Ride Report San Gabes, Sunday

First off, let me thank David for organizing the ride and taking all the photos yet again. Second, TrojanInsomniac, not as slow as he makes himself out to be. Third, neither is Maxwells' son Jake.

The ride started off well enough. Weather was perfect. We were very close to our planned starting time of 8:00 am. 8:05 to be exact. Scott led the pack which included Jay, David, Pain Freak, TrailInsomniac and your's truly from JPL up the streets to the trail head. Forgive me, but I'm not that sure of the all the trail names.

The streets started off as gentle upward slopes, but became somewhat more steep than I cared for. That's right, I hate uphills. The only less loathsome uphill is the one that leads to the lifts or shuttle. It wasn't looking good for me when I started getting tired and we were still a mile out from the trail head.

So after what seems like an eternity of uphill to me, we get to the trail head. Yay, more climbing! ](*,)Up Lower Merril we go. Up and up and up. Then up some more. Wouldn't have been so bad if I wasn't stuck trying to keep up with Scott with TrojanInsomniac buzzing my rear tire. I couldn't let up for fear of breaking TI's rhythm or even worse, causing an emergency stop. With all the exposure up there that is never a good thing. I was only able to keep this pace maybe 2/3 of the way up. I had to let TI pass me and fall back to the rear of the group. Let me tell you, I took full advantage of every single one of the hikers coming down on that trail. Every one of them was a much needed break. I guess I can be grateful for the small mercies such as the hikers, the still relatively cool weather and shade.

I could have sworn we had climbed for days by the time we reached The Ruins. Here we caught up to Maxwell, his son Jake and JoeTruth. A much too quick food break and off we went again. Guess in what direction we were headed. Yup, that's right! UP! Mercifully, it was only about 3/4 of a mile before we hit payday.

Miles of sweet, somewhat technical at times, singletrack. I think the trail was Sunset, but I can't be sure. Somewhere along the trail, Maxwell gets a pinch flat and we stop to fix it. Fortunately, we noticed the replacement tube also had a hole in it before we put everything back together and wasted a CO2 cartridge on it. Flat fixed, we push onward. Other than the flat and David dropping his chain two or three times, we had no major mechanicals. :clap:

We got to the bottom of Sunset and take a breather at the campsite. Man, I was in heaven. As we start off again, I was quickly brought back to reality with these words: "Now we'll climb up a fire road for about a mile. Don't worry, it's a mild climb." Yea right. I'll never trust these guys' definition of "mild climb" again. To top it off, the temperature had risen quite a bit and there was no shade to speak of. Back to the end of the line for me.

Somehow, I make it up and we get to the downhill again. By this time, my quads on both my legs were starting to cramp up. That was OK though. More sweet singletrack goodness. Not sure what trail we took, but it led us to El Prieto. Down El Prieto we went then up and out to the JPL lot.

Damn that was an awesome ride! All of that sweet downhill singletrack was sooooooo worth all the climbing. Truth be told, I even enjoyed climbing up Lower Merril. The extended climbing with no breaks in between just kicked my @$$ though. I guess I just need to ride it until I build up my endurance.

Once again, thanks David, for setting this up and taking all the pictures. All I've got are the ones of David coming down a short steep rock garden. Hopefully, he'll post the one's he took.

davidb eyeing the line


davidb attempting to clean the rock garden


Oh, so close

 

Thanks for the little taste o' home... I'm in the South East of the country without a bike for a week, and looking forward to getting back on the home turf (and back on two wheels) before too long.

 

"hey, if I crash, keep shooting!"

#-o

(still working on my pics and stuff)

 

Hey that goes for everyone else out there. No matter how bad I wreck, you better get a shot of it first. I need proof of my follies.

David,

I never would have considered stopping to help until I've got a shot of it first. :lol:

 

David you did suprisingly well on a rigid bike up there,very impressive. But I'll stay with the suspension. Great riding with a couple new guys for me. TrojanInsomniac is very misleading. At first glance I looked at him and thought to myself, well at least I'll have somebody to ride with.....and then he drops me on the road climb over to Lower Merrill. Serves me right. Pato, I didn't know you were struggling that much, you looked like you were having a blast, even on the climbs. I love bringing people to this area, they are almost 100% amazed at how great the riding is.

We did have one other rider but he didn't get to ride, seems he forgot his thru-axle on the gate at home. It could of been two guys not getting to ride. I forgot to do my pre ride inventory and forgot my helmet at home. Fortunately this kind guy was gracious enough to loan me his so I could continue on to the ride! I'm not going to mention any names I'll let him speak up if he wants to.

