RR: Neil & Nam's Hella D-Ville Adventure - Episode 1- Meeting the Melt

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Nam and I had decided to join the MTBR boys up at D-Ville this last weekend and see what the trails were all about...we were like sheep to the slaughter

Dan aka "Robo Anchor, OMD, Danger Dan and many other colorful names" Snook joined us at the last minute, literally, so the 3 of us piled into the truck and away we went!



The drive up was pretty uneventful until I decided to fill up in Fresno, I had never been there so why not!, little did I know how lack of sleep and 3 squad cars, 2 hookers and Dan brewing his own coffee in the Mobil station would just seem plain weird!
After Fresno we hit the road and when we exited to hit the winding roads to Dville we realized about 25 miles in we were heading away from Dville, not towards it.
Once we regained our heading we arrived in Dville at 5 am where gas was only $4 a gallon, thank god it was Nam's turn to buy, just kidding but man that was fricking expensive.
I also decided the weekend had started and had one of many Newcastles




So as only we could do, we rolled into Pack Saddle Campground with the Flow Master 40 roaring and Ted Nugent singing, looking for Andy and his party posse but they were all sleeping until I shouted out " is this where the party is?"
We were greeted by alot if "what the hell's? and that truck is hella loud at 5:30 in the morning" but we were just happy to finally be hella there.
I had been up for exactly 24 hours, Nam was going on 22 hours and Robo Anchor had been up for 25 hours so what else to do but unpack, put up the tents and get ready to scout trails.



I also had brought up a keg donated graciously from Tustin Brewery, here was the MTBR hella beer corral:



After we grabbed some grub and some quick shuteye - I think it was 30 minutes but much needed!- our new found camp mate and norcal guide "Melt" took us on a "quick loop" for about "1 to 2 hours" of "rolling" terrain...I utilize the quotations because we did not get back to camp until 6:30 pm and not even together, but that is another episode!

Shots of the lake just 5 minutes from our campsite, about as beautiful as it gets!






This rock was in our campsite



Mr Andy



The view on our way up to the trailhead for our friday "cruiser"
Later on in the ride we will be behind this particular rock but hella far, far, far away!



This was the hella road climb to start the ride, only a short 2 miles up!










The easy way upI used it later that day



Mike "Meatfoot" from MTBR making it look easy and Nam and OMD chasing him up!




Hooking up with Andy's crew at one of the turns



You don't see this on a climb everyday!!



Nam making it to the trailhead and my new favorite toy taking a hella rest



Dan making it up, do you see why he is called Robo Anchor, I invite anyone to wear that stuff and climb





Melt showing the hella way



I am going to watch the Sopranos finale now so the rest of episode 1 and more pix later!!

[guero]

thanks for the shots and brief rr neil, that looked like a hella good time!

[SAR_boats]

hella rad!

[grandpa]

looks like you guys had a great time. I love that area up there but haven't been since 1992 deer hunting. How did you like the Chumba?

[Schecky]

Hellacious good start to the ride reports! Thanks Neil.

[tkblazer]

it was hella fun.... more pics and rr in a bit

[icon]

Beautifull!! Wow

[1x1clyde]

More pix and RR, but what the hell kind of ending to the Sopranos was that??????

Anyways, onto the dirt and still on day one!

the view 100 yards in


The majority of our first hour on the dirt was a mix of fireroad and some singletrack but no legendary Dville descent until we finally made it to the Pauley creek area and made our way up to Big Boulder



we did find some snow, that was fun. How can you not like Dan's MBA inside the Pro's bike pose??




one of many stream crossings





Melt taking a break on a hella trail, I think this downhill uniterrupted would have been around 15 minutes, it was hella fun!





The XCL was a complete blast, sorry Joser but the Lynskey was demoted to phone duty!
Little did I know the XCL would elevate my hucking status the very next day


I should have been hucking those rock piles


One of my favorite pix of the whole weekend, Robo Anchor parting the hella water



Melt hanging out on Big Boulder trail



And onward we went



Finally made it to the top of the lookout on Big Boulder trail, it was close to 3 pm by now but what a view!!







