LONG ride Sun Dec 4th.- B-Star/Silverado & Maple/Silvera

[singleSSpeedster]

planning a long ride for this sun, dec 4th. start time is 7am SHARP at the black star entrance.

the ride will be two loops.

loop #1 is the blackstar to silverado motorway route. 25 miles, 4500 ft of gain.

loop #2 will the up maple springs (from the end of motorway we hang a left and start up maple) and back down silverado again. this loop is 16 miles and 3500 ft of gain.

total, 42 miles and 8000 ft of climbing. atleast a good 6 hrs of pedalling.
i will be doing this ride, wether solo or group is up to others. so far, Armando (aka epic_mtn_biker) is game (so there is a grand total of 2 of us!!!).

loop #1 is gonna happen. for loop #2, we are gonna try to get as far as we can, most likely to 4-corners at least (we all know that the main divide is an @ss kicker!!!).

i would NOT recommend this ride to shuttlers (I am not sure how one would shuttle this ride) and to anyone that has not atleast done the blackstar/silverado motorway loop. that loop alone is not for the faint of heart when it comes to climbing.

this ride will have loads of fireroad climbs and some up and down sections with VERY steep climbs on some loose fireroads. silverado is a rocky, loose and some-what techy singletrack decent (the only singletrack in the whole ride I believe).

helmets madatory. bring water and you own tubes/nutrition/etc.

weather should be cool and dry.

i will most likely leave my car at the bottom of motorway or around the start of maples. i'll leave some water inside for the guys who ride. we will take a break there and fill up our camelbacks/bottles.

great training ride the VQ or CC. this is a kick back ride, but, as other guys/gals with family/spouses/kids will understand....i do not plan on making this a social event and 10 hr affair (this is also one of the reasons why this ride will start at 7am).

we are going to be riding for awhile, so we can all chat while riding. i hope that we can keep the stops relatively short and that most of the riders can stay close in a pack and no lag too far behind (long rests REALLY kick my @ss and make it tough to warm up again, as i learned when i did this ride a few months ago). i am not trying to be an @ss, please forgive me if it sounds like it. the stop at the end of motorway should be long enough for everyone to regroup, refuel and inhale some food.


all kinds of bikes (fs, ht, ss, whatever) and riders (no jack@sses) welcome.


one can always head back to their car after the b-star/motorway loop if they feel crappy. this can even be done if one wants to turn around while climbing maple. just let someone know so we do not wait for you during the ride!!!

cheers!

[Epic_Mtn_Biker]

I'm there !!

[ChrisB]

Count me in!!

[ChrisB]

i posted this ride, or atleast tried to, on geoladders.com if anyone doing it is on there. I just did 2 seperate loops so i dont know if its the same thing but it sounds about right

[mingo1]

I am in!!!

Is this a rain or shine ride/mud or not? I'm in (with gears)

[singleSSpeedster]

i'll make this quick.

i will be riding, regardeless of the rain today. saturday should be sunny, so hopefully it will help dry up things. i hear motorway is in really good shape.

i will need to know who is in. again, i will pack water and cytomax in my van at the end of motorway for the guys riding. if you are planning to ride, please post here, you might not get water!!!

so far, it's;
me
Armando (aka epic mtn biker)
psholss (Pete)
ride4raam
hillcrawler (there will be other people riding gears)
mingo (Jose)
mtbr members donkey and hugh (possibly aosty and impy as well, and they might just do the first loop)

anyone else? be sure you post here. if you are going to flake, please post here as well.

also, the ride will start at the black star gate at 7am. i will try to post directions later. i will be out tonight, so i may not be able to post here til later sat evening.

cheers!!!

[Von-Skipp]

keep me tentative...... depends how I feel after the saturday ride. where are you guys parking???

[ChrisB]

i dont think im going to do the ride anymore....i did th pam canyon epic today and i LOVED IT....there is another ride there next saturday so im going to not ride sunday to study for finals so i an ride the palm canyon epic again saturday

[Epic_Mtn_Biker]

Hey Kam!

Great ride, the wind was absolutely killer!!! the turnout was great also. let me know how it went on the second part of the ride.

[pshloss]

Report on second half: Me, Kam and Thomas went up to 4 corners. Temp was 60deg in canyon, but 44deg at the top. No wind until we got to the top. Even though all we had was a couple gels left (thanks Jose!), Thomas and I decided to go ahead and complete the loop back around to the Motorway again. Thomas took a hard crash and had double flats at the steep part on the Motorway (sound familiar?). But he's OK. His sidewall was damaged, but he put a couple Gu wrappers in and it held up. Total was 43 miles and 8000 vert. Almost exactly the same stats as the Counting Coup. 6 hours of pedaling- about 7-1/2 hours with breaks- long day!

Great turnout guys. Way to tough out the wind on Blackstar! Note for the future: on Santa Ana wnd days, Blackstar bad, Maple Springs good.

[singleSSpeedster]

big props to the guys that came out today....you guys have my respect. I think alot of people would have got out of their car at the blackstar gate, felt the wind, and pack up and go back home.

gusty winds up blackstar. extremely high sustained winds at beek's. gusts along the main divide.

never did anyone even talk about heading back down from beek's.

like Pete said, on a windy day, Maple is a better choice. but mad, did my fingers ache on the way back down (I ride up Maples with Pete and Thomas). I turned around (no water, 1 gu) and pedalled nback to my car.

even with the crazy head winds and such, we still made decent time.

great going out there today guys!!!!

let me go ice my knees