Seeing Maxwell and son Jake riding out there was a real treat. Jake is on his way to being able to kick all our sorry old butts in the very near future. I was able to ride behind him for a little and he's a lot like his dad. He picks the harder more fun lines. He's a huckin machine and his skill level is a lot futher along then mine was at the amount of riding he has done. You done good Darin, and you too Jake! I wish my son would come out and ride with me. But as we were going over some exposure and Jake handled it very well but I don't know if I'd be as calm as Darin was. The cliff at this spot is easily a good 250 foot straight drop. I probabaly would of asked my son to walk this, but pops just gave him some pointers and Jake listened and rode it like a seasoned pro.

It's been ages since I've just done that lower portion by itself. When we got back to the cars I felt like we 'd only done half a ride but it worked out great as I got home early enough to get my other stuff done and now I can goof off the rest of the day.

Thanks for the invite David it was a very fun ride!

 

*i think he paused to make sure the camera is working otherwise it would've been a sequential shot by shot. :wave:

I just told myself, not to miss any great rides with you great fellas again. I got something going on this morning thats why i couldn't make it. Yesterday was my first real ride in 3 weeks. anyway, im envy of you guys.

 

so jealous here.


-sniffle....

 

Thanks to David for posting the ride. I have been wanting to ride the San Gabes and I finally got my chance. It was so much fun, I am already looking for an open day on my calendar so I can go back. The first climb was very challenging, but I was suprised at how well I did. After a short break at the ruins, it seemed like the down hill took just as long as the climb, it went on what seemed like FOREVER. This ride definately put me out of my confort zone. The switchbacks with waterbars right in the middle of the turn had my number. All in all it was great ride with great people. I look forward to doing it again soon.

 

No doubt man. I'll second that. I was having a heck of a time keeping up with him on the downhills.

Well, it wasn't so much the way he looked, but his posting that fooled me. He said it was going to be slow paced cause he'll be on the ride. Yea right. He was buzzing my rear tire most of the way up Lower Merrill. No worries though. It's been a long time since I've really pushed myself on a ride. It felt good. It was great riding with him. Thanks for the push TrailInsomniac!

I DID have a great time climbing and all. I always struggle on the climbs. I'm not very fast and I'm out of shape. I'm better prepared to do the 24 Hours of Couch Sitting than the 24 Hours of Adrenaline. :lol:

I just like to b!tch and moan about climbing. I will admit though, the downhills are so much sweeter after you've earned it.

:lol: :lol: :lol:
I've done that before. Luckily, it's always been post ride and I remember in time to turn back to retrieve it.

Had I known, I would have offered my spare I just happened to have in my trunk.

I agree totally.

 

RR: Lower Sam Merril to Sunset to El Prieto

First, I'd like to thank the dudes that showed up. That ride would have sucked had I gone by myself. Thanks! I've been wanting to do that loop recently so I put up this ride Friday night thinking no one would show. I was wrong!

Last night I was up until about 2am putting my squishy bike back together but things didn't go the way I wanted, so i gave up and brought my rigid 1x9 hoping it wouldn't be that bad. All 3 trails are rocky, and yes, it was that bad. But a whole level of fun I didn't think was possible. I'd do it again (but probably wont lol)

We had 6 of us start at JPL, knowing at some point we'd meet/catch a few others.

So we started with a pretty ugly 3 mile road climb to the LSM trailhead.

^from left to right: Pato (duke), Ladd Jasper (Scott), TrojanInsomniac (mark), PainFreak (mike), and Jay.

I think I was quoted in saying "a mile or so" of pavement.....3 miles later, we're there. So one of us marks our territory.


We ran into a ton of hikers, a few more than once. The initial climb up is pretty brutal, rocky, and very challenging switchbacks. Then you get a bit of exposure, and no real relief from the trail.

^Jay, my homie from the fully loop

The shade felt good, but we had to keep moving. More pics!




We knew when we got to the ruins a few others would be there, but we didn't know exactly who. Turns out, as expected, JoeTruth had led Darin and his boy Jake up ahead of us.

^pop and son

Back in the day there used to be a hotel up there, which people would get to via rail car.


You really could see a really long way east, and a really long way west. Smog layer made us feel better being up there.


Pato and his bike, glad to hear the tough stuff is over.


