Chesebro Canyon
Thanksgiving Day
11-24-05
 
A Lucky 7 of us arrived at Chesebro for our annual "Morning Thanksgiving Day ride preparation for the traditional afternoon Gorging with The Family."  But burning calories was only one of the many goals of today's ride.  Other goals included enjoying the beautiful scenery under clear blue skies, enjoying comraderie with fellow mountain bikers, and asking all that we met on the trail that new question that burns in the minds of RCYers everywhere...."who is amy?" 
 
But I digress.  DavidR, Dean, Joe, Andy, George, SteveK, and I rode into Chesebro and decided to start with the tough climb up the Modelo Trail.  At the first intersection we took a left turn on the fireroad that would take us towards the intersection with the road that would take us into Palo Comado Canyon....that would take us.....
 
The fireroad snakes over the top of the ridge as the group assembles at the intersection with the fireroad down to Palo Comado
 
Under clear cyan skies riders descend towards Palo Comado
 
Reaching the start of Palo Comado, we then did the long climb up to China Flats, then up to Albertson Fireroad where, after asking yet another group of clueless MTBers "who is Amy?", we turned right and headed towards the "short cut" trail that would take us to the back side of the Power Poles.
 
Steve K heads down fireroad towards the "short cut" trail
 
Andy negotiates a section of the Short Cut Trail thru a tunnel of recently burned trees
 
Steve leads Dean on the Short Cut Singletrack
 
Colorfully garbed Dean on the monotone trail
 
A smiling George emerges from the trees
 
Then came the long climb up the backside of the Power Poles Fireroad.
 
Dean pedals below a huge hill of rocky boulders
 
Joe enjoys the climb up the burned fireroad
 
After a brief rest at the top of the climb, we started the fast descent of the Power Poles Fireroad.
 
 
 
 
 
 
If you look at the last photo you can see where the Power Poles Fireroad continues on straight to the 3 Hills FR and also where the Gas Pipe/Broken Spoke ST goes to the left and the singletrack that leads to Shepherds Flat goes right.  After a brief RCY huddle, Joe and George decided to head back via the 3 Hills while the rest of us wanted the excitement of going down Sulfur Springs Trail.  So a quick pedal over to Shepherds Flat and then on down Sulfur.
 
David leads the pack over the technical, rocky dropoff on the Sulfur Springs Singletrack
 
3 Riders....Dean negotiating the technical terrain, Andy with his loose-spoked rear wheel kicking up dust,
and Steve trying not to bite off his tongue after cleaning the rocky drop-off.
 
We soon arrived back at our vehicles and Joe and George pull in only a few minutes later.  Altogether we each had put about 16+ mountain miles under our belts, but I would bet that that was nothing compared to what we would put under our belts a little later in the day.
 
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.
 
Robco Baggins
 

______________________________________________________________

RCYMountainBiking.com