Chesebro with THE
OTHERS
Sunday
12.03.06
There were a couple
of cross-town rivalries going on this weekend in the Los Angeles
area. Well, ours was not really a rivalry, but rather a coming
together. Unlike the UCLA and USC football teams, the RCY and THE OTHERS
met in harmony for a pleasant day engaged in our favorite athletic
activity. The RCY met up with another mountain biking group that
apparently has no name and thus I have opted to call them "The Others."
While UCLA beat USC by a score of 13-9, RCY beat The Others by a score of
11-9. Eleven of us and 9 of them. At least those are the numbers
that I came up with....as soon as a group ride has 20 people, I have to stop
counting because all my fingers and toes are used up.
Gathering in both the lower
and upper Chesebro parking lots, the groups merged to begin the trek up the main
Chesebro Canyon. Arriving at the fork in the road, we took it. To
the right. Up the Baleen Wall climb.
Half the group
climbing up the fireroad towards the Baleen Wall
The Santa Ana winds were
blowing pretty fiercely and the riders that got to the top of the Baleen
Wall climb first claimed they were too cold to wait to be in a grand group
picture and so they continued on. Thus here is just a sampling of the
riders at the top of the climb.
Top row: DavidN,
Matthew, Rod, Ken, and Gary
Middle
row: Craig, Sheryl, BruceB,
Audrey, and Kenny
Bottom row: Jamshyd,
Robco, Joe, and SteveL
[Thanks to Terry for
taking this shot]
From here we headed down to
the crossroads and took the Sheep Corral Trail over to Shepherds Flat where we
met up with the rest of the group.
The rest of the
group solving world crises at Shepherds Flat....
Mario sitting
on a rock, the backs of Reuben and Nelson, (Joe again),
Andy,
(Rod again),
DavidR, (Jamshyd again), (Ken again), and Terry
Apparently BruceB thought that
the conversation was getting a bit boring and so decided to entertain
us....
Bruce crashed while
standing still.
A strong,
confident rider, he can also fall with aplomb....or is that with a
bomb?
The next leg of our journey
took us on the Sheep Corral Trail heading west towards Palo Comado. Some
photos of a few of the riders at one of the turns. I've focused more on
The Others for this report....
Our very own Rod
helped to "organize" the joint ride
We don't get to see
Mario very often these days,
but he didn't want
to miss this day
Nelson must have
made a special trip down from Mammoth Mountain just to join
us
Sheryl was
instrumental in putting this day together.
And she also
delighted us with fresh baked chocolate chip cookies after the ride. A
hearty thank you!!!
SteveL rounds the
turn on one of the finest mountain bikes ever made. Nice color,
too.
(with all you
lawyers out there, do I need to issue a disclaimer? I also ride a
gray Intense Tracer)
Gary can't believe
his good fortune in being able to ride with us
Ken, whom I believe
also helped to organize this ride, pedals thru the
turn
Craig focuses at the
turn
Audrey pushes thru
the turn
Just to show that
Bruce doesn't spend all of his time lying on the ground
RCY habits must rub off.
At the Palo Comado overlook, we began to break up into various
groups. Some had to get home early, others just wanted to do different
routes. I stuck with the group that headed up Palo Comado Fireroad, around
China Flats, and then back down Palo. A small contingent of us took the
Sheep Corral Trail back to Shepherds Flat for a final run thru Sulfur Springs
back to the parking areas.
After being served the cookie
hors d'ouerves by Sheryl in the upper parking lot, a contingent of us, joined by
English Dayve whom we had met on the trail, headed over to Chuy's for some
re-fueling and heavy philosophical ponderings to end a blustery, yet fine
weekend of mountain biking.
Have a great
week.
Robco Baggins
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RCYMountainBiking.com
