Berkeley Unicyclists | One world, one wheel

Afternoon MUni

Posted on July 21, 2014 by tom

Corbin was in town to do Sundays on Telegraph, and invited us out on a MUni ride in the afternoon. We got a good group together, including a new Nathan (his first ride with us) and Yu (his first ride with us since his new baby). After hitting a couple obstacles on campus (literally hitting them, in Nathan’s case; he landed on his tailbone), we cranked up to the trails above the stadium. We went up a little higher than the overlook (I conquered my new Personal Everest, the segment leading up to the overlook), did some side options, and then had a lot of fun coming down through the groves. Yu and Nathan were the early leaders for Best Biff, but Geronimo outdid them by biffing impressively on an obstacle, going back up, and biffing impressively again. Corbin did some amazing chutes, and everybody pushed each other to try fun stuff.

Full set of pics

Annadel weekend

Posted on June 24, 2014 by tom

Scott generously offered us his place in Healdsburg to spend the night, so we celebrated the solstice by riding up in Annadel, followed by a dip in the river and a BBQ. Much fun was had! We had some mechanicals on Rough Go (pinch flats, naturally) and some poison oak encounters (none yet resulting in outbreaks, thankfully), but otherwise a great day, with six riders and 5.5 hikers (including Mira in her stroller). We found a fun obstacle, a tailings pile with a bunch of loose shale, that everyone eventually made. Best Biff was won by Mike on Rough Go, though Dragon of course submitted some entries, and even me and Geronimo contributed.

Great food at Scott’s, a beautiful evening of friends and wine, breakfast and sunrise on the river. Life’s good!

Back to the dirt

Posted on June 15, 2014 by tom

After spending some weekends on roads on two wheels, it was time to get back to the dirt on one. It was a hot day so we went for a shaded ride in Dimond Canyon, with a jaunt up to take in part of Joaquin Miller. Josh unfortunately hurt his ankle playing around on the jump right at the start of the ride, but Best Biff was won later by Kevin, trying a highly inadvisable chute near the top of the Dimond switchbacks. That was second blood, though, with First Blood going to Scott’s pedal bite early in the ride.

Full set of pics

4/20 MUni

Posted on May 11, 2014 by tom

I’m late posting this, but I swear that has nothing to do with this ride having been on 4/20.

We went up to Joaquin Miller on that day, zipping around the bonus trail, Cinderella, uphill challenge on Chaparral, and then a bunch of playing around on skinnies at trail end. Dragon won Best Biff, as usual, but Geronimo gave him a run for his money, and took Unicycle Bowling again.

Full set of pics

Impressing the bikes

Posted on April 14, 2014 by tom

We crashed the Bicycle Trails Council of the East Bay ride out at Mount Diablo this weekend. It was perfect conditions on the mountain, green and lush with huge fields of wildflowers. Geronimo came out on his first MUni ride ever and kicked some ass while having what looked like a ton of fun. He also won unicycle bowling, but Ricardo edged him out for Best Biff trying to hit a berm on his 36″.

Full set of pics

John’s Rob-ish Ride

Posted on March 30, 2014 by tom

John graciously moved his birthday ride to after Moab, so this weekend we headed up there for 20 miles of big wheels on paths, dirt and mud up near Folsom Lake. A nice mellow ride with great weather and fun in the mud.

Moab day 3

Posted on March 29, 2014 by tom

For Sunday we headed to the other side of town to ride the in the Amasa Back area. The locals have been hard at work on this trail system, adding two new trails over the past couple of years; Hymasa, a relatively smooth singletrack designed for climbing, and Captain Ahab, one-way downhill singletrack with some pretty serious rock stacks (but not the exposure of Death On Your Left/Jackson’s Trail).

By a navigational error (never follow Josh) we wound up going up Captain Ahab, which turned out to be pretty strenuous for both riders and walkers. Up top, we headed out to the overlook, and then I split off with a small group to ride out to Pothole Arch, which turned out to be a pretty fun diversion (but tiring).

We came down on Captain Ahab, where I took Best Biff (at least of the riding I saw) on one of the rock stacks. After making it back across the creek (a lot of water this year), and hitching a ride back to town, it was all over except the beer. Another great Moab festival!

Full set of pics

Moab day 2

Posted on March 28, 2014 by tom

Day 2 was set up to be epic, with a shuttle up to Porcupine Rim promising almost 4000 feet of descent. For the second time we wound up in a good snowstorm at the top of the shuttle, and descended from that into the desert, a transition that’s always fantastic.

Some people did the full 16-ish miles, some people cut off to the old trailhead for a 6-ish mile ride, and Jamey went nuts and decided to ride the entire loop from town for a 35-mile epic. I actually didn’t see much in the way of biffs, as self-selection kept people on the portions of trails they were comfortable with; I’ll have to give Best Biff to An’So one one of the low speed, straight-down falls that’s so common on the traverse section of Porcupine Rim.

They’ve made some of the obstacles at the bottom a little easier, but there’s still a ton of fun riding, and I was stoked to get the slab before the final creek crossing. Eight hours on the trail, quick dinner at the Bar M (meh), followed by some ice cream, and we were ready for Sunday.

Moab Day 1

Posted on March 28, 2014 by tom

People dribbled into Moab at different times on Friday. My group, which included Nathan and Kris, got into town a little after noon and went out to hit the Slickrock Trail. Because of the late start we decided not to go for the whole trail, so we played around on the Practice Loop, went to the practice loop overlook, and then took a jaunt out to Lance’s Rock, where fortunately no one dropped anything off the cliff.

Best Biff was won by Karl, whose extra wheel got in the way as he tried to ride up out of the sand pit at the 4×4 crossing. (Extra bonus point for winning Best Biff with an already-broken arm; additional bonus point for having broken his arm riding one of Josh’s skateboards).

Going to the mountaintop

Posted on March 16, 2014 by tom

The Moab training series concluded this weekend with the longest and tallest ride of the year, climbing to the peak of Mount Tam in an all-day epic ride. The Bay Area was on display, with beautiful riding weather, outstanding views, and an only-in-the-Bay sunset with wisps of fog spilling through the Golden Gate.

In addition to Bill, who just jumped on the Moab bandwagon and wanted to get in some practice, we a new Chris on his first ride with us, along with Scott, Dragon, and Sabrina.5 hiking along. Dragon won Best Biff (with bonus Unintentional Coasting points), but Bill beat him out for unicycle bowling, both on the roots at the top of Tenderfoot.

The training series turned out to be really popular; I think we probably had at least 15 different riders over the course of the past couple of months, and double-digit participants on most rides. After Moab I’ll be switching into bike training mode for Strawberry Fields, but as usual I’m up for MUni rides in any free moments.

Next stop, the promised land!