RR: San Gabes Ride 2-22-09

[maxwell]

Man, what a fun ride today!

Jake and I met up with a whole lotta riders this morning, with the rider of the hour being Anne from Vancouver, BC. Vic set this route up to show her what the Gabes are all about, and it did not disappoint!

I'm not sure of our exact route, but I think it went kinda like this;

Up Lower Sam Merrill to the ruins,
up the Mt. Lowe fire road to Inspiration Point
down Upper Merrill
climbed back over to, and down Sunset
up another fire road to El Prieto, and more fun DHing
back to the cars at JPL.

All I know is that every bit of the climbing done today, was worth it for the downhill rewards!

Jake hadn't been on a good long ride for a couple of weeks, but you sure couldn't tell it today! And he's showing just a bit of Maxwell blood in him by choosing to pedal around on his 35lb Kona. Hey, when a 6 inch travel bike pedals well enough for a 14 year old to ride up and down the mountain on it, without slowing him down, why change things! In fact, instead of finding ways to make it lighter, and him faster, I may just add some weight to it, since I was chasing him all day on the climbs!

And Anne showed some great bike handling skills through out the ride, making more than her share of the tight rocky turns!

And Liz! Let me tell you, this girl can ride!
I was following her down part of Sunset, and I was having flashbacks of following Lacey downhill!
She was moving at a fast enough clip that I kept thinking, "man, this is freak'n FUN, but it's really gonna hurt if she goes down"! She didn't go down, and it was a freak'n BLAST!

We had a great group today, with everybody ending up with big smiles on their faces at the end of the day!

So, enough talk, and on with the pictures!

Jake and Bernie climbing Lower Merrill


Adam, AirGabe's nephew, on LSM.


Jake climbing LSM


Jake on the climb over to the Mt. Lowe fire road, with the rest of the crew close behind.


Scott & Dell


Willie


Anne & Liz


Gabe & Adam


Jake gets familiar with climbing near exposure.


It was truly beautiful out today!


And yes, we hit just a bit of snow before Inspiration Point.


LA actually looking kinda cool from up here!


This is Anne. She's from Vancouver. And she can ride her bike!


This is Jake. He's from Tustin. And he can ride his bike too! (that's my boy!)


Steppie on the rocks!


Raul says, "hey, we climbed this once already"!


Dell's a bit camera shy!


Jake, not looking tired at all!


Anne still climbing strong.




Smile Liz!


Before dropping in on Sunset, I showed Jake what we started off climbing this morning. He was pretty proud of himself. And so was I!

Looking back down on Lower Merrill


The icing on the cake was dropping down El Prieto!

Nick railing the switchback!


Jake


Anne


Steppie


Someone had mentioned food, and CPATCRASH was already pretty hungry at this point. So when he road by, I told him there was a burrito in Steppie's pack........

BURITTO! WHAT??!!


Towards the bottom of EP....

Willie


Pat


Steppie


Thanks again to Vic for setting this up, it was a great ride for sure!

[davidB]

man i knew you guys would have a good sized crew, didn't know it'd be that big!
good job darin and crew, ~23 miles of san gabe goodness

[CPATCRASH]

It was a great ride but my hard tail beat the crap out of me. I want to go back with some squish next time! Thanks for the ride report and the pictures!

[Pain Freak]

Wow, Great group. I got the invite last night from Sir Vic but I'd promised the doc I'd do only a real safe road ride this weekend. It whooped my butt. Got home took a shower and passed out. Still I'd of loved to have gone on this one. Next weekend I'm off to AZ for a funeral but the following week I'll be back in the dirt!!!

[OMR]

Great pics grasshopper ... looks like you all had a good time playing in the mountains.

[tkblazer]

i spot a coyote

[slayer]

great report and pics darin.

i don't know how you did that today after yesterdays ride. you're a freakin' animal!! my legs were screaming down at LCWP today.

[guero]

great RR darin!!!!

i was back in the saddle today, need to get a few more rides under my belt to get the lungs back then i can hit the gabes soon!!!

[dstepper]

Another very enjoyable day in the Gabs, Jake was un-stopable I have no idea where he gets that from?

Anne lets do weekday ride before you get busy and have to go home. We should be able to gather a few unemployed bums and do a Chantry Zion Loop.

Dean

[VTVic]

Thanks for the great RR Darin. Great riding with you again and awesome meeting Jake for the first time. Great kid and awesome rider. Had a great turn out, we started with 15 riders and ended up with 12 coming out of El Prieto
As Darin already mentioned, our guest of honor was Anne from Vancouver. While she was hating the climbs, she made up for it on the down hills. This girl has skillz; she made everything look simple -always in control.
Couldn't have asked for a better group of riders to be out there on such a nice day...

On to pics

STR train headed to LSM


Always fun riding with you Liz


...what a social butterfly


Raul showing Liz the line on the last LSM switchback...


