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

If you liked Viper, you'll dig Los Pinetos, about 3/10ths of a mile more, up over the top and drop down to the saddle, and it's on your left. Very cool little single track after the climb. Of course, I'm biased, cause it's in my backyard, but try chasing and keeping up with Kanga on one of his epic ride days up there where he comes up from Wilson Canyon, does Viper, comes up Los Pinetos, does Viper down again, comes up Santa Clara Truck trails from the Park and ride, then heads back down Wilson Cyn to Oliveview Hospital. The guy ain't human, he's immune to climbing pain.

 

Heres my take

Sat morning started nice seeing lots of familiar faces and meeting some new ones. I hear that the group is doing Velocity see its a double black diamond but think to myself how bad can it be it they are taking everyone here. I couldn't have been more wrong (for me at least). I had never felt so uncomfortable on a bike in a very long time. After a very slow ride/walk down most everyone was on the gondola already. I met up with 1080p and Garo and they offer to take me on some easy rides. We head to top to go down off the top but barely off the gondola my cranks lock up. Turned out to be a bolt on chain guide backed out, rode the gondola back down and fixed it. Meet 1080p and Garo again and back to the top to try again. Down off the top to kamakazie to some trail to richter. This was just what I needed and turned what after the first run to be a very bad trip into a good trip. We lost 1080p at some point so we head back up and decide to do skidmarks to lincoln to follow me. Had a great time, was able to ride most of it and felt comfortable almost the whole time. On the way debating what to do next we end up joining the incycle crew plus Kaos and uzziboy. Down skidmarks the whole thing this time to bullet. This requied a little more walking but still had a good time , but had crashed due to bing tired and just losing focus so after that I called it a day even though there was plenty of time for more riding.

Sunday starts ok, I figured out I had a tire on backwards (do to mislabled rotation arrow) swap it only to find it backwards still#-o. So I fix that again and then run Brain waiting for the group. We meet up with Lee, Kaos, Uzziboy, and whats left of the Incycle crew. Up skidmarks to follow me, made it down the pumice hill much better. Watch Lee just fly down the hill:bang:. Added to the crash total but overall a great ride. See a big STR group as we get on the shuttle, wait for them to get off next shuttle. Then back up and skidmarks to follow me. Feeling good down follow me and then I just eat it in a corner, was faster then I had been all weekend. Then continue on after 3 more crashes I make it to the bottom. With confidence shaken I call it a day, hang out a bit then Lee and I pack up clean up and head home

Overall I had a great time. I still hate pumice :lol:.

Thanks to all those who waited for me , helped with tips, etc.. I really big thanks to 1080p and Garo had I not gone with you guys on the easy ride I would have a long boring weekend of sitting around Mammoth.

 

It wasn't easy, don't sell yourself short... it was easier. Keep in mind, Garo and I were not wearing full helmets, and I was not wearing any armor, it cramps my legs and style when climbing, which is what I love to do also while at Mammoth, fit in a little XC. Because I forgo armor, I'm willing to take it a little easier and go a lot slower. I can deal with greasy black chain ring tattoo's on the back of my right calf, but busting my body up when I have to drive home and I ride solo a lot of the time is always on my mind. I have to rely and count on me getting me back to the condo and back home in one piece.

Still, great riding with you, and great comeback... you just needed a little confidence builder after that first run... you came back strong, and I bet you learned alot with a weekend in Mammoth. I managed to get 16 days in at Mammoth on my season pass. Spend that much time on pumice, and you gain some experience getting it to work for you, instead of you working for it.

 

This is the flow drop.

Size it up....

and hit it.

Velocity, maybe.

King Willy and I. He has the sickest 6.6 ever.

Guillen and I, Off the top.

The end of Richter,maybe.


I promised lots of SLR shots but riding was too much fun.
Till next year.
Mike.

