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| Kane diggin' the Subaru out of the snow. |
From Harmony Ridge Market: Round Mountain-South Yuba-Pioneer...A BEAST OF A RIDE!
The toughest HTFU ride since moving back to NorCal. Four of us (Kane, Terry, Simon and I) set off on this beast of a ride to
Round Mountain to South Yuba to Pioneer Trail. This ride involved ~52 miles of poison oak covered single-track mixed together with some poison oak infested paved road and gravel roads that earned us 8000+ feet of climbing. There were tough switchbacks, fast rolling single-track, and super tight single track that is not meant for a beginner.
Highlights:
Simon drew first blood. ~14 miles in, on a tight piece of single track, he had one foot clipped in, one out and oops, he leaned the wrong way. Fortunately, he only fell several feet down the ravine toward the river, his bike, however, tumbled end over end much farther. Amazing that Simon only ended up with some lacerations on his lower legs; and his bike came out relatively unscathed. He Hardened The F. Up and rode on.
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| Arm warmers keeping the poison oak away. |
The next trip down the ravine was Kane's. On a fast narrow downhill he caught a bit too much of the edge and the dirt gave out. Luckily for him it was all loose dirt and he was able to slide with his bike about 15 feet down and only suffered a nice leg bruise and some trail rash.
While Kane is always a monster, Terry was just eating up the technical single track climbs while Simon was simply pushing himself to finish his longest ever mtb ride. We all took turns at times hanging with Simon to keep him going (but he was determined). His longest ever mtb ride was 35 miles, so he was hurtin, but hanging like a champion!
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| Getting ready to hit South Yuba trail |
After reaching the town of Washington at 35+ miles in (we thought it might be 25-29 miles in), with three of us nearly out, or completely out of water, we refueled at the local store (I applied Technu for the 3rd time) and set off on the last climb of the day, a 5+ mile paved climb with tough switchbacks and steep inclines. This climb was my highlight of the day. I attacked the climb like any other, just trying to keep my momentum up, sitting as much as possible but standing an awful lot. The next thing I new, I could not see anyone behind me. I keep pushing it, my legs were screaming but I was not listening. I knew this was the last major climb of the day so I was selling out! Started to get the cramp vibes with ~ a mile left but was able to ride through them and whatdoyouknow a
Strava KOM on that climb! Helps that only 5 people have registered a climb, but I'll take it!!!
Kane and Terry waited up for Simon and eventually we hit the Pioneer trail for the last several miles of mostly fast, downhill, flowy fun. Unfortunately, due to my long wait at the top of the climb, Strava cut-off (should have paused it apparently) so the last 10 miles are lost, but whatever. An Epic ride with good guys, and great prep for PMBAR and other upcoming events.
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| Pausing for a photo opp |
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| The snack that powered me to a KOM on the final climb |
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| Simon's bloody legs after his spill |
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Terry crushing a switchback up the final climb
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| Chillin' with a killer view of the canyon |
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| Lower right of pic, Simon is climbing back up after his spill |
