Man o' man, today was ugly!!!
We assembled at Canyon Vistas and headed up to the top of 5 Oaks; riders included:
Aldo
Dale
Von-Spill
Steve
Gonz
Rob
Mark
Me (Bret)
and a special guest appearance by Dave, Stu's friend.
Like Gonz said, we headed down 5 Oaks and I believe Gonz took a couple minor diggers heading down Oaks, we reassembled and headed up Cholla, then up to Steps, padded up, dropped the seats and I believe everyone cleaned Steps without incident. Headed over to LCWP, signed in and climbed Willow, took a little breather at the top of Willow where it intersects Bommer and then we were on our way to T&A. This is where things got ugly. Everyone was scoping out the top huck, trying to figure out the best approach and what not...Dale who has never hit it before steps up and charges it, when I say charges it I'm not kidding. He had a bit too much speed in my opinion, took off beautifully, looked great and level in the air and upon landing it looked like maybe the rebound was a tad too fast or something because he kinda bounced which caused him to lean/tip over to his left where he proceded to wad the landing and superman into a small pile of cactus, FACE FIRST and then did the 180 rollover with his feet still clipped in. (video of this to come this evening). He hit the cactus with so much force that he litterally broke off about 3 patties at the base of the plant so there was nothing left but a stump. I ran over, moved his bike off of him, and his face wasnt too mangled....yet. About a minute later he had blood leaking from at least 5 or 6 areas on his face, his chest area got pretty worked as well, and I think I saw his leg received some lovin' as well. I can't remember who hit it next, but Kippie went for it, looked great on the take off and then somehow wadded the landing, he went down hard too. (video coming later). He was semi-stunned for a few seconds and he layed in the dust cloud. Steve took a shot at it as well, and he looked good in the air, landed pretty smoothly and applied a little too much front brake and rode a nose wheelie for about 3 feet, nearly went over the bars (video coming later) and then ended up on the dirt falling over to his left side. Rob also hit it and nailed it perfectly. Unfortunately I wasnt into hitting it after all the carnage and so far I'm 1 for 1 on that huck and I'm satisfied with that for now. Mark and Dave contemplated hitting it, but also felt a little tripped out by the carnage that took place before them and decided against hitting it.
So we make our way down to the next play area and decide to have some fun. Most of us rolled the rock in the middle upon arrival, then it was time to huck. Von-Spill was feeling pretty anxious and was the first one to hit it today. From my perspective it looked like he pulled up a bit too hard on the bars, landed his back wheel pretty hard and then I think one of his hands slipped or came off the bars and he went down hard! (video coming later). I then hit it after Von-Spill and landed it fine, then Rob did and Mark and they landed it clean as well. Steve went for it and this was his first time on T&A (as well as Marks) and Steve looked good in the air and somehow wadded the landing and got a a face full of dirt (pix and video later). Gonz did the rock-roll after about 843 