Most people in southern
California would have found Saturday's grey, overcast skies depressingly gloomy.
But not the ten riders who showed up for the Malibu Creek State Park ride. The
cool, cloudy weather provided ideal conditions in which to climb the yet always
tough Bulldog Motorway. About 1700 feet of elevation gain in 3.4 miles.
Phew....I'm tired just thinkin' about it.
The ten riders were
George, SteveK, Reuben, Rod, Giang, Joe, BradJ,
BillJ, John, and me. And with the exception of John who had to turn back
at the top of Bulldog and me behind the camera, here we are at the top of the
long climb. It was the Johnson brothers first time climbing the Dog and
the jury is still out as to whether they will ever forgive us.
The
Group
Going back a few
minutes in time, here is SteveK approaching the final
yards
(meters for
you metric afficionados) of the climb.
And here is Rod
finishing the climb
And if you think
we were slow pedaling to the top of Bulldog,
how about this
fellow on this monkey flower plant?
A closeup of the
caterpillar with all his lubed cogs exposed
Appetites were
whetted by the steep climb
After rest and refueling, the
nine remaining riders headed towards the Corral Canyon parking
area.
Giang flies down the
fireroad
Joe trying to catch
gnats on the way down
A stylized view of
Steve and his Ellsworth heading towards Corral Canyon
Shortly we reached
the dirt lot at Corral Canyon
From here we took the street
for a bit before turning left onto the fireroad that would take us to the
"elevator" for the ride down to Malibu Canyon Road.
Looking down to
a hazy Malibu Canyon Road
At the bottom of the elevator
we headed thru Tapia Park (less Reuben who took the road back). Just
before the entrance to the Tapia Spur Trail, Brad had a chain problem and so
Bill headed back to assist and they both ended up also taking the road
back. Thus it was just 6 of us who took the Spur singletrack over to
Malibu Creek State Park for the final revolutions back to the cars.
Five of us headed over to the
Santa Fe Cafe for some eats. We were met there by special guest star
DavidN, adorned with a strikingly fashionable arm sling, at the end of his first
week of recovery from last Saturday's broken clavicle
incident.
Have a great
week!
Robco
Baggins