...and Liz follows


Willie and Pat get to echo mtn. Great meeting you Pat, and great seeing you again Willie.


this one's for you Nick...


Group at the ruins. The views were incredible.



Liz showing Anne around.


Adam and Jake checking things out.


What?!?!


Willie, Anne and Bernie on our way to Mt Lowe


Bernie not looking forward to the climb to Inspiration Pt.


Scott riding past the first snow patch.


Nick and Dale while wating for the rest of us. These guys can climb!


Few shots from Inspiration Pt.



Group shot. L to R:
Bernie, Scott, Raul, Me, Anne, Nick, Darin, Dean, Dale, Jake, Pat, Liz and Willie.



Raul, Liz and Scott at the top of Middle Merrill:


Jake and Darin following. Puts a smile on my face to see you guys hitting the trails together. The two of you are very lucky. Hope I'm able to do that with my two kids in the future.



Raul showing us how its done. Anne made this look very easy as well. Sorry Anne, no picture.


Liz and Ann showing off their skills.




Nick at the Millard water crossing.


Anne on our way out of El Prieto.


Dean follows Pat's line.


Great times guys. Anne, I hope we didn't disappoint. It was a pleasure having you on this ride.

[CPATCRASH]

Originally Posted by dstepper

Another very enjoyable day in the Gabs, Jake was un-stopable I have no idea where he gets that from?

Anne lets do weekday ride before you get busy and have to go home. We should be able to gather a few unemployed bums and do a Chantry Zion Loop.

Dean

Dean,

Keep me in the loop so I can explore some more of the trails up there. It's been a long time since I have ridden in the San Gabes and I really enjoyed it. Thanks again!

[JoeTruth]

Nice job, girls and boys. Darin and Vic, thanks for the RR and pics.

Dean, let me know when you come up here to ride Zion. We do weekday rides regularly and that ride is in our staple.

[Cabron]

Dood Maxwell your simply a freakin animal man! I thought you were going to take it easy on the Sunday Path ride....guess not. Great RR, looks like I have to go in a few weeks to get my Gabes fix.

Where you started descending was from middle merril i think, not upper merril. If you like I would gladly show you all the way up to Mt. Lowe (mellow climb) and descend upper merril which i think is more you're style...rocky, exposed and steep! But then again there is plenty of options close to that point. Redbox, Switzers, the options are endless. Just pick your poison and you'll get hooked.

[mtbski]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing. It looks like you guys had a great time out there!

Originally Posted by JoeTruth

Nice job, girls and boys. Darin and Vic, thanks for the RR and pics.

Dean, let me know when you come up here to ride Zion. We do weekday rides regularly and that ride is in our staple.

I'f I can swing it, I'd like to join in on a weekday Zion ride as well. Just shoot me a pm.

[tkblazer]

great pics Vic, i need to ride out there again... looks like you guys had a good group of people out there

[Zonacat]

Wow! Truly awesome! I am particularly inspired seeing your 14 year old son on a ride like that. I have an 8 year old that just started MTB'ing, and I had been wondering when I could start getting him out on some bigger rides.

Something to look forward to!!

Thanks for sharing the pix!

[Lovin]

Must. Ride. Gabes!

[Good_ol'_slappy]

Great RR guys! Always fun riding with old and new friends.

[airgabe]

Thanks for everything guys my nephew had a blast down Sunset/EL Prieto as I tutored him on the single track. We both appreciated everyones assistance and great company. He only cramped up at Millard but he did make some switchbacks and all the water crossings!!

[dirtmistress]

Sorry for the late entry RR for the Sunday get-together.

I think I've only ridden the Merrils twice,maybe three times and I still hate that hellish climb.
Most of you know that I like to climb but something about that particular climb just kills me! The pay off is incredible though!! Sunset is an incredible ride and El Prieto is one of my favorites! El Prieto's biggest problem is that it isn't long enough! We had a special guest from Canada, Anne.
She's a great tech rider and just a riot on the climbs.
You could see her eyelashes bleeding from the pain!!
On with the pictures.


Anne the Canadian goose! Is that a good nickname?


We love these single file pics

Sucks man!





Cpatcrash and ladd jasper: Going my way?? Nick checking his stash

I'd have a goofy look on my face too if I had someone that hot hanging on me! Kidding. I like this pic!!


Nick explaining to Anne that everything in America is bigger. He said size matters.


My view of L.A. while stretching


Gabe on the rocks


Gabe and his nephew taking off


The best rider I know!


Stjunkie


A very large bear print! Clearly we were in danger!


Can you find the riders? I can't! I did one time but now I don't see them. if you do see them, it's Maxwell and his son! Kid was great!


VTVic nails a scary death defying switchback!


These next sequences are Anne, Vic and Raul!