RR: Team Dirty Work Sufferfest: Riverside

[osmarandsara]

Location: Box Springs Mountain Riverside
Ride date: Jan 06, 2008

Actual GPS stats from Box Springs portion of this ride courtesy waterhiker
dist. 19.3 miles 2,982 ft. gain

http://www.geoladders.com/show_route.php?route=11564


Umm....I really considered flaking-out on my own ride.... I figured that would not be cool....so I headed towards the BofA expecting maybe 3 or 4 riders....wrong.....there were 15 people there including myself ready to suffer... a bunch of STR folks.....4 single-speeders, Permagrin on her hard-tail, some Geoladders folks, and a few Team Dirty work riders including the famous Wreck Nelson.

Although it wasn't raining, i failed in my feeble attempts to convince everyone to only do a quick spin through Sycamore so off we went towards the Box Springs Mountains. After the first 1 to 2 miles and sloshing through a muddy dirt road, PainFreak (Mike) wasn't looking so good due to his cold so he excused himself and turned around --I almost followed him just to crawl back in my warm bed--

After maneuvering around a housing tract we finally hit the ATM single track -still with no rain-- The DG trail was in good shape, no mud, no standing water. We continued around the back of the mountain stopping to re-group only once....and then began the painful climb up Box Springs Road. Thankfully no mud here, and we stopped at picnic tables/porta-pottie at the Two Trees Trailhead for a quick rest before the final push to the antennas.

Still no rain---cool---so we began the final climb and eventually we all made it to the top of the antennas (2600 feet). As we all sat around enjoying the view and laughing at all the folks who bailed on this ride the fog rolled in, then it began to drizzle, then heavy rain, then the wind picked up, and as we turned-tail down the old UC Riverside race-course single-track we even got pelted by some hail - - ouch --

Permagrin was flying down the wet, technical single tracks on her hard-tail with V brakes....I guess the whole disk-brake dualie thing is just nonsense or she just really is a good rider

As soon as we got off the summit the rain stopped, but we were all pretty drenched -brrrrrrr--we continued down the Two Trees Trail, hung a left at the rail-road tracks and then began to cut back on Crash and Carnage which once again lived up to its name because Kish Me snapped his seat post on this section

Fortunately for him, the Box Springs portion of the ride was over, and soon we hit Central and back to the BofA. At this point everyone had had enough --something about watching a Charger's game---except my Team Dirty Work buddies were nowhere to be found--Apparently they decided to start part II without even stopping to take a break and they continued through Sycamore CAnyon....since I was already delirious from the cold I decided to go looking for them......I caught them at the saddle on middle-sycamore..

We rode through the park, and upon reaching the end I thought we were gonna turn around and head back like i intended but instead we crossed Alessandro, then through the March ARB ammo dump, then through the White Gate single-track and back to the cars for another 17 miles.....total mileage for this group of lunatics 37....yikes....

Other than Blueman's slow-speed endo and the one guy who got a bit of carnage on his chin when he tried to avoid me when I crashed on Two Trees, everyone made it back safe and sound.

Thanks everyone who was crazy enough to ride out here, it was fun and I definitely had a blast!



On ATM trail


Permagrin


BoingBoing (Brian) on ATM



One of the few times I saw Bernice (she was way up in front)


goldrunner and XC Burr



What rain?


BoingBoing All Smiles


Cedric the Entertainer (Team Dirty Worker)


Keith and Wreck (Team Dirty Workers)



The push to the top of Box Springs


Reedster


You think it's gonna rain?


Permagrin making the final push to the top




You think this would make a good lighting rod?