 

As some of you know, I built up a new M6 (to the surprise of very few - probably zero) this last week, and I mostly finished it on Friday. I picked up a set of the 09 Saint brakes that day, but I didn't have the time to install them, so I just ran with the Codes (which are awesome brakes, anyway).

I drove up to Mammoth with mfoga on Friday evening. He said that he had a spare bed in his room at the Mammoth Mountain Inn. Little did we know that the rooms there are huge! We still had two empty couches and lots of floor space. And with a full kitchen, it was one hell of a bargain for $100 a night.

Saturday, as mentioned, we met at the gondola area at 8:00ish for the group photo. I knew it was a bit early for many because I knew that we had only about half the people I expected to see there.

Over the course of Saturday and Sunday, I met many STR members I had not met before but have only exchanged conversations online. It's so nice to not only put some faces with names, but to also ride with so many different people.

The first day, I spent most of my time making various adjustments to the new bike. There were some more jumps, drops, and roll-ins that I wanted to do, but I knew some of the shock and fork settings weren't what they needed to be, and I didn't want to wad it up as a result.

Some of you may remember that I was practically pulling my hair out on Thursday or Friday trying to get the correct spring for the rear shock. The one that came with the frame was way too light for me, according to Intense's specs, and so I bought one that was apparently way too stiff - I thought I needed the one in between, but nobody had one. I ended up going with the light spring, and it seems to work OK. In fact, it may even be a tad too stiff!

I can't remember much in the way of trail names, but I hit most of the common trails. The 2.8" Michelin tire was a savior for the kitty litter. And I still wish I had something bigger!

Normally, I ride DH with shorts and knee/chin pads, but for this ride - considering that it could be cold - I wore moto pants and knee/chin pads. Since I've become used to wearing this setup from BMX racing, I somewhat knew what to expect: the fit and comfort is so much better than shorts and burly pads, since you don't need as burly of pads to stay in place because the pants will keep them in place in the event of a fall. I'm sold on pants for DH now.

I'm still feeling somewhat giddy; I had so much fun! Some may remember that steep hill near the top (or bottom?) of Skid Marks. Most people plucked their way down through the pumice and baby heads. I'd just turn that M6 loose, and let it fly! I was so impressed how well the bike tracked - if you know the hill I'm talking about, you know what I mean. And when I came to the ditch at the bottom, the M6 manualled over it like it wasn't even there - at nearly 40 mph, as some had guessed.

It was good riding with ALL of you! I feel really bad for those who couldn't make it for one reason or another. You really missed out. We will be talking about this epic weekend for years to come! :clap:

Here are a couple photos, including J_Sims and Stinky_Rider after he poked a nasty hole in his knee after his knee pads moved in a fall (look into some moto pants there, buddy). I wish I could have taken more photos.

 

your a ripper tkc !

 

Awesome weekend!

Headed up with Uzziboy Friday afternoon at about 3ish, nor major traffic jams other than the clusterF@$! that is the 91East. Rolled into town a little after 9pm, unpacked the SUV had some dinner and then finished prepping the bikes for the day of gravity assisted riding to follow.

Saturday morning we stopped by Shat’s for breakfast. Ran into sheclimbs, sprokecthead, slowspokes and stjunkie. Chatted with them for a bit before heading up the hill to try to make it for Denmo’s group photo shoot. It was cold and windy at the main lodge at 8am. Geared up, posed for a photo or 2 then headed on up at 9am.

It’s difficult to stop and take photos; the riding is just so much fun you don’t want to stop thus I don't have much. On the occasions that we did stop to catch our breaths or to take in view here are some of what I’ve got.

J_Sims – Velocity rock garden.

Denmother – thru the squeeze.


The morning runs were all about getting used to the altitude and the kitty litter. To my surprise I was doing pretty well in the stuff running a 2.7 Nevy in front and a 2.5 Nevy in the back [thanks Frank!]
Uzziboy and I split from the group after the 2 warm up runs down Velocity and other than getting a bit lost on Saturday morning we were having a lot of fun on our runs.

