RCY
RIDE REPORT
Sullivan Canyon via
Caballero Canyon
HOT and HUMID but
HAPPY
Saturday
07-22-06
I woke up this morning and at 5:00
A.M. the thermometer on my patio already said 75 degrees. Not a
good sign when one is planning to later climb dirt roads on a mountain
bike. But the temperature notwithstanding, preparations were made to
arrive at the Caballero Canyon trailhead before 7:30 a.m. 100 ounces of
water and ice in my camelbak, a water bottle of electrolytes, sunscreen,
sunglasses and I was as prepared as I could be as I met 5 other riders at the
trailhead--Rod, John, Matthew, George, and Reuben. (We later met Nelson,
who had ridden from home, at the top of Caballero.) So with the heat
starting to bear down on us, it was up Caballero we headed, hoping for lots of
cool shadows.
With Reuben
following, George points out some trail maintenance work
--widening a
narrow section--that I did in Caballero Canyon earlier this
week
Rod leads Matthew
and John past the same point
With the addition of Nelson it was
seven strong who sweated the climb up dirt Mulholland towards the
entrance to Sullivan Fireroad. But we were soon back down to six riders
when we lost Reuben who decided that climbing back from the bottom of Sullivan
in a barbeque was not his idea of fun. Thus the six remaining riders
headed down the fireroad and the paralleling up and down singletrack
sections that led to the entrance to Sullivan Canyon. But as we started
down to the canyon bottom, Nelson began to feel a bit of nausea from having just
pushed up some of the hot singletrack climbs and so we stopped to let him
recover.
Nelson sips some
electrolytes as he recovers....he had no problems the rest of the
ride
As always, the ride down Sullivan was
great....and an added bonus today was the coolness (temperature-wise and
other-wise) of going downhill under the shaded canopy of sycamores and
oaks.
With his weight over
the back, John drops over a log in the canyon
At the bottom of the canyon, Matthew
served hors d'oerves of "hot" caramel with apples.
George dips his
apple in caramel
Before we headed back up the "cool"
canyon, we checked the time and temperature on Rod's bike
computer....
Bottom of Sullivan
Canyon
Time--9:03/Temperature--76°
Not too
bad
As we pedaled up the canyon, we
stopped at a little clearing that John saw on the way down....and had a chance
to further nurture the child in us.
John practices his
swinging techniques
Matthew attempts the
stand-and-swing technique
Robco just
enjoys
Finishing the swinging, we continued
a long slow climb up the canyon, until we came to the point where
the shaded tree covering ends and the trail makes the final hot and
steep climb out of the canyon. Another check of Rod's
computer....
Before the final
climb out of Sullivan
Time--10:27/Temperature--101°
And at the top of Sullivan Canyon
where the trail hits the fireroad....
Top of Sullivan
Canyon
Time--10:40/Temperature--114°!!!
Hot enough for you?
Wet, hot and tired,
Matthew and Rod rest at the top of the hot climb.
Did I mention that
it was HOT?
George and John had gone on ahead,
and so it was the final four who headed back to Mulholland for the ride down to
Caballero Canyon and our cars. Rod, Matthew, Nelson (who eventually got a
ride home from Rod), and I headed over to the air-conditioned shelter of
the Greystoke Grill to rehydrate, refuel and reminisce about how
crazy one had to be to ride on a day like today.
Warmly yours,
Robco Baggins
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RCYMountainBiking.com