This is after we got pummeled by Hail (Kish Me in the Foreground)



Onlyontwo (Andy) and Candace joined us for part Two (notice the shorts)



Reedster after 37 miles and surviving a hail storm


Yours Truly (Oz)



Go here for all my pics of this ride:

http://www.socaltrailriders.org/gall...y.php?cat=1150

[denmother]

Sorry we missed it. Roger has been under the weather and didn't want to risk getting soaked. It was raining at our house at 7am so we decided to stay home and play wait and see. The sun peeked out at 9am so we headed over to Sycamore at 10:00 and got in a 1.25 hr ride in between rain showers. As soon as we got back to the truck (11:45ish) it started raining again.

[Reedster]

We had a good ride. I saw that Permagrin mentioned that it was one of the funnest rides she's done. I feel the same way.

It was great to see a decent sized group show up with expectations for cool temperatures and maybe some rain. We got pretty lucky with the weather, but the rain and hail storm at the antenaes at the top of Box Springs Mountain was pretty brutal. Fortunately it was a short little deluge.

I think we hit 3 of the best trails in the area. The UCR racecourse comes off the top of Box Springs mountain and has some great riding with enough technical features to keep it interesting but not too hard. Two Trees is really fun and has some good rock gardens but they are short, so people can walk them if they want without too much effort. The Whitegate singletrack is really fun and includes lots of swoopy turns, some nice little jumps, some narrow singletrack a few steep descents and nice obstacles. It's slowly getting overrun by housing developments, but there is still enough there to be very fun.

By the time I got home, 7 hours later, I was trashed. I didn't do much for the rest of the afternoon/evening.

I have some photos I will try to upload shortly.

Cheers,

~Reed

[Reedster]

I just spent a long time typing a post and inserting pictures and I somehow deleted it with a push of one key. Aargh. I also seem to be resizing my photos a little small. What is the best way to post photos to get them to look full size?

We had a great ride and I was happy with the turnout, knowing that the weather would likely be poor at some point and we might get wet or cold or cold and wet.

At the start Doc, AKA Wreck, AKA Rhett showed up late with a problem with his rear disc brake. How many people does it take to fix a disc brake?
doc and bike.jpg

We left Doc and another Team Dirty Work rider after a while, since they knew the route and could catch us by taking a couple shortcuts. Here we are about 6 miles into the ride and cruising some nice singletrack. The Antennas in the background is what we are climbing up to. Berniece on the trail.
trail with towers.jpg

Bill
Bill.jpg

Permagrin
Permagrin.jpg

OZ
OZ.jpg

Kish Me
Kish me.jpg

BoingBoing
unknown rider.jpg

After some more miles and some steeper ascents we made it to the Antennas at the top. I was one of the last to arrive and as I got there it started to rain hard and then hail. Here's OZ in the hail at the start of the UCR racecourse.
Oz with Hail.jpg

This is near the bottom of the first section of the UCR racecourse.
UCR racecourse 1.jpg
UCR racecourse 2.jpg

We regrouped at the bottom and since everyone was cold and wet we skipped the other trails at the top of Box Springs and headed down via the Two Trees trail. It was wet and muddy and the rock gardens were slippery and challenging. Many people chose to walk the rock gardens due to the conditions.

Here Berniece, Gold Runner and Cedric lead the hike through the rocks.
Two Trees rock garden 1.jpg

Kish me and Bill make their way through the rock garden.
Two trees rock garden 2.jpg

The main challenge was avoiding the rain ruts in the middle of the trail. OZ got sucked into one and had to work hard not to crash. Unfortunately Mark crashed into the bushes trying to avoid OZ. He ended up with a small stick impaled into his cheek, but he removed it before I could get a pick. Fortunately he was fine.
Carnage Face.jpg

Besides that we all got to the bottom safely.
Bottom of Two Trees 1.jpg

We contoured along the base of the mountain back towards Sycamore Canyon. When we got back to Sycamore some folks decided they were done and others headed out for more. We were also joined by Onlyontwo, his wife and his boss for this second loop.
Group Part 2.jpg

We rode through Sycamore and then decided to head over to the Whitegate singletrack to get some easy miles and finish off the ride. Here's the beginning of the trail.
Whitegate singletrack.jpg

From here we could see Box Springs Mtn in the distance. We were at the top of the mountain in the background earlier and circumnavigated it during our first loop. Blurry Bill in the foreground.
Bill with Box Springs in background.jpg

Steep descent
Steep descent.jpg

Here's OZ on the steepest part at the bottom.
OZ on steep descent.jpg

We finished up the ride with a city canal trail, a short bike path and some city streets to get back to the start. Thanks to everyone who came out.

