This weekend was supposed to be the backcountry weekend at Henry Coe State Park. On backcountry weekend, a lottery picks 200 groups allowed to park at the normally closed back entrance and access all the seldom seen trails. Gary and Fred secured a permit and we had a grand plan to spend Sunday biking the backcountry. Unfortunately heavy rains early in the week washed out the parking lot, and the park cancelled the event.

Not to be deterred, Gary and Fred came up with a “backcountry-ish” route accessible from the Hunting Hollow entrance.

It was a pretty long day. We rode over 30 miles and climbed over 5000 feet. We had four flat tires. A couple of minor crashes. I saw, for the first time, a giant wild boar, and several horned toads. We took time to swim, stopped to look at flowers, and drank a beer or two along the way. All in all a day to be savored.

Hunting Hollow » Lyman Willson » Bowl » Wagon Road » Crest Trail » Willow Ridge Road » Rat Spring » Pacheco Creek » Coit Road » Coit Dam Trail » Coit Dam Road » Willow Ridge Road » Coit Road » Coit Spring » Cattle Duster » Grapevine » Coit Road » Gilroy Hot Springs Road » Hunting Hollow

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This morning I raced in the Cat 3 Cross Country Mountain Bike Race at the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey. Sea Otter is the biggest race I’ve entered, and what a race! There were over 450 riders started in 5 minute intervals beginning at 8am. The course was packed in some places, and passing slower riders became a key strategy to build or maintain a lead on the racers behind me.

I’m glad I pre-rode the course last week, because I was able to attack each section more confidently than I would have if I hadn’t been on the course before. I started out fast, intent on sticking with the lead group of riders at the beginning. It was pretty cool racing on the Laguna Seca track; we formed a line and I was able to draft behind 4 or 5 other guys until we left the track. Drafting really helped out the early legs. Transitioning from the track to the fire road was a bit ugly. There were serious ruts in the dirt near the top of the Laguna Seca property, and I almost ate a dirt sandwich crossing one of them at speed while avoiding another rider that cut in front of me.

The first fire road section was dry and decent, a marked change from Tuesday’s conditions. There was an initial climb followed by a fast descent down to the first piece of single track. My GPS says I topped 40 MPH in this section. Holy crap I’m glad I didn’t crash.

The initial single track was really fun. Just moist enough to be grippy, but with no standing water or mud. I was leading a group of 3 that caught up to a slower rider in this section. He was clearly trying to go fast but wasn’t comfortable. He crashed on a sandy section and I had to ride over his rear wheel and step on his foot to get past him. Sorry dude! It must have hurt but was better than me crashing on top of him.

I wiped out once, on “the beach”, aka trail 60, which is a 200 yard long downhill in about a foot of sand. Luckily the crash didn’t slow me down for long. The rest of the course was very ridable, and I cleaned all the tougher climbs but one. In that case a rider in front of me dabbed and I had to put my foot down too.

I took 5th place in my class (65 riders) and made it to the podium!! I won a nifty medal and a bag of goodies including a whole box of Clif Bars. Party at my place!!

Here are the GPS track details. Race results (PDF).

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I took the morning off work today and drove to Fort Ord for a pre-ride of the Sea Otter Classic XC course. It rained pretty heavily on Sunday and Monday so the course was a little bit wet and muddy here and there. Sea Otter is not a super technical course, but there are a few rough and tricky spots (particularly because of the heavy rain gullies created over the last few months). The course is a nice mix of fire road, single track, and even a couple of paved sections. One big difference in this course compared to the other races I’ve ridden, is that the last part of this course is pretty much a climb out of a valley. I’ll have to remember to save some juice for the last few miles of the race.

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Jackie was knocking them out of the park yesterday. I got a movie of her 2nd hit, a grounder. The first one was a bomb that almost made it to the outfield! The Sunfish and the Angelfish battled to a 40-40 tie, where everybody reached base and everybody scored every inning.

In other news, Katie received the game ball from her team after going 3 for 3 with 2 RBI’s and 2 runs scored.

All in all a good sports day for the clan. Today it’s raining cats and dogs.

posted in Family [ 1 comment ]

We just can’t believe it: Katie is 10 years old today!

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Today was CCCX XC MTB Race #4 in Fort Ord. It was a very similar course to the one I raced on February 14th. Lots of grippy, bermed single track descents and pretty reasonable climbs. This was a real race with lots of riders on varied terrain and no sustained hill climbs to spread out the field. It wasn’t until about 3/4 of the way through the race that the riders had separated enough for me to gauge how I was doing and what my chances were. I placed 2nd in my class (yes, “old, slow guys”).

The GPS track has the elevation and speed detail. The race results are here.

Here is the GPX file.

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