Uzziboy – Skidmarks

1st flat of the day – Uzziboy would end up with 3 flats on Sat.


We stopped midday to break for lunch in the Village. That’s when we hooked up with the Incycle guys and a couple others Foenasty, dhshuttlemonkey, MottMcfly, their buddy Rob, pmortuary, mfoga and another guy [sorry forgot your name] to hit SkidMarks to Bullet. That was a fantastic flowy run. The only part that wasn’t ridden was the Bullet rock garden. I was so stoked that I cleaned the end of Bullet because last year I had to walk down it. Even though I was told that there was a little sanitation on the end of the run by the trail crews I was nevertheless happy.

Waiting for a ride
]
Pmortuary on the Bullet rock garden up above.

Trying it again.


Sunday, we got a little bit of a late start but we ran into mfoga and 2wheel_lee at the gondola. Headed up to mid mountain for a warm up run, mfoga stayed behind to fix his front tire. Gotta give a huge thanks to Lee right now for helping me through the rock garden on Velocity. Saturday he was helping others pick out a good line through and try as I might I could not get my head around just committing to it and rolling thru it. The thought of going OTB and another broken collarbone was all I could see. Sunday however was a different story, with a little encouragement and a healthy dose of commitment I was able to roll through it. WOW! Just as he said, trust your suspension and you won’t feel much. Thanks Lee.

At the bottom we picked up mfoga and hooked up again with the Incycle crew and I think bryguy was in our group to, sorry forgot to introduce myself. We headed straight for the top. Skidmarks to Followme was on the plate and like many of the DH trails, it delivered miles of smiles on our faces…. Well except for maybe the long loose and sketchy chute. Lee makes it looks so easy.




It was a fantastic ride filled weekend and I couldn’t have asked for anything more. Toward the end the kitty litter didn’t bother me so much. I still couldn’t blast through it as fast some but I definitely got accustomed to riding… errrr drifting in the stuff.

I am on such a Mammoth high today, I can’t work. Trying to tell my wife that I need to go to Brainhead this weekend for their closing weekend to get 1 more fix…I know there is a lot there that I can still learn on, well see.

Thanks for the great time everyone.

 

Ah you like that magic trick don't you. from what my memory tells me it was a great landing but with all the kitty litter the bike just wouldn't turn no matter how much I turned the bars. Came to a very quick stop well the bike did anyway. I on the other hand completed the turn and ran down the trail another 20 feet or so. BTW i've cleaned that five times this year in previous trips. So if you couldn't clean something try making a trip earlier in the season for some redemption.

My RR/thanks:
First big ups to Mottmcfly, Foesnasty, (frank & rob) for letting me stay & ride with them. Great bunch of guys and fun group to ride with. I had some pre-existing injuries that forced me to not ride Sunday but certainly had a great day Saturday. After my four previous trips to Mammoth this summer (in the accent from blazzing saddels) I don't need no stinkin map!!!! Some one says lets go to that trail and I say ok lets go this way it's better. Awesome. Only looked at a map once and that was during lunch. Little disapointed that I didn't get to do a lot of hucking but hey I was the first one to do the bridge drop after the velocity warm up run. After I get healed and get my fork back from Marzocchi then it's definitly on for more riding with those guys.

 

Bullit is one tricky SOB! I didn't even attempt to clear it, because I knew I would crash and burn. :lol:

 

I had an awesome 3 days riding up there with the huge STR crew. At times I was riding with 30 and other times I was riding with 2. The groups just seemed to be morphing all the time. As soon as I showed up Friday morning I saw Nancy, Roger, Jeff, Winston and crew. Here are some pics I took.
Roger on Shock Treatment






Jeff


Shitty


It was cool to get a shot of Winston. He is always the one behind the camera.




More Jeff.