~Reed

ps: If you know the unnamed riders in the pictures let me know and I will edit it.

[goldrunner]

I had an exceptional ride w/all on sunday. Wish I could have stayed for part two but the toes were numb and made it dificult to clip out. Nice pix Reed.

Shower Cap Guy.....

[ghixon]

Darn - Sorry I missed it. I guess I need to grow a pair and ride in the cold..... Any chance of a re-ride in the future? Like I said earlier, I ride Sycamore a bunch. I work off Iowa in Riverside.

[Reedster]

Originally Posted by goldrunner

I had an exceptional ride w/all on sunday. Wish I could have stayed for part two but the toes were numb and made it dificult to clip out. Nice pix Reed.

Shower Cap Guy.....

Now, I wish I had a photo of that shower cap. More than that, I wish I would've had a shower cap. And, if you were slower there's a chance I would have gotten a shot of you.

Glad you had a good ride. Next time we can go longer.

~R

[allison]

Originally Posted by Reedster

I also seem to be resizing my photos a little small. What is the best way to post photos to get them to look full size?

I size mine at 650x488 pixels.

[Reedster]

Originally Posted by ghixon

Any chance of a re-ride in the future? Like I said earlier, I ride Sycamore a bunch. I work off Iowa in Riverside.

It would have been hard for me to motivate if I lived further away, but since it's within coasting distance I knew it was a quick retreat to a hot shower if need be.

There will be more long rides out here. We'll make sure to post it up when we do another one.

~R

[Reedster]

Originally Posted by allison

I size mine at 650x488 pixels.

I actually thought I sized mine bigger than that. What program do you use? I'm using a shareware program called Faststone that works well, but it doesn't appear to resize the photos to the right size.

Thanks,

~Reed

[ghixon]

Originally Posted by Reedster

I actually thought I sized mine bigger than that. What program do you use? I'm using a shareware program called Faststone that works well, but it doesn't appear to resize the photos to the right size.

Thanks,

~Reed

I use Picasa from Google. It resizes to any size you wish. 640 x 480 works best on here.

Follow this link and it should work like a charm.

Example:

[Reedster]

Originally Posted by ghixon

I use Picasa from Google. It resizes to any size you wish. 640 x 480 works best on here.

Follow this link and it should work like a charm.

What link? That's okay, I bet I can find it.

That snow looks like it might get in the way of riding, but it sure is pretty.

~R

[ghixon]

Lets try that again

Tutorial: How to Upload and Post RR Photos Like a Pro

[allison]

Originally Posted by Reedster

I actually thought I sized mine bigger than that. What program do you use? I'm using a shareware program called Faststone that works well, but it doesn't appear to resize the photos to the right size.

Thanks,

~Reed

I use Photoshop.

I used Paint Shop Pro before that (I have an oldddd version of it), and I forget how I sized stuff there.

[Reedster]

Originally Posted by allison

I use Photoshop.

I used Paint Shop Pro before that (I have an oldddd version of it), and I forget how I sized stuff there.

At some point I'll have to buy something better, but for now Photoshop is out of my budget.

Thanks,

~R

[Reedster]

I used Picasa and followed the tutorial's instructions.

This should be Doc trying to make his way through the rock garden on Two Trees. He made it part of the way and then got hung up and laid his bike over.


This should be Oz and Permagrin descending the UCR racecourse in the soupy fog and the rain. It was an adventure.


Thanks for the help.

~R

ps: Hmm, in the preview it looks better. Good.