Painfreak and TrojanInsomniac


Group picture!

(me in there 2nd from left, next to another local on the far left, JoeTruth)

Ladd Jasper, one of a few photos of the dude I couldn't keep up with.


Maxwell, getting squirly off trail with JoeTruth and Pato behind.


bumper to bumper traffic as we left the ruins




We hit Sunset, which is a pretty fun technical trail (or at least i thought it was)


(not shown: the million 6"-2' high drops on this trail )

Jake. This kid jumps off every rock possible.


Maxwell, after fixing his flat. Surprisingly, the only of the day.



finishing up most of Sunset, with El Prieto still to go



Then we were on to El Prieto

EP is a must do if you're up there, and it starts off right where Sunset left off. Rocky!

Scott, Joe, and Jay.




At that point I realized I might be standing in the wrong spot. Thanks for not slamming into me guys!

TrojanInsomniac, Painfreak, and Jake with Maxwell. Somewhere in the Jake jumped off something and saved his landing. That was a theme of his throughout the day





This trail has everything, drops, streams, cover, and good dirt!

Maxwell dropping into a stream


Pato and Maxwell both went back to clear the switchback with a drop. This place has a lot of those places you'll clear one day, and have problems with the next. They conquered my nemesis there.



That was about it. Our groups split, and it was over. I could drain sweat out of my helmet, I was dirty, and my knees hurt from a couple of hard landings from falling. 14 miles, 2k calories, and 2600 feet of climbing later, we were done. Except Pato, he felt like showing off.



I'm not sure who on the ride today hadn't been up there, but I hope you enjoyed it! I've been told you can ride forever up there with the amount of trails, but that loop we did was just right for me today.

thanks for coming!

 

Dang, I am sorry I missed this one. Looks like fun!!

 

Great RR's. Thanks for sharing. Can't wait till I'm able to hit the trails with my kids

 

A couple more I just found


Maxwell doing that switchback


I went around this drop. Maxwell rolled it. Did he crash? Nope. Crash Maxwell was not seen today.

.
.
.
.
.
Now here's the kicker. Jake doing that same drop on his hardtail.
He jumped it, with his trademark save of a landing.



My favorite parts of the day:
-Getting up the ruins to see Jake and his dad. I struggled getting up there and here's this kid doing just fine, having never been up.
-telling myself i'll probably get bucked off the bike twice on the downhills. Then going through with it, bloody/sore knees and all. #-o
-making it down stuff I wasn't able to do last time on Sunset. Trust me, there was a bunch of that today.



p.s. Mark's a liar. that, or "slow" means something else in my book.

 

Good times, good folks & good trails. What more can one ask for!? I've done LSM probably 100 times and it never gets easy, IMO. I was struggling up it today due to back spasms and being off the bike for two weeks. Thank goodness for hikers giving me many reasons to stop and rest.

Jake, you're doing really well. We'll all very proud of you.

Mike, please don't ever try singing Roxanne when I'm near! My ears are still ringing. :wave: :lol:

Thanks all for coming out to our little neck of the woods. Hope you all can make it back out again sometime soon. Tis was a fun day!

 

Nice! ...would have been there but I had to be at Lucky Baldwins at 10 AM.

oh damn...Mike was out there with this Roxanne rendition again?

 

I still don't buy that I'm a fast climber. I think I just had a good day today. I'm just so used to getting left in the dust at the loop. But then again, we were riding the San Gabes today :bang:
My ride experiences just keep on getting better and better. Today was the perfect day for a fun-filled ride......weather was nice, great loop with all of the climbing first, and a great group of guys! A big thanks to Dave for setting this up. I was super impressed how you rode the loop on your fully rigid Niner!!!!!!!!
Great meeting Joe, Mike, Duc, and Scott and seeing my old buddies Dave, Jason, Darin and Jake! Let's do another one of these rides again really soon!

The day was not complete without another one of my bonehead crashes. I continue to have no problems with the drops and rocks........but damn, those clean flat sections sure cause me grief!:lol:

 

correction

ladd jasper should have been stjunkie #-o

bah, i always mess up at least one name

 

Looks like fun guys!!

Ladd Jasper looks a lot like stjunkie to me though

 

Steve, we missed you today! It'd be a treat to have you, Pato and Maxwell out on one ride :bang:

 

I'm bummed that Willie and I missed out.
It looks like you all had a great time.
I didn't get to ride all weekend. I hope next time we get to go.