Just to remind people that we sometimes do things other than MUni around here, here’s a highlight video from a scrimmage we did at halftime of the Cal-Stanford women’s basketball game.
We had another ostensibly beginner’s ride in Joaquin Miller on Sunday, although the folks who showed up weren’t really beginners, so we wound up doing three hours of fairly strenuous MUni. Ricardo has an unnatural advantage in Best Biff competitions since he’s riding a 36″ wheel; he managed to whack his shin more than once. It was wet from this week’s rain, but beautiful as usual.
Josh and I redirected from Pacifica to Rockville Hills due to the weather and likely soaked trail conditions. It turned out to be cool and cloudy but not rainy at all, and we had a blast playing around in the mud in Fairfield, both cleaning things we hadn’t managed before. We wound up doing an almost entirely different ride than we did when we came up in February: the quarry, Cave Trail, and Rock Gardens instead of Manzanita and the waterfall.
We had a “beginner’s” ride up in Joaquin Miller as part of our training series. Marc isn’t exactly a beginner, but it’s been a while since he’s been out. Ricardo hasn’t done much MUni, and he brought along his 36″ for extra excitement. Everyone did great on a typically pleasant day in the park.
Gnarly ride next Saturday, followed by another beginner’s ride on Sunday.
Josh and I went up to Joaquin Miller for some bonus MUni on Friday. Beautiful weather, with almost no one in the park. I’ll be back tomorrow for more; see our ride schedule for details.
A little late getting to this, but in February I went down to Phoenix for Arizona MUni Weekend, and had a great time on their super-technical rocky trails. Definitely worth a trip for anyone who likes technical MUni.
I was too busy riding to take a bunch of pictures, but here are a few:
I took TD Jr. out into Wildcat and Tilden today for a fitness ride. Every time I go to Wildcat I remember why I don’t go to Wildcat; lumpy, potholed trails with cow shit all over them. (Including some which are closed to bikes–like a bike does more trail damage than a herd of cattle).
It was a gorgeous day, with views to and beyond the Farallons. Good climb, although there were some bits I wound up walking. Might have made it on a 24″, although I wouldn’t have made 20+ miles, which is what it wound up being after riding home down Tunnel Road.
Josh today became the second person (after me) to clean the entirety of Castle Park Trail from top to bottom. Castle Park is not as fun as Chaparral, which is why we don’t ride it very often, but the beginning and end are harder than anything on Chaparral (or anything that’s legal in Joaquin Miller).
I linked most of it today, but at the very end had a personal record unicycle cliffside retrieval, after my uni ghost-rode itself across the pathway and into the trees.
We walked back up on Cinderella, hit a couple of the jumps, and climbed some stuff that I don’t think has been climbed before on uni.
I finally finished test riding and mapping out the primary loop for “Tom’s Rob-ish Ride,” a mixed road and dirt ride designed for big wheels, starting at my house. (Modeled after the famous Rob’s Ride in Santa Cruz). It’s about the same distance as Rob’s Ride (20 miles), but has more climbing and descent, so it’s somewhat more challenging. There’s a good amount of big-wheel-appropriate singletrack, with a couple of good uphill and downhill challenges.
It took me 2:15, riding solo, which means it’d probably take 4-5 hours to do the full route with a group. There are shorter options, of course, although most of the fun dirt is right at the top.
I’ll be scheduling a group ride here at some point soon. It’s a good workout, for sure.
I’ve got the route, with elevation profile (460m of climbing) up on MapMyRide.
We were supposed to be heading out to Dimond, but took a wrong turn and wound up in Joaquin Miller instead. There were a ton of people out enjoying the park, mostly runners and downhill bikers. We improvised a bit on the route, going down Big Trees and Upper Palos Colorados, up $2 Hill, then Chaparral where we got to impress a bunch of the bikers.