Above my right side of the handlebar is the beautiful rock from the first set of pix, it was hella far now!!



Back down to the Big Boulder trailhead and here was Justin and Allison!



Nam getting ready for the descent, finally!!



Nam reflecting on the whispering of pines and gentle call of the streams....actually we were waiting on Robo Anchor, aka Sir Flats A Lot, fixing his 4th flat of the day.



I have to load more pix, I have over 150 from the weekend so this will continue on.........

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Originally Posted by grandpa

looks like you guys had a great time. I love that area up there but haven't been since 1992 deer hunting. How did you like the Chumba?

Hey Tim, I loved it at D Ville and I know you now how much I love my singlespeed's...they do not like having the Chumba in the garage right now!
It saved me on some sections that my usual 80mms of travel would have buckled plus have I told you how much I like gears for 6k to 8k climbing?
That granny saved me up the 2 mile road climb, I was not going to walk or let hella Melt beat me up the hill!!
Overall the XCL was perfect for me there, Alan and Ted really hit it on the head with putting a RP23 on there plus with the parts I have it, it weighs in just over 27 lbs with 5 inches of pure hucking fun.

[CC]

Awsom Neil....looks sweet. Ya...WTF with the Saprano's?? Sux....I think

[genusmtbkr5]

Nice RR and pics Neil. Missed you guys at the Fully loop on Thurs and Traverse. Keep the pics coming.

[tkblazer]

here we go.....

lets start from the beginning since it to us was still the first day of the trip..i roll up to neil's pad and i'm unloading my car and talking to neil and traci when a small honda rolls up fully loaded with gear. Now i first thought.... ok who is this guy and who did he rob? Turns out, that the guy is Dan, the man of many nicknames. You know this guy is gonna be fun when he steps out of the car and is eating a caesar salad ... i mean, come on, who does that?

on the road, our first pit stop/gas fill up is at Tha No.....Fresno that is! Neil's never been so what the heck.... lets stop by. Sure enough Dan and i go inside to use the restroom and when i get out, Dan is chatting it up with some caltrans guys and they're all talking about how the coffee is out. I then see Dan grinding coffee beans and starting to brew his own coffee... Now this gas station store is about 20'x15' and there has to be about 10 people packed inside. I pick up a starbucks doubleshot and i'm in the middle of paying when this cracked out hooker gets behind me and then asks the dood for a box of condoms at least she uses protection i think to myself

I walk out and leave Dan to his barista duties and i see Neil looking at his cooler filled with Newcastle. Now this wouldn't be a problem normally, but in the few minutes since i first went into the store, there were now 3-4 squad cars outside and some wacko in a tank top, shorts and flip flops. that would be him on the right....

back on the road, we made a wrong turn on the 80 somewhere and end up in this small mining town of Placerville... cool town, but i wasn't up for sightseeing at 1am. We turn around and soon after its my turn to drive... Cool i thought, seemed like we were making good time until we found the way back and it was about 70 miles of mountain roads This isn't something you want to drive on when you're dead tired, but thankfully i was freakin wired from the doubleshot espresso

come 5:30am, we finally get to the campground and we're ready to party as Neil has let everyone know. We stopped by andy's camp site and blasted some Nuge, rev'd the Titan and then proceeded to do a parade lap around the entire campground to wake everyone up
if we're not gonna sleep, they sure aren't... i think everyone stopped by or rode by and gave us the finger that morning...

We went for a short ride since neil had to make a phone call and check in with The Boss (Traci)... man is that guy whipped suckerrrrrrrr

Dan and I scoped out the lodge diner and decided we would grab a bite to eat. This meal would be the only meal we would eat for the next 9 hours freakin Patty Melt, you're lucky i didn't cut you with the butter knife

As Neil mentioned, our NorCal MTBR rep was guy named Francis Melt Vanderspew.....otherwise known as Melt... we called him Tuna and Patty Melt all weekend he was a hella good punching bag and didn't seem to mind.

We get back to the campground and we decide to go on an easy quick ride to get acclimated to the elevation (our campground site was at around 6k elevation)... now i knew we were in trouble when we had to ride up said climb... think of modjeska grade and 2 miles of that crap I thought saturday was going to be the sufferfest.... NOPE freakin Tuna is leading us on a deathmarch in the Sierras. We finally get to the saddle, Robo and I pad up and freakin Tuna gives us a hard time... I'm thinking "wtf, we're at the top right? " technically, yes... but the climbing did not stop from there Now i was still feeling a little sick and pedaling my 38 lb bike up at elevation was a bit of a chore... Robo and I must had hiked 4-5 miles of steep fireroad that day. After the second hike, we both looked at eachother and we ready to kill Tuna for leading us through all this crap.. We would get about 500 ft of decending and then climb up another 1000 or so until we got to the top of Big Boulder where we ran into Justin (i love gloryholes) and Allison. They seemed to have done the semismart route of Sunshine to butcher shuttle. They made a wrong turn somewhere and went UP pauley creek and hit up BB. While we were waiting for Robo's 2nd flat and possible 15 minute cell phone call We found a huge log ride and after some retrofitting, we made it rideable again. Vids of that will be up later.

The Big Boulder trail is a freakin blast, but there are some good climbs thrown in to keep you on your toes. Good amount of exposure, which happened to be a common element in the trails out there. Robo was about to get yet another flat and rode on it for at least 1/4 mile before finding a spot to work on his bike....this is when i did my tree hugging spill i managed to bruise my palm nicely after falling and putting my hand down on a huge rock it was nice and swollen and was all purple the next day... Justin and Allison had to get back into town by 5 to return the bikes, so they went ahead and the 4 amigos would press on after them.

After BB, we hit up the Third Divide... probably my favorite trail out there... the trail was nice and fast with some good tech thrown in. big rocks, roots, braking bumps, exposure and steep drops made this trail a freakin blast to go down on. In the middle of all this fun, Robo freakin got another flat we were getting short on time so Neil and Tuna decided to hammer out the rest of the ride and try to see if they could get the shuttle to wait for us. Turns out there wasn't enough time and spots left so they asked Justin and Allison to wait for us. After watching about 3 different groups leave the third divide trail, Robo comes out singing and goes " oh man, i just chased a bear away from the bridge!" i'm like... WTF, i was just hanging out at the end of the bridge... i could have been killed

we make hast to head out onto the fireroad out... now, this wasn't a bad ride out, but after all the miles we did that day and having no food and running low on water... it was taking a toll on us. Robo was starting to slow down, so i had to push him to stay on the bike on keep pedaling. After another 30 minutes or so of climbing, we finally get back into town where justin and allison were waiting for us. although Justin was having homoerotic fantasies about me, i was happy to see them. We made it back into camp and i was never so happy to be back to a camp site. 30 minutes of sleep and we we out riding for about 6 hours.... yea it was a long day to say the least. We finally started to get a meal cooking when Neil and Tuna come back from they're saddle to camp site ride/hike a bike session. There were no night time festivities for us friday night since once the sun went down, we had a few drinks and went to bed....

the hella cool guy that takes you on epic "1 1/2 hr rides" Tuna Melt

[tkblazer]

here i am HELLA pissed at Tuna



i think Neil was wondering if he could huck the fence and trespass the tree farm



one of the many awesome views from the many climbs





who are these peeps? SoCal Cutters i think Justin was showing Dan what he was going to do with his tent gloryhole



justin's log ride... Tuna never tried the wheelie drop







my lame attempt at an artsy fartsy pic at the previously mentioned bridge where Robo spotted the bear.... it was right where i was



a view from both sides of the bridge

[roadkillross]

that looks HELLA fly

[ShinKen]

Soooooo Neil? are u selling out all your Ssers? muhhahahahhahaaaa sweet pics!! I'm soo hating my self for missing this one!! Effen Life sucks I tell yAA!! ;o(