RR: Noob Ride on Steroids

[Waldo]

After my wife wasn't feeling well enough to do the full Arroyo Trabuco newbie ride last week, I decided to revisit it with a friend this week.

My buddy Mike is a nut: He rides once per week, but does 60-70 miles on that ride...on a cheap mountain bike...on pavement. So I put him on my older mtb and took him for a little cruise.

We started with a little street ride to get to the the upper east side of Whiting for a warm up down Serrano Cow Trail & Live Oak. Mike's not known for technical skills, so that was a great intro to the singletrack world. From there, we headed east, up and over a Mustard Rd-type climb into O'Neill regional park. The descent into the campground was via a fun singltrack with a couple very tight switchbacks. By this time I'm sure Mike was questioning the sincerity of my "no tech" promise. From there, we followed the route from last week's ride. Shocking news: It's a LOT more pleasant ride when the temps are in the 80's instead of the 100's!

When we started hitting water crossings and the "jungle" section, I think Mike got nervous again, but it turned out to be good fun and a taste of some very different riding than typical SoCal trails. It was fun to ride through some water so late in such a dry year. Mike did have one spill, tipping over at low speed in some sand as we approached O'Neill again, but otherwise he rocked this ride. The bad thing about our route: We finished with another big climb to get back over to Whiting. But the pizza at the end of the day made the climbing worthwhile.

Final tally: 29.2 miles. I'm guessing 2000-2500 feet of climbing, but that last few hundred feet hurt! I feel like I made up for not riding yesterday, and Mike is stoked on tasting some fun, rolling trails. I even put him on my Turner for a couple miles so he could find out what real bikes are like. He's too thrifty to drop that kind of coin, but he was impressed.

In all a very successful day! Big thanks to Gene, OMR, and Boats for leading & sweeping last week's Arroyo newbie ride. It goes to show that leading rides like that is a gift that keeps on giving: Their efforts made a very fun ride today possible.


(Sorry: No pics. I wanted to concentrate on riding. If you want to see pics of the route, check the thread from last week's ride. The basic route can also be found on Geoladders)

[foofighter]

that's a great RR that is quite the trek!!! Made my climb up STT today seem like a walk in the park

[Waldo]

Bump, cuz I see Gene posting

[genusmtbkr5]

Very nice Bob, I'm glad you got a chance to give back. It feels great to do for others what others may have done for you. I hope you can make the Whiting Ride next Sunday that Traci(Surlygal) is putting on. It'll be another classic.

[Waldo]

Thanks Gene. Not sure which ride I'll do: The Saturday Aliso ride, or the Sunday Whiting ride...or both! Alsio would be nice since I don't ride there as often, but the turnout for Whiting already looks great, plus I could sleep a bit later! Decision to be made later in the week. Whichever I do, I'll volunteer to ride sweep if needed.

[foofighter]

do both bro!!!

[Waldo]

Originally Posted by foofighter

do both bro!!!

I might. Depends on family commitments and the state of a knee that's pretty sore tonight from today's ride.

[OMR]

You have learned that the greatest gift we can receive it to help another... and so it goes, one person leading on another, and so on, and so on...

Well done grasshopper... you don't know how you may have positively affected your friend's life ... but you have... you do the Tribe proud!