitting there with a bunch of trash. I figured "what the hell, looks good!", so Shannon and I split it. Of course after about 1/4 mile we found the real water stop. Party!
ITT seemed to be a little harder climb than usual. Maybe that's because we'd already been riding for 5 hours, not sure. ;~) ITT is in pretty good shape though and it's got very little wasted down. Near the top it was getting a bit brisk because that side of the mountain was mostly in the shade. Luckily, right at MDTT it was nice and sunny. After hanging a bit some guys opted to head over and drop down HJ. Once the 'core group got to the top it was Trabuco or death though. ;). What's first? The big a$$ biatch of a climb up MDTT. I'm sure everybody was digging that after already putting away 7000+ feet of vert on the big bikes. I stopped at the top of West Horse and got some shots of everybody as they went sailing by. No wimping out now!
We all regrouped at the top of Trabuco as the sun was just going down. I pumped my rear tire hard before heading down figuring there would be a lot of rocks that I couldn't see. I was the first to start off. That upper part through the woods was kick ass fun. It almost seemed tacky despite all the leaves. I stopped to get a pic of my bike next to the WS Christmas tree, and then a 2nd time to get a shot of the sunset which was really cool. Way down in the lower woods section it was getting really dark, and I started going slower. Just before the end of the trail I hear "rider up" and it was Chris. He doesn't ever seem to slow down when it gets dark. Dangers that can't be seen just aren't real. ;~)
Shannon, Chris and I stopped for a little regroup at the main Trab/HJ parking area and then kept on blazing. I was right behind Chris letting him pick the invisible line. ;) Amazingly, I never hit anything huge, although I saw a couple giant rocks, but only when I passed right along side them. We were flying.
Got back to the cars at 5:30!
Great, memorable ride!