Ride Report STR Invades Mammoth.... and I do mean INVADES!

What a day!

There's still about six people missing from the group shot below. On the trail all day it didn't matter where you went: you'd find other STR riders. Weather co-operated and there wasn't any snow, but it was a powder day at mammoth... pumice powder!

The first run was a warm up down Velocity, followed by another run down Velocity to session and take photos. From there we sessioned Chainsmoke's rock gardens and on to Twighlight Zone. Good times with the big crew, but riding with such a large contingent didn't last. After that second run we went to Skidmarks, and the group split into packs of 4 - 8 riders for most of the rest of the day.

I spent most of the afternoon with Chuck (happy gilmore) Mark (stinkyrider), BryGuy17, TwoWheelLee.... a good crew to be with for sure.

The best part of the day for me was finally ponying up to the Chainsmoke Waterfall (even with the pumice-surfing watch-out-for-that-tree OTB on the runout!) and cleaning all the rock gardens on Bullet, Flow and Chainsmoke.

The worst part was when a gust of wind knocked me sideways mid-air off the ramp at the bottom of Velocity. I landed on my hip and elbow, pretty hard and fast. 2WheelLee did exactly the same thing right behind me, crashing hard. Again, thank you body armor.

The lift lines were long at times, which is to be expected on a day like this.

There will be many more photos and videos in the coming days, but this will already be a weekend that won't be forgotten soon.

Big thanks to DenMo for herding all the cats this morning .

More tomorrrow!

 

Um...where's all the snow?

 

I didn't make it up there this year. Next for sure. Looking foward to more RR's and pix.

 

As he said, looking forward to more RR's and pictures. I wish I could have made it up this year.

 

damn! thats a really big group! Big Group = Big Fun!:clap: can I go next year? :?:

 

all I have to say is: it sucks I missed out.

 

C'mon, I need some more pics.....

 

any carnage yet?

 

I just got home; I'll post my rr later.

I'm not aware of any injuries, so kudos to all the riders for keeping it fun and safe. :clap:

That group photo showed only some of the STR riders there - it was insane how many of us there were.

 

I hate you all I wish I had cash and it wasn't during the most busy week of my life

 

I saw some really pretty stars crashing at the bottom of Velocity.

 

Just walked in the door, Good times this weekend

 

Yeah...well...you combine a strong gust of wind from the side and gravity, and things get really interesting! Fortunately, I think it was just a couple non-eventful slideouts. I remember rolling up to the wood jump wondering how/why kanga had crashed, then as I hit the jump, I kicked the bike out to the left (working on those style points), and then the bike suddenly blew to the right. Before I even hit the ground, I thought "Oh, that's what happened to kanga!"

 

Looking forward to your RR Lee!

 

I'll throw my RR up now since I'm not as tired as I thought I'd be

Got up there early on friday, and met of with Tim (JasonMason) and Matt13. we got in one ride down rock creek, and headed back to the top to hopefully catch the later group. We caught them (I can only think of steppie and 1080P at the moment) at the trailhead, and proceeded to do another run down. good stuff, not much carnage (I did have a fabulous endo on a rock garden at the bottom though)

next day, matt, tim and Art (art23rockpile) and I got going a bit later than others (Denmo wanted us at the gondola at 8! geez, so early ) so we headed up and got in a run down skid marks to follow me. good stuff to warm up on.

Back up top, we hooked up with a lot of the bigger group, and I split off and went with Stinkyrider, Happy Gilmore, 2wheel Lee, and kanga. Great group of guys to ride with, and we covered a good bit of ground with just us. Special props to Kanga for being a great tour guide (same to Stinky and Happy :beer. We got in a bunch of runs, and ended up hooking up with Socalridur and his friend Nick (nikolas) on our last run. those guys know how to ride too :bang:

Sunday was a slow day. got going late again, and went looking for some people to ride with. hooked up with mfoga and 2wheel lee, along with some of the incycle guys whose names I missed. we did a run, and then we met up with the bigger group for one big run down bullet/follow me. Kanga and I did our last run down velocity at breakneck speed (4:16 i think for him. :bang: I woulda been about 2 seconds slower if I didn't get screwed by pumice at the end :lol

Overall, it was an absolutely great weekend. I got to meet a bunch of new people (so many that I was forgetting names left and right #-o). I also got in some great riding with great people.

Special thanks to Denmother for getting us all out there. Also thanks to everyone that helped show me around the trails and gave me good riding tips.

I can't wait for next year. I think I'm going to get a season pass

Now I can't wait to see all the pics and videos that were taken. gotta spread out the fun as long as possible, right?

 

Bryguy17 pretty much covered it... Special Thanks to Art23rockpile and his GF Lorabee for arranging the shuttle back up from Rock Creek. GaylordVB and I got passed by Steppie around Lone Pine, but the VW diesel tortoise kept on motoring while the Toyota 4X hare had to stop for fuel in Bishop, so we were minutes behind ST Junkie and Steppie when we pulled in to Upper Rock Creek for the 3 lowest sections. Met Bryguy17, with his new to him Giant Reign X that I got to ride for a bit... Plush ride dude! ...and his crew Matt13 and Jason Mason, as well as Team Homer, Son of Steppie, STJunkie, Steppie, with GaylordVB and me rounding out the tail end of the group. Art23rockpile managed to stash EIGHT (edited) bikes hanging out the back of his tailgate of his truck for the shuttle back to the top after an awesome trip down Rock Creek. Absolutely a great way to break up the drive up to Mammoth, sneak in a little Rock creek, then finish up the last leg. Thanks to Steppie and STJunkie for getting us to try this... it works awesome!

