Night Ride: Brown Mountain - El Prieto, 3/29. A Tribute to a Friend

[S54MCoupe]

EDIT: I AM GOING TO RESCHEDULE THIS FOR A WEEKEND RIDE RATHER THAN THIS THURSDAY, SINCE MOST CAN'T MAKE IT ON A WEEKDAY. SO IF U WERE PLANNING ON COMING, HOLD OFF UNTIL I AM ABLE TO COME UP WITH A BETTER DATE.

I had never tried riding at night until one of my friends invited me along for one of their rides. I bought some Night Rider lights right before the ride, and we got a lift to Mt. Wilson. Having never ridden all the single track from Wilson (let alone at night) I was in over my head, but it was still great and I was hooked on night riding. Not too long after that, we did some other smaller night rides, and one of them was the Brown Mountain to El Prieto loop. That was about a month ago, and since then our schedules hadn't matched up enough to make it out at all.

This last Wednesday my friend commited suicide, and has left a lot of people shocked and confused, including me. I hadn't known him for more than four years, and only recently had we started riding together, but he left a big impression on me. He introduced me to night riding, always waited for me at the end of all the climbs and singletrack sections, and never had a damn negative thing to say. He was the guy I would call every week hoping we would be able to go riding, because it was always a great time.

I don't know what else to do other than do the ride him and I did last time we hung out. Since it was a Thursday, I'm going to plan this ride for Thursday, March 29th, 6:30PM.

Everyone is welcome to come, hang out, and have a great time on a really fun ride.

I will post more details soon about the meeting place, what to bring, and all the other details.

[SIZE=3]DETAILS:[/SIZE]

MEETING PLACE:
6:30PM, 2055 E. Colorado Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91107.
If you head North on Oak Street from Colorado, I have a parking lot that we can drop our cars off at. Just enter where it says "Scarantino's Italian Restaurant" and park near the back. I am planning on riding to the trail, but if you want to cut that part off of the ride, you can meet us there. I figure it will take 45 minutes to ride from the meeting place to JPL, so meet us at 7:15 if you want to skip on the first part.

WHAT TO BRING:
1. You need to have good lights, no exceptions. Smaller LED lamps work well for the climb on the fireroad, but you'll need something bright for the singletrack on the way down. If anyone has a spare setup and wants to loan it to someone for the ride, just post it up.

2. Helmet: Nobody can make you wear one, but it's a pretty narrow singletrack and we're doing it at night, so you'll be doing yourself a favor by wearing one.

3. Spare tubes, CO2, patches, pumps, etc. We can all share, but I don't want to run out and have someone stranded.

4. Any small tools you might need.

5. I'll bring a small First Aid kit with the bare essentials. I doubt we'll need it, but it doesn't hurt.

6. WATER.

THE RIDE

1. We'll all start together at the bottom of the trail, and everyone can climb at their own pace. I am gonna take it easy, so nobody needs to feel pressured.

2. Our first regroup will be at the top of the climb. We'll wait until everyone catches up (nobody gets left behind) and then we'll make our way down. Everyone can go at their own pace, so the faster guys should take off first.

3. Our second regroup will be at the entrance of the El Prieto trail. Again, nobody gets left behind. If there are people who haven't done this ride before, they will probably miss the entrance completely and keeping hauling ass down the fire road, so we're gonna wait for them. Again, faster guys should go first.

4. Our third regroup will be at the end of the trail, where it reconnects with the fire road. From there we can cruise back down to the parking lot.

5. For people who have never ridden El Prieto (esp. at night) there are some spots that can catch you off guard (nothing major, though) so do the people riding behind you a favor and give them a heads up when there's a dropoff, stream crossing or anything else you think they might want to know about. If you've done the trail before and you want to stop for a minute before a tough section, let everyone regroup and give everyone a heads up, that would be cool.

Again, the trail isn't too tough, but it's always good to know what's coming up.

AFTER THE RIDE
We can cruise back to my place on Colorado, and I'll buy everyone a round of beer (soda, water or anything else if you don't drink) and we'll have a good time.

Any takers?

[CC]

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend. It sounds like it was very unexpected, especially from someone with such a positive outlook on life. I wish I could be there to support you, however, it would be difficult on a Thursday night. If you decide to put together a ride on a Saturday I would love to check it out.

[S54MCoupe]

Originally Posted by cyclecc

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend. It sounds like it was very unexpected, especially from someone with such a positive outlook on life. I wish I could be there to support you, however, it would be difficult on a Thursday night. If you decide to put together a ride on a Saturday I would love to check it out.

We'll definatly do one in the near future.

[MTBMaven]

Hey man very very sorry to hear about your loss. My achilles has been sore since the Solvang ride so I'm not sure I will be able to make it. Hope we can hook up for a ride in the near future once this damn leg gets better.

[tkblazer]

wow, sorry to hear about your friend man... if it didn't take me three hours to get from lake forest to there in rush hour traffic, i would join you.

[S54MCoupe]

Originally Posted by MTBMaven

Hey man very very sorry to hear about your loss. My achilles has been sore since the Solvang ride so I'm not sure I will be able to make it. Hope we can hook up for a ride in the near future once this damn leg gets better.

Meet up after the ride for some drinks.

[ApexMan]

Hey, bummer... Would like to do this ride to help with the support. I'm just 10 minutes from there so I can meet at the lot when you get a new evening to do this, please keep me informed.