TampaLand .. May 16, 2004

The day started off surprisingly cool on an overcast morning that saw a dozen RCYers out in force to tackle TampaLand.  Even the notorious road rider Uncle Louie showed up, albeit without water, thinking that that would be his excuse for not riding.  But alas, Jamshyd the Dry and Matthew the Appleman supplied Louie with a bottle and without further ado we proceeded to head up the trail that parallels Tampa Avenue.  Arriving at Sesnon Street we turned towards the west and pedaled the trail paralleling the street.  Eventually we came to the area that is Gas Company property.  Although there were some newly posted signs here and there(apparently none of us could read them what with our advanced ages and no one had their reading glasses with them) and so we just had to climb over the fence (I am assuming that the signs must have said something like "climb over this fence.")   Anyway, on we pedaled, up the fireroad towards the Olive Grove briefly detouring to explore another trail which proved fruitless.

Upon reaching the Olive Grove we headed down the always fun Luge.   Here is the group near the bottom of the Luge.

From left: Matthew, Nelson, SteveW, Rod, George, Jamshyd, Mario, Mitch, Aaron, Joe, Dean

And here are a couple of shots of Joe and SteveW (or Uncle Louie to his friends) coming down the treacherous Luge.

Continuing on down the trail we eventually arrived at Brown's Canyon Road.   It was here that Joe pulled a double Joe, taking Uncle Louie with him for an early return to civilization.  Thus the 10 remaining riders pedaled up the steep pavement.

As you can see from the picture above, the sky was clearing and the day was heating up.  Thus we looked forward to the plunge into the coolness of Devil's Canyon.

Jamshyd starting down the canyon....notice the new green growth 

sprouting from the charred hillsides from last year's fires.

Walking a tricky water crossing in Devil's Canyon

Arriving at the end of the canyon, we paused for the traditional apple break with refreshments provided by The Appleman.

This being Devil's Canyon, could that be the serpent's hand at the right offering his

temptation?  Apparently Dean has already been affected.

More apple crunching by George, Mario, and Doc Rod

Having mistakenly slighted Jamshyd on yesterday's ride,

 Matthew makes a special offering today of a gift-wrapped apple.

It was at about this point that the group got a little smaller.   Mitch and Aaron proceeded on while the remaining 8 did a little exploring.   While hiking up a new steep trail we spied upon a snake in the rocks. 

Here is the rattler's rattle

As we proceeded to pick our way thru various trails and fireroads to work our way over from the end of Devil's Canyon (Topanga Cyn) over to De Soto, I stopped to take some shots with my macro lens of some of the beautiful southwestern flora.

A closeup of some wildflowers hugging a rock

As I stared at this beautiful scene, I think the effect of those apples eaten in Devil's Canyon began to affect my mind in an hallucinatory fashion.   Although Uncle Louie had previously departed with Joe, I coulda sworn I suddenly saw Steve emerge from underneath that rock just like the snake we saw a little earlier (he is a lawyer, you know)....

I looked a little closer.....

This was getting a little too wierd and so I figured I better catch up with the group before my mind went completely. 

The rest of the ride was pretty uneventful.  We did get a little lost trying to get to De Soto, but we eventually found our way back.  A few of us then went to the local shopping center where we sat in front of Starbucks and ate, drank, talked and gawked.

Before I go, however, I must relay the excitement felt by Jamshyd because of a new upgrade to his bike.  He had just installed Avid mechanical disc brakes and he couldn't stop talking about them.  In fact, his mouth was open almost the entire ride--isn't it always ;-) -- except for one brief period.  We went thru a patch of mud and the mud was thrown off our tires in small clumps, bombarding our faces and bodies like pellets from a BB gun.  To keep the mud out, Jamshyd finally had to close his mouth.

Jamshyd's new Avid mechanicals....not only was Jamshyd excited, but look at his socks.

The sock closest to the new brakes is smiling, the one furthest away is frowning.

This is getting wierderer and wierderer.

Until next time.

Yours,

Robco Baggins