Muse back!
September 16, 2008 / Tuesday
El Corte de Madera
Also known as Skeggs. Woohoo, new park!
Aaron's been trying to get me to ride here all summer, and on Sunday I finally did. This park is fun! Challenging at times, but definitely fun.
Challenging: Rocky stuff on steepish-for-me descents, singletrack with a ways to tumble should I fall off the downhill side of the trail (I have a bad habit of looking where I don't want to go), and a goodly number of steepish climbs that require me to keep cranking and stay balanced.
Fun: Rocky stuff on steepish-for-me descents, flowy singletrack.
Bonus: Shade. I got to wear a jersey with short sleeves without worrying about getting a biker tan on my arms.
Since this park is big, we did only a section of it. Since I want to keep track of where I've ridden, I've traced our route on the map below. We rode the pink trails in one direction and purple trails in both. (Click for larger map.)
Here are some of the more notable trails from the ride, in chronological order, which you can use to figure out which way we rode.
Manzanita - We rode down this. Certain parts of it were challenging for me, but I quite enjoyed the skills workout.
Crossover - We took this to Steam Donkey. I thought I was going to fall off the side, and had to focus so I wouldn't. It's good for me, but I keep thinking if I continue to trails like that, one of these days I am going to fall off the side. I don't trust my focus; I'm easily distracted.
Steam Donkey - We rode down this. It was steepish. Short, though.
Blue Blossom - We took this after Spring Board back toward Steam Donkey. Flowy, with short little ups and downs. I bet this is a nice ride in the other direction also.
Steam Donkey - We rode back up this. Actually, I walked half of it. That was painful.
Sierra Morena - This got us back to the parking lot. Way better than taking Skyline.
In all, we did 2,598 feet of climbing over 11.7 miles. Definitely steeper than I'm used to. I finally learned to shift my weight back past my seat and even below it a bit, mostly out of necessity. And the next day, my triceps (the long head, which my doctor says I don't work enough) felt sore, most likely from being way too tense on the descents. As for the climbs, I lost count of the number of times my front wheel felt weightless (and thus tractionless) going uphill. Is that what mountain biking on a unicycle feels like?
Shortly after embarking on this ride, realized I didn't have my gloves. I never ride without gloves; my hands would be toast if I crashed. Still, I didn't feel like turning back, so I (stupidly) decided to just be careful (challenging trails be damned!) and to try not to fall (as if I'd be trying to fall otherwise). I didn't fall, but I did have to catch myself a couple times, which resulted in a bazillion (okay, several) tiny splinters embedding themselves into my left palm. Ouch.
Upon returning to the car, I opened the trunk and found one of my gloves peeking out from under my shoe. Out of sight, out of mind; no wonder I forgot it. Now, where was my other glove? I found it when I took my helmet off. I'd ridden with it on my head the entire time. I'm so awesome.
And now you can all behold my awesomeness too.
September 16, 2008 11:12 PM | Mountain
Comments
I can totally imagine riding that trail. And screaming my head off in abject fear the whole time.
With my glove stocking out of my neckline or waistband or some such.
Well done! (splinters?)
Posted by: Jennie at September 19, 2008 03:31 PM