I want my two dollars!

Two Dollar Hill is scheduled to be closed on May 25th, as Sunset Trail is being re-routed to improve drainage and erosion. So Josh decided he needed to go up and become the fifth unicyclist ever to make it up. (The others: Beau, Stephen, Martin Charrier, and Jamey Mossengren, with Jess Reigel getting honorable mention for making it up the hard part and then falling later on). It took Josh just two tries, and he fully rolled it, which only Martin and Beau had done previously.

If you think you’ve got it in you, get up there in the next couple of weeks!

Other than that, we did a lot of playing on skinnies, did a slow race down Cinderella, and Kevin won Best Biff trying Ricardo’s Rock (though he has to try harder if he wants to compete with Ricardo).

One thing about the trail re-route on Sunset: It will improve the downhill leg of Tom’s Rob-ish Ride. Bringing a Coker down $2 Hill was a scary prospect, and the new alignment will be smooth singletrack with switchbacks. We’ll have to schedule a ride in June.

Kevin on the skinnies

Josh at the creek

Full set of pics

Posted in MUni | 1 Comment

Video on Schlumpf construction

Uni engineering geeks will enjoy this detailed look at how the Schlumpf is constructed. And given that it’s all done one at a time, by hand, you can see why one costs over $1000.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Two-sport day in Joaquin Miller

Sunday was John Muir’s birthday, so it seemed like a perfect day to go up to Joaquin Miller Park. Muir and Miller were friends, founding members of the California Writers Club, fellow bohemians and environmentalists. Muir almost certainly spent time visiting Miller in the area now known as Joaquin Miller Park, where Miller planted thousands of trees to combat the deforestation which had occurred during the 19th century.

I think both Muir and Miller would have approved of MUni (despite the reactionary Sierra Club position on cycling in the woods). They would have advocated for non-destructive ways for people to connect with the beauty of nature.

Speaking of connecting with nature, Ricardo connected pretty impressively with the dirt when he won Best Biff trying a tricky rock drop. But he also cleaned Chaparral for the first time, and we all had a good time on a beautiful spring day in the hills.

Josh got a portable disc golf basket for his birthday, so we had our first-ever round of Joaquin Miller disc golf. It was fun inventing holes, and the redwood area is relatively brush-free so we didn’t spend a lot of time searching for discs. Definitely a winner for a quick two-sport day (three if you count a 4-hour game of Ora et Labora).

Ricardo demonstrating a new dismount technique

Ricardo on the diving board

Joaquin Miller MUni

Joaquin Miller disc golf

Full set of pics

Posted in MUni | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Moab 2013

Another visit to Moab; three days of great weather, spectacular scenery, and incredible riding. We had a couple of mechanicals (Ricardo busting three spokes, and Rolf breaking his hub axle) on day 1, but everything went smoothly on days 2 and 3. No injuries, bumps and bruises only. And everyone pushed their riding limits, which is what it’s all about.

Until next year!

Slickrock Trail MUni

Ricardo on Upper Porcupine Singletrack

Ricardo on the slab

Ricardo downing a jug of water at trail's end

Ricardo’s pictures

Tom’s pictures

 

 

Posted in MUni | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Two sport day in Napa

We had a great two-sport day at Skyline Wilderness Park in Napa, with a bunch of sweet singletrack and some amazing rock gardens. The Best Biff competition was highly competitive, with Josh and Beau both contributing great entries, but Ricardo topped the list again with a full heels-over-head faceplant (with minor blood).

For future reference, the trails on the far side of the park are buffed singletrack, not a lot of technical stuff; for full-on MUni, stay near the park entrance and do multiple loops on Upper Skyline. Some of the other trails around there have promise as well.

The disc golf was really nice, almost no one on the course, quiet and beautiful conditions. Beau won, of course.

Video from Nathan:

Photos:

Beau cresting the hill

Ricardo, about to win Best Biff

Disc golf at Napa Skyline Park

Full set of pics

Posted in MUni | Leave a comment

Back to Rockville

Another road trip this weekend, this time up to Rockville Hills Park. Rockville Hills is so great that it’s possible to do two 5+ hour MUni rides with virtual no trail overlap. Last time we focused on Manzanita and Rock Gardens; this time it was the quarry, Cave Trail, and Cascade. We had Olof join us for the first time in forever, and he won Best Biff on a spectacular head-first slide coming off one of the quarry chutes.

Yet another beautiful “is this really still winter?” day in the Bay Area.

Olof in the quarry

Josh on the cliff edge

Josh on Cave Trail

Ricardo finishing Cascade Trail

Full set of pics

Posted in MUni | 2 Comments

Annadel MUni

We did a road trip up to Annadel (Santa Rosa) for the first time in a while, and John came down from Sacramento to join us. It’s a long drive either way, but totally worth it, because Annadel is a great park with long, rocky, technical trails. We really beat ourselves up on the uphill technical challenges, Josh rode the scary skinny at the lake, and I managed to beat out Ricardo for best biff. Definitely got reminded that we need to hit this place more often; it’s not any further than Santa Cruz.

Josh on the skinny

Josh riding the tree

John on Cobblestone

Full set of pics

Posted in MUni | Tagged , | 2 Comments

John’s Rob-ish Ride

Continuing the tradition of devising mixed road-and-dirt rides for big wheels (inspired by Rob’s Ride), John invited us up to Folsom for a birthday ride on a route he’d devised near the lake and the prison. We had a good group, 13 riders I think, with good riding weather. Four hours on the trail, followed by a sushi smorgasbord (provided by Jacquie), four kinds of cupcakes, and nine holes of disc golf at a nice course up there. It was a party!

The birthday boy

Corbin on the embankment

John's Rob-ish Ride

Full set of pics

 

Posted in MUni, Road | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Bonus Berkeley MUni

Since one is never enough, Ricardo and I went out on Sunday for another afternoon of MUni, this time over in Berkeley. Great riding and a beautiful sunset.

Berkeley MUni

Ricardo in the chute

Ricardo

Full set of pics

Posted in MUni | Leave a comment

Our latest victim

We took out Yu for his first-ever MUni ride, and subjected him to the full loop in Joaquin Miller, starting at Bishop’s Walk and climbing all the way to the top. He did great, Ricardo won Best Biff as usual, Josh got crazy air on some log jumps, and a good time was had by all.

Josh getting big air on the jump

Yu on his first MUni ride

Ricardo finishing Bishop's Walk

Full set of pics

 

Posted in MUni | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment