RCY RIDE
REPORT
Up Dead Cow
(or Andy's AssBackward
Ride)
Saturday
12-16-06
Four riders showed up in the
parking lot at the corner of Lindero Canyon and Kanan Roads on an overcast
Saturday morning. The black pavement was glistening wet from an earlier
drizzle, but our hopes were high that we could get in our ride before the
predicted heavier rains arrived. The usual route from this location
has been to start by climbing the Hidden Meadow Trail. The ride has a
historical origin of being called "Reuben's BackDoor". But Saturday saw
history in the making as Andy had proposed a ride variation that shall
hereafter be known as "Andy's AssBackward Ride"......beginning the
ride with a climb UP the infamous Dead
Cow Trail! Now, I had my doubts....this trail is a tough
downhill, but an uphill?....had Andy lost his
mind?
But I must admit.....Kudos
to Andy! This proved to be a great ride with backward variations that made
for a totally new perspective of old areas! But let's start at the
beginning....or the end, as it were.
Matthew, John, Andy and I left the
parking lot at about 7:45, heading north on Lindero Canyon Road, turning left
onto King James Court, hitting the dirt at the bottom of Dead Cow.
John climbing near the
bottom of Dead Cow with clouds hanging low over the
mountainside.
John was alone among us in
being able to climb the entire trail without walking.
3 riders in yellow, red and
blue can be seen in the lower portion of the photo climbing Dead
Cow.
Andy provided this photo of
Robco losing his line as he failed midsection in an attempt
to climb up a rocky
section. But this was
only one of about 3 or 4 spots I could not clear.
(In fact, I think that this
is the area in which I endoed last summer and cut up my
face)
We arrived at the top of the
technical climb no later than 8:30. And surprisingly it was not as hard as
I thought it would be. About 1 1/4 miles of tough, but challenging
pedaling--more doable than I would have at first thought. I look forward
to the next time.
From here we headed towards the China
Flat area, taking a brief detour to explore a previously unexplored trail.
As we wound our way towards the back of China Flat, whom did we come across but
none other than a couple of renegades riding with another
group.
John chats with David and
Reuben who were riding with another group.
Apparently they did not
look kindly on the idea of climbing Dead Cow....or we smelled
bad.
Leaving the renegades we headed
towards the area that is the top of Albertson Fireroad. Then it was a
quick ride down Albertson until we came upon the solar-powered fence that the
horse people down in Simi had erected to keep out n'er-do-wells like us.
However, I guess the "renegade" nature of David and Reuben brought out our
rebellious side as we threw our bikes and bodies over the fence to get to
the 'public land' that is just beyond the fence.
On the "other side", we
infiltrated the 'private' fireroad for a couple of hundred
yards.
Quickly we arrived at the 'legal'
singletrack that rollercoasters along the ridge line.
Here the riders take in the
view along the rollercoaster ridgeline trail.
Beautiful with colorful
wildflowers in the spring, the trail was now overgrown in spots
with the woody autumn
growth that scratched up those of us without
leggings.
At the end of the singletrack we took
the fireroad down and around to the always fun "mini-marbles" singletrack, which
eventually would bring us back down to the Albertson Fireroad.
John with tongue
descends the fun trail
And here comes Andy....who
almost ran me off the trail
A determined Matthew
rounding the bend
And here is a shot that
Andy took of me, warts and all
On Albertson Fireroad we stopped for
the traditional fruit banquet provided by The Appleman. Then it was down
to the street and over to the final leg of our magical backwards journey--the
climb up and over the Hidden Meadow Trail. With about 14 miles of tough
riding and 2500 feet of climbing we were happy to be back at the parking
lot. Just about the time we got the bikes all loaded up it started to
rain. So we got lucky....a surprisingly great backwards ride
under ideal, dry and cool skies and nice hot coffee and
talk at the local Bean Scene to end the day.
Ribbit,
Robco
Baggins
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