Did a bunch of runs with all kinds of riders on Saturday. In the afternoon our group settled to Me, Scott, Tim, Art, and Matt. We got some good vertical in.
Sunday I went up with Andy, Ann, Scott, Dean, Lynn, and Scotty. We hooked up with Art and Tim at the gondola and headed up for another great day. Scotty and I ended up riding the whole day. We got back to the house at 4:30. After 1 or so the place was a ghost town.
Steve on Chainsmoke






Tim on Skidmarks


Scott


Ann. She cleaned the switchback.


Art


Shesmiles




Andy on Follow Me


Scott


Art


Lynn


Scotty on an X-zone






I have to agree with Denmother. Jeff was the most improved rider I saw up there. He was hitting everything.

 

Looks like everyone had tons of fun. Hopefully next year I'll have my new bike so I'll be able to go.

 

Here's a sampling of the still pics I took. I'm still coming down from the weekend (and so is the swelling ).












Cleaning the first Bullet Rock Garden:














There are lots more photos at Smugmug so feel free to link them into your own posts.

 

O EM GEEE kanga that pic of me whiping is kick ass man you rock at taking pics we all cant wait for more pics hahha cheers:beer:

 

Great pics looks like everyone had fun.

 

okay so after looking at some of the pictures I have a question. For those that have done both. how does the bridge drop (near the gondola) compare to the flow drop?

 

the flowdrop is a bigger drop and is smoothe and the other drop isnt really a drop its more of a gap and like 3 foot not very big at all but i perfer the flowdrop its a faster smoothe landing

 

the bridge drop that has the doubles right after with a wall ride?

I haven't done the flow drop, but if your talking about the bridge drop I'm thinking about- its pretty small for such a big ladder. Kinda dissapointing to be honest.

 

STR Mammoth Madness

Early Friday morning, Lorabee, Bryguy17, and myself headed up to Mammoth for 'Closing Weekend'. This promised to be a fine adventure, as there were better than 35 STR folks who'd RSVP'd, and the excitement for my first Mammoth trip had been mounting over the past few weeks. Initially, I had dismissed Mammoth out-of-hand as being way overrated. I'm happy to admit my error!#-o

Dean had expressed his plan for riding Lower Rock Creek in the afternoon. By the time we met at the trailhead, Tim (jasonmason), Bryan (bryguy17), and Matt (matt13) had already done a run and were ready for a second one. Dean and Scott (stjunkie) arrived, as did Randy (1080P) and his friend Gaylord. We had a fun time on this excellent route (when I see a RR, i'll post the few pics I took). As Randy stated, at the end of the ride we fit 8 bikes and 9 people in my F250.

The next day, a number of us blew-off the notion of meeting at 8am by the gondolas (they didn't start running until 9am?)... so when we got there at 9:30, the main group was already gone. It seemed like the winning strategy was to break-up into smaller riding groups. Our initial group was Jasonmason, Bryguy17, Matt13, and me... we hit Skidmarks to Paper Route to Follow Me. By the end of the day and after four runs from the summit, the group was Jeff (jfsh), Scotty, Tim, and I. My favorite run was Off The Top to Shock Treatment to Ricochet. The riding on this first day 'blew my doors'... this place effin' rocks! :bang:

The majority of the STR contingent ended the day with pizza at Giovanni's... talkin' story, cracking jokes, and having fun. Steve (kanga) showed us some great video footage from the day, including Andy losing control and almost running into the safety fence on the "Pumice Slide". :lol:

Sunday -final day- started off with Jeff, Scotty, Tim, Lynn (sheclimbs), Scott (stjunkie), Ann & Andy (slowspokes+sprockethead), and me. We had a blast... the day's trails included Skidmarks, a couple times down the Pumice Slide, Flow, Shotgun, Seven Bridges, Follow Me. By the afternoon, the crowds had thinned and folks were heading home. I bailed on riding Shock Treatment with Jeff and Scotty in order to ride with my g/f Lorabee. We ended our riding day with OTT to Mountain View to Downtown.

