We had so much fun at MUni Weekend that we went up to do it again. It was a gorgeous autumnal two-sport day. We hit the rock gardens on Lower Skyline on the way up, Manzanita on the way down, and then did most of the disc golf course as the sun started down. It was fun and relatively uneventful; we’d have to stretch to come up with a Best Biff, and at disc golf we had just one disk hunt. Glad to get out there before the rains come, not that the rains will stop us from doing MUni.
We had a beautiful weekend up in the wine country, with great people, great riding, great disc golf, and a great party. Riders spanned from Michael, on his first-ever MUni ride (and his second and third), to Mike and John who were at the first CA MUni Weekend in 1996. No real injuries (though Kevin got a cut on his chin doing a superman faceplant, Best Biff for the weekend), no major mechanicals, just a lot of fun riding.
Saturday (Rockville Hills Park)
Sunday (Annadel State Park)
Thanks to everyone who showed up, it was a blast!
We went up to Annadel for our last scouting ride for California MUni Weekend (next weekend! Registration $10 in advance, $20 on site, get signed up now!). Finding: It rocks! And it has rocks, tons of them, all the way up, all the way along the ridge, and all the way down. Should be a really fun ride and a great way to end the weekend (well, not counting the pool party afterwards).
I won Best Biff trying to get up and over a boulder (chest-plant), though Josh tried to beat me by Supermanning over the last rock on the trail.
It should be a great weekend; hope y’all can make it, and thanks to Chris and Josh for helping scout.
Ricardo and I (along with Nancy and Rich hiking) went up to scout the main venue for California MUni Weekend (October 11-13, be there!). We’ve ridden at Napa Skyline Park a few times, but we still have a lot to explore. On this trip we discovered that:
We’re putting a climb on Buckeye and a climb/descent on Manzanita on the route for CMW.
After Ricardo won Best Biff again, we learned a new dance where you alternately grab all of the injuries you’ve had over the past month (side, butt, hip, shoulder). Hey, Macarena!
Anne-Sophie graced us with her presence this week and we hit the Dimond Canyon trails. Ricardo was trying not to get re-injured, so he actually let An’So win Best Biff (chivalrous of him).
On the way down, trying to hop up a curb on Mountain Boulevard, my 2005-era KH/Onza crank failed. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever had to walk (or jog) out of a MUni ride due to equipment failure. I’ll be running 165s for a little while until I can get replacements from Bedford’s back stock.
I’m finally caught up on photos, this set from our trip to Pacifica with Chris a few weeks ago. Gnarly trails, lots of biffs into the walls, no serious injuries this time. Things were fogged in (it’s Pacific) so we didn’t get much of a view from the top.
Stefan also provided some pics and video:
(Anyone know how to make G+ embed in WordPress?)
Two of us (Jimbo and Tom) represented Berkeley at the UniNationals in Pittsburgh. There were interesting and challenging courses in the road and MUni categories, and both of us did well in the Old Guys age group and the events we competed in (Tom won Old Guy MUni Uphill). Jimbo put together a basketball team which won the national championship. Some folks who’ve been visitors here (like Scott Wilton and Tomas Nemecek) did really well in overall placements.
It was a fun event with a lot of time spent outside (which is always better, right?)
Catching up on photos and posts:
Ricardo invited us all to Joaquin Miller for his birthday party. It was a relatively mellow ride, with hikers along. Ricardo did clean Chaparral, including the diving board, before his 40th. Like I always say about my own riding, he’s trying to become better than he is before he’s not as good as he used to be.
It’s been years since we’ve been down to Soquel Demo Forest, and the big climb has been one of my personal Everests since I made it 90% of the way up at California MUni Weekend in 2007, to the bottom of the hard part at the top.
It’s been so long since we’ve been back that they’ve taken out the hard part at the top; the trail’s been re-routed with a gentler grade. It’s still a big slogging climb and at least I conquered what’s left.
Braille Trail is really amazingly fun, a ton of stunts and chutes that seem to go on forever. It almost makes up for the big slogging climb up and the big slogging climb out. Fun was had by all, good biffs were had by most, but I think the best biff came from someone not in our group; a biker came down and hit one of the teeter-totters fast, thinking it was a ramp. He was a bit surprised when the thing teetered on him and he wound up face-planting.
A group of us went down to Watsonville for the Strawberry Fields Forever ride. Fortunately I had the camera so you can’t see that I had an extra wheel; we did have four geared 36ers, two recumbents, and five bikes, all doing the 100km route. Great weather and great riding by all.
