RR: Whiting Ranch to STT-Luge

[LBmtb]

Riders: Rob, Skippy, Bret, me, and Dean (in spirit)

Today we felt like doing the good ole whiting/luge loop. Met at cook's and headed over to Whiting. Here are a few photos from there...

Bret doing some much needed trail maintenance


Rob thinks "WWSD" (what would steppie do)


me taking a bite out of my powerbar


Matt strikes a pose


Then we stopped at the bridge to snap a couple shots.





Bret fixes his hair for the trail ladies a the bottom of mustard


The trip over to Santiago Truck Trail was radical. Here's some of the scenery on the way there:



I call him "Mattrick"


and some of the scenery on STT:







We ran into our old friend. Here he is stretching


Apparently Rob likes to hump saddles:


discussing the impact of horse droppings on trails


And then the food


What an extreme ride!

[ocrider]

wow! that looks like some extreme fun!!!

[dstepper]

Thanks for the thoughts...guys. If you need to know what Dean would do, it would be find some nice cool singletrack in the trees with some altitude.

I was riding in the warm sunshine and cool breezes of Arrowbear...never did find Maxwell!

Dean

[TURNERob]

this is bret on robs name. thanks for not posting the pix of my extreme front tire pinch flat. i decided to let a little bit of air out of my front tire before the ride, and then on one of the "g-outs" on the backside of whiting, i hit a sharp rock and that was it for the front tube. (i'm now stanitized). one of the highlights, or lowlights of the ride came when we reached 4-Corners in Whiting. There was some moron on a "comfort/hybrid" bike with a childseat attached to the back of it. his 2 year old daughter was basically screaming her head off, clearly not enjoying the ride. it appeared he had a few other kids maybe 10-12 years old with him? so, as i ride to come to a stop at the bench i looked at him, and his bike, and asked him if he planned on riding down towards cactus. he said, "yes, why?" i then replied with a "are you kidding me, you are not only endangering yourself, but your child who is sitting on the back of your "comfort/hybrid" bike. Mind you, this thing had STREET tires on it, and couldn't have been more than 1.5" in width. i advised him that for the safety of himself and his daughter that he should probably walk that downhill section, since it is full of ruts and babyheads and loose dirt...at that point, he told me to "go f**k myself!". i left it alone after that, everyone at 4-Corners was pretty astonished by this guys behavior, and we watched as he one-footed it down the trail, and eventually stopped to hike up the mild uphill portion. After that madness was over, we headed out the back and up modjeska in which we saw the deer carcus and when we neared the gate there was a bubb on a trek 2.5 or some sh*t who didnt have a helmet, gloves or a clue for that matter. im not sure how he faired going down the luge, but i think he was really struggling with the descent that takes you to the luge. after a short rest at the flag pole we were on our way. i took off first and i must say that this had to be one of my best luge runs ever. i really was railing every turn and putting a lot of trust in my tires. the luge was in pretty good shape, not too overgrown, nor too loose. we finished up and headed down live oak back to the cars, then to wahoos and that was all she wrote.

it was nice to ride with von-skip-a-dip again and gouge was there to caption the excitement of this ride with his camera. good times bubb. oh yeah, special thanks go's out to Chappy (bananaseat) for texting me at 5:22 a.m. this morning telling me that he couldnt make it this morning because Jose Cuervo wore him out...

[bananaseat]

bummed i missed the ride. long night, seems, may & june have been full of grad. parties & weddings.

what's up with all the coziness on the bridge. guero, i thought that bridge was our special place. i'm jealous, someone's gonna pay on the next ride.

[CalEpic]

Looked like fun guys but after seeing those pics on the bridge though, I'm glad I rode Chiquito instead

C

[tkblazer]

i think you guys take the fruit cake with the gayest ride report EVER.... glad i was out riding at Downieville

you guys made a nice manwich out of skippy...

[genusmtbkr5]

Ditto what Nam and CalEpic said, I'm glad I was too sore to ride. What's up with the dude in the dolphin shorts?

[Von-Skipp]

The ride through the trails of whiting was excellent. I really enjoyed our stop at the bridge. The new singletrack section of Whiting still needs some work or people or skidding there way down. Entering STT I realized my back brake pads were worn down to the bare. It was basically scraping metal on metal (I should pay more att. to the threads in the workshop forum I made it down the Luge with mostly front brake. I took picked up some new pads from the BikeCo. on the way home.


BTW> Wahoooo's was tasty. And thanks for all the cool comments on our RR from today.

[ShinKen]

too bad I've missed the ride!! sorry inche Guero but didnt get your message till it was too late!! next time fooOOShitzznit!!!

[Wrecker]

Thanks for the RR and pics; sounds like a blast.

And, thanks too, on behalf of the rest of us, for scolding that guy. With the warm weather comes riders that may be ignorant of the inherent dangers of mtn biking (or perhaps just complete morons). It's always better to inform them of risks (despite reactions) than have to wait for a trail to be cleared from carnage.

Tis the season to ride National Forest on the weekends