On a recent trip two weeks ago, I separated my shoulder. Given the nature of the terrain, I was a bit hesitant to ride really hard. Following the Doc's advice, I stayed away from the bigger jumps (being fairly new, i'm only just starting to want to even attempt these anyways). Amazingly, I didn't have a single crash (knocking wood)... and the shoulder held-up with a bit of bearable pain.

My thanks and gratitude are due to:
Denmother (for arranging this), Dean (for riding with my g/f on the beginner/intermediate trails while I stuck to the more advanced ones), my friend Tom (for allowing us the use of his magnificent cabin), Jeff and Scotty (a couple of skilled and inspiring riders who allowed me to ride with them)

Photos:
1) Local bubb about to dismember a pinecone (when we returned at the end of the day, it was in hundreds of pieces)
2) 3) ? on Skidmarks
4) Me on Flow
5) Jeff on Flow Drop (which is far steeper than the pic shows)
6) 7) Jeff on Shotgun
8) 9) Scotty on Shotgun
10) Minarets from OTT

 

Weren't you there too???? Where's your Ride Report?????:lol:

 

So my RR of Mammoth goes like this.
Randy, Carlos, and myself both set out to Mammoth at about 7 PM Friday, after me and Randy had gotten off of work. Here’s the loaded truck, and bikes… The second pic, my Boss got crazy and decided he wanted to jump through the picture. :lol:




We Stopped at a McDonalds in Mojave to grab a bite to eat. It would prove to be the funniest McDonalds experience of my life. Basically, there was a kid that was doing sprints back and forth in McDonalds while eating his chocolate dipped cone. Then for some weird reason, he stopped at the window and looked at his reflection and started yelling “Traitor! Traitor!” at himself. By now, I was laughing out loud, as hard as I could, and I Could not for the life of me stop laughing! So I ended up running to the bathroom to calm down. I know it was rude, but I couldn’t help it! We ended up missing the 203 cutoff by 20 miles, and almost hit a coyote on our way getting back to mammoth. We had passed June Lake! We got in and crashed around 12:40.
Saturday, we woke up around 8, and immediately headed to the lift area to meet Steve(Kanga) who generously hooked the 3 of us up with 3 Lift tickets. Thanks again Steve! The first run we stuck with the STR group, and hit up Velocity. After that, we Immediately hit up Brake Through to Flow, and we all Hit the Flow Drop without Hesitation! Last year I walked away from it, and I honestly think my new bike helped me just hit it. I was honestly feeling better than ever on my new ride. I also cleared the little double passed the flow drop for the first time, since I carried enough momentum. The third ride of the day, we met up with Adrian(FoesNasty) and hit up Chain Smoke to Twilight Zone. I was the second one in line, and hit that right hand ladder berm thing, and it was pretty fun, and it was about the only good part of the trail. I wasn’t very impressed. Well, I waited for adrian to come through and I followed him, and tried to push him to go really fast, and he came off one of the 1 foot tall ladder berm and clipped the guide rail that makes to not fall down the mountain and he totally Endo’d and went end over end. We ate at the Pita Pit for lunch, and I must say, that place is All That and a Bag of Potato Chips! It was really Yummy. That night we ate at Roberto’s, one of the best mexican resteraunts ever. Then we headed to Vons to try on all the funny glasses and hats we could find, and to get breakfast. We talked for a few hours before we Retired to bed.
Sunday, We started off on Velocity, and although that trail is totally Destroyed, it was as fun as ever!
Then we Hit brake through to Flow again, stopping along the way to attempt pics at the drop and whatnot. Then we decided we would do break through to flow non-stop, and we had a 4 person train going the whole way down, and it felt like we were a part of ROAM. Then we left, and here I am typing this after eating Dinner and taking a nice, well deserved shower.


I'm waiting on some pics from a buddies camera that were taken, and we also got some helmet cam footage :bang: