After being gone for a couple of weekends, it was good to be back riding with the RCYs today on a glorious June day. Rather than the expected cloudy morning, we were greeted by cool sunny skies at the Top of Reseda. A Magnificent 7 showed up--Matthew, JohnF, George, Ali, Jamshyd, MikeW, and me. But by the time we started onto the dirt at Reseda dead-end, we were met by new papa AaronY and Shah who had started pedaling from the Westside at 5:30 in the morning! (And speaking of early morning starts, I am sure I speak for all of us in wishing GregA all the best in his attempt at completing a road double century today. He started at 4 a.m. and if his ride is going according to plan, he should be completing the last hour of his ride as I write this. GO GREG!!!)

But getting back to the dirt.....the now 9 of us pedalled and yentad up to The Hub where our photo was taken by an obliging rider from another small group.

Shah and Aaron left us at this point and thus the magnificent seven continued on to Rogers Road. The section down to the big oak trees was quite overgrown with brush and made the going at times challenging....difficult to see ruts in the trail. But the excessive growth from this winter's rains did provide for some beautiful views.

After a brief rest at the oak trees we continued on down the trail. The lower section of the trail has been worked on since the rains and was in excellent shape. Some of the more technical ruts and rocky sections have been repaired and smoothed out....a result that was applauded by some and lamented by others who missed the challenge.

At the bottom of Rogers we headed on over to Amalfi via a brief stint on Sunset Blvd. From there we climbed back up towards Sullivan Ridge. On the way we spied a rider walking his flat tired bike and 3 of us stopped to lend a hand. While I stood around doing pretty much nothing, John gave him a new tube while Jamshyd used his surgeon-trained hands to replace the tube. The grateful rider gave John his old tube....it seemed to me that John got the better deal because the old tube came with a bonus of at least one EXTRA hole....is my logic wrong here?#@!!?

We all regrouped at the firegate that marked the start of the long climb up the dirt of Sullivan Ridge. But for me the climb went quickly as Jamshyd had me reliving all the details--in an excruciatingly chronological order--of my recent Alaskan adventure.

Upon reaching dirt Mulholland, we headed west back to the cars. A few went out for a bite to eat but I was unable to attend as I had to hurry to watch the A's beat the Marlins 5-0 with excellent play by my grandson!