What a great weekend...
Some how I ended up with a Moutain Biking trip scheduled on the same weekend as the Tahoe ride. So, what's a guy to do??? BOTH!
For those who may not be familiar, Downieville, California was the home of the mountain bike downhill chapionships for a few years. It is a real small town in a steep canyon with the Yuba River running right through the town. Pine trees fill the V shaped valley.
Friday we drove up Tom, Rob, Jason, Aaron and of course me. We were gitty and ambitious. We stopped to find out what time the shuttles run. (The shuttles bring you up to "Packer's Saddle" - the top of the watershed we will go down. The town is at about 2,800ft, Packer's saddle is at about 7,000ft. We were counting on 2 runs - We would ride up, bomb down, and take a shuttle up.
We left our campground and started climbing. From about 3,000ft to 7,000ft on a hot day. By the time we hit the top, about 3 hours later including breaks, 3 of the 5 of us were completely out of water. We had covered 14 miles with 4,000ft and we were beat. Now the downhill, no time to rest this is a technical drop down butcher creek, it is a white knuckler. Accross a bridge and Jason says the gal in the shop suggested we take 2nd divide.
2nd divide is 2 miles longer than 3rd divide and has more climbing in it. We are now onto hour 4.5 and no water for the last 1.5. A few of us are bonking bad, finding it hard to fucus on the narrow trail. We were cursing both Jason and the girl in the shop who suggested this route. It became every man for himself. We all just decided to meet in the shuttle lounge. I was third down, went straight to the hose and filled 3 water bottles and drank them all in 10 minutes.
Oh - needless to say no second run that day, we were 2 hours behind our planned arrival time and missed the shuttles.
Day 2 - Saturday - We slept in and ate a breakfast that had everything - Breakfast burritos, eggs, bacon, oatmeal, pastries, fruit, and pancakes. This was not just the choices, this is what we all ate. We caught the 11:30 shuttle - I needed to get down and out of there to meet the FJ Mobile in South Lake Tahoe for registration.
We were dropped off by the shuttle and started picking our way to a new trail. We came to a junction straight or left. We went left (Whoops). We came to another juntion, we decided to go right. Down down down - DEAD END! To steep to ride up, so we carry our bikes up. OK - Let's try left. Down, down, down - Butcher Trail (We did this yesterday.) Back up again. Straight? NO dead end. OK - Back to where we turned left and go straight this time. Needless to say, this meant more climbing.
Finally we find the Polly Creek trail and get to go down "baby heads". Aptly named by the boulders that litter the trail that are the size of baby heads. The trail was incredible, some of the most beautiful single track I have ever seen, and long too. we eventually hooked back up with Butcher, but I am already beyond my leave time, and we are not even down yet. We cross a bridge and take a nice dip in the fridged creek.
This time we went Third divide, again an excellent trail. Loads of fun and jumps. Then to 1st divide, which we skipped the previous day. This winds along a cliff above Polly Creek. So far we are all well, no major falls. Then Tom gets a pinch flat, front tire goes down immediately, and as I round the corner, I hear and see somthing falling down the hill side. As I get up there, I see Tom laying on his back a solid 15ft down hill and his bike another 10 yds beyond that. Very lucky man - hurting, but nothing broke.
So, 4 of us are heading back, one started back earlier. We hit the streets of this little town, and all of a sudden the 13 year old in us starts coming out. We start racing up and down hills, pulling on each other, pushing one another. Then I see my life flash. I have Tom's rear tire and we are left. Jason and Aaron are to the right of us. They see the car speeding around the corner before we do. Tom and I are looking down, Tom Swings right, hits my front tire and I start to fall left, into the grill of the Jeep Cherokee. The Jeep lock up the tires and dives as far right as they can go. I some how manage not to go over, and steer hard back into Tom's tire. Phew! I could easily have been under his tire.
We get down, I jump in my car and take off for Tahoe. There is no way I will make it to the Registration. What to do? Call Brian in the Fitness Journal Mobile. They happen to be just pulling out of the Reg parking lot. They set me up nicely woth the registration. We had a great crew for Tahoe - Chris, Brian, me, John, Scott, Sarah, Matt, Tim, and Pat. That night, we had a huge pasta feed and plenty of beer set up. Thanks to all for the great food and beer.
We set out at 7:15. when we did this ride in September it was 29 or so, and we were all cold. This year... Perfect. I realize early on that all the time on the Mtn Boke burnt my legs. The first hill I fall way back. We climbed up to Emerald Bay. This climb rewards you with an incredible down hill. I saw 44+ at one time, but later determined that the max was 46mph. They had that section of the road closed, but you still had to be careful because Team in Training was there from all over the U.S., and they had a few support vehicles out.
From that point I was baby sat by Tim around about 1/5 of the lake as I kept dropping and he kept picking me up. I could help from time to time, but the slightest up hill, Tim would come around and help me again.
After lunch in Kings Beach 7 of the 9 regrouped and set a great pace line up to the final climb. Spooner Bay. After that climb, which was much easier than in September, we got the down hill and rollers back to South Shore. The bikes pretty much took up the entire 1st lane of the 2 lane HWY 50.
Once back at the FJ, we pull out the cooler and crash on the lawn with some beers. It's over... Wait, not yet. Brian and Chris' family are at the finish line waiting for us. They have chalked all our names, we have been back for 30 minutes and they are waiting for us 200 yds down the road. we put away the beer, and ride down to them. Hardly a sprint. The kids were soo happy, and they had excellent ary work.
We all worked hard and got around the 72 mile lake in 3:50 to 4 hours. We had a pretty good pace especially with the amount of elevation gains, and being at 6,000Ft elevation.
Keep you eyes open for some photos.
Hope you can make it next year.
JC#2
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