Saturday morning, we awoke around 6:45 to a great sunrise, some winds and chills, but got on up to the Main Lodge where Denmother was suiting up and chomping at the bit to get the group pics behind us, only to find out that Mammoth had changed the gondy start times from opening at 8:30am to 9 am. Yakked it up with UzziBoy, who was sporting a new Intense M6 on it's virgin ride, he's another Rohloff hub Freekazoid, so we were comparing notes. While talking about virgins, 2wheel lee had just finished building another new DH'er Intense M6 bike and was showing us the goods. I hope you got the suspenders dialed in quick on that new ride, Lee. :bang:
With some of us lacking big plush downhill bikes or the courage and skills, a few of us split up after the Velocity warm up run, cause we brought pedaling shoes not hiking boots we went and hit Off the Top, Kamikazee, where Garo drag raced me and won, then I got led by Garo on a steep azzed chute named Upper Shock Treatment that spanked us hard. Being early in the weekend, I opted to walk today, ride tomorrow, rather than ride today, cry in sorrow. Kitty litter conditions were indeed perfect, fresh, unscented, without any hint of cats in the area using it, except for the Kool Kats on two wheels.

The rest of the day was a blur, seems like I got a ton of miles that day on the Garmin, around 55.My favorite, Skidmarks was in there, with some horrendous winds being able to blow me off the track a time or two, as was Lincoln Express, where I ran in to Kanga, Bry17 and their crew, to Brake Through, to Flow, where I bumped into local JohnyFiveOh, a local on a Bionicon Ironwood, that spotted me on my Bionicon Edison. The guy is fast and smooth, smooth, smooth.

What did I see the most of? InCycle Jerseys, every time at the Gondy... Never saw them once up on the mountain. Do you guys really ride or are you just poseurs ? j/k... Then there were all The Path Jerseys in plaid argyle. Saw a few H and S jerseys too, didn't catch their names.

Saturday night, with GVB being a vegan, we opted for sitting down at Thai'ed Up for dinner. It's a hard place to find, kitty corner from The Stove, but the meal was delicious and worth every cent. I'd burned a lot of calories that day, and cleaned every spic of rice off my plate and scraped the gravy sauce up too, it was clean before going back to be washed by the bus boy.

Lovely weather, great huge group of STR folks, and plenty of talent. The lines were long for the shuttle up to the main lodge for closing weekend, with even longer lines out the stairs and down the path for the gondies at times.

Had a great time, met quite a few new faces, had a blast with the smaller crew on Lower Rock Creek, and of course, Gravity assisted biking by Mammoth bike park. Thanks to DenMo for coordinating this, it was a lot of fun, fun, fun!

 

I don't have much of a ride report but I must say it was amazing meeting so many folk I have talked to on this site. I had a great time and have to put some props out to Pmorturary for being such a gracious guide on Saturday and of course my Incycle Bros as usual. Can'y wait to do it again.

Here's a link to the very few pics I took.

http://mottmcfly.smugmug.com/gallery/6033148_bhJab#377681343_SkYtc


Mott

 

Wow, another season of lift assisted riding comes to a close.... Thanks to all that made this weeekend possible, and a little x-tra thanks to the Denmother for setting it up and Mottmcfly for driving..... I was too busy riding to take pics, but it was nice to meet some new people, and finally put some faces with the screen names....

 

yea guys was a fun weekend. nice meeting you all and riding with you, it was my first time ever riding mammoth but i go in the wintertime to snowboard
thanks again kanga for the tour there were alot of trails id of missed if it wasnt for you :beer: fun times

 

Highlights for me this weekend:
Watching JSims hit the Flow drop, what an accomplishment it was for him. You have come a very long way my friend! :clap:

One of the Incycle guys (I think) flying down that loose, steep fireroad off Skid Marks. I recall the guy yelling to a slower rider, "You're in the trail" as he flew by him.

Didn't see this, but Ann told me Lynn rode the log on Shotgun. Excellent job, way to step it up :clap:

Personal one, rolling the rock face on Chainsmoke. I've been dreaming about this for 2 weeks now. The last time I saw it, I couldn't even image riding down it.

Lows for me:
Becoming a lawndart off a rock jump at Canyon Lodge. Jeff and I hit the jump earlier in the day, but for my last run, I decided to try it again. Should have quit when I was in one piece, but my shoulder got dislocated again, luckily it popped back in and I had a headache the rest of the night.

Dean got hit by a car coming back to the house. Luckily Dean wasn't hurt, but he told me he put a nice gouge into an Expedition.

Nancy and Roger, thanks for feeding us lunch and getting everyone out there. Jeff and Scotty, thank you for your hospitality. We had a lot of fun riding with everyone this weekend.