Santa Cruzin'

Last weekend we were trying to figure out a good place to go and practice riding in a bit of heat (Monterey has been moderately warm at best) and on trails similar to what we would find in Angwin next weekend for the Howell Mountain Challenge. Hmmm, Santa Cruz? Perfect!

We picked up Chris M. and headed towards Nicene to meet up with the Miracle Racing Crew of Stacy and Cyndie who were ready for some fun, technical trails! But, this is Nicene and you've gotta earn the burn here, so we pointed upward and headed onward!

Out of camp the girls were WAAAAY too fast to keep up with as Chris and I pedaled our big rings violently in vain. Fortunately, their initial assault was reconciled with the knowledge that hurting our fragile male egos was not proper trail etiquette and they sat up. When we caught up to them Bri tried to take me out on at least 17 different occasions over the course of 200 yards! FEISTY!

From there it becomes somewhat hazy, but according to eye-witness accounts it went down like this:

Chris and Brian had a hoot! There were some sweet passes, some irritated users (Ha! Take that suckers! We will ruin you if you get in our way!...hmmm, anger management) and generally a great trail ride for us.

The girls topped the climb just in time for a romantic meeting with Cyndie's Hubby and I left a sweet 8 foot dirt heart in the trail, but Bri missed it as I didn't draw it in the shade. Oh well, next time I will think before I create sweet trail art...

I understand that the girls had an adventurous decent with many a tree aiding in stopping out of control vehicles when the brakes simply didn't posses the adequate juice. Bri had a sweet line through the tree's that worked just find about 1 month ago but newly downed trees and bushes brought her to an immediate halt with puncture wounds to the finger as Stacy and Cyndie quickly learned "hey, girls, just follow me" might not be what its cracked up to be!

After a few more encounters with immovable objects (really, PLEASE try to avoid tree's in the future!!!) they made it safely down to the bottom...and just like the conclusion of every great ready, they were READY TO EAT!

Bri had to wait for the "slow boys" but I had been fantasizing about burritos filled with cheeseburgers and smothered in nachos and fries for the better part of 2 hours! Needless to say we found food and consumed a proper post ride meal of 10,000 calories!

Now if we can avoid hitting tree's, stay hydrated, and pedal hard we should be ready for the Howell Mountain!