I met up with the OTB group about 8:30AM on Sunday morning. They were camping in one of the campground at Chilao. The previous day, Saturday, they rode from Millard to Chilao in three segments. Seg 1 Millard to Red Box. Seg 2 Red Box to Alder Creek via Strawberry Peak Trail. Seg 3 Alder Creek to Chilao. One person I spoke to rode the entire thing and it was 32.5 miles and something like 7,500 feet of gain. The elevation is from memory. The consensus of the group was to ride Hilyar before heading back to Millard. So about 9:00AM we took off for a pre-ride warm up...a 9 mile warm up. Hilyar never disappoints! Back at Chilao we rode the Silver Moc. to Charlton then down off the back side of Vetter. Rather than ride the singletrack up to Highway 2 we cut across to Upper Tujunga Rd. to Highway 2. The ride on the road to Red Box and then up to Eaton Saddle was draining; however, the rest of the ride was downhill except for the short trail at the bottom of Middle Merrill over to Sunset Ridge and should be easy in theory. Some of the group rode Upper Sam Merrill and the rest of us rode the other trail (East Mt. Lowe Trail I think? Basically we didn't ride to the summit). After Upper Merrill was Middle Merrill, which is always a blast. One unfortunate event was a running in with a pissed off hiker. We came to a complete stop, talked to them, and some even walked past her. No matter what we said or did she was going to be pissed. She had this look of utter disbelief that we would have the audacity to ride a bike on this trail. By this point it was 3:15 and we had been riding for ~25 miles. Needless to say I was getting exhausted and starting to cramp. About 20 yards on the trail over to Sunset Ridge both my legs completely cramped up. I collapsed off my bike into the bushes in utter pain. I was like that guy in the Gatorade add. I gulped down some gel and water but it did not help. Another rider gave me some more gel and I started walking the trail to Sunset Ridge. After a bit decided to ride but my leg cramped again. No go, I had to walk the rest of that trail and ride the pavement down The ride was amazing, the challenge was great, and the riders were super cool. There are some real animals that ride with OTB for sure. Sorry but I don't have any photos to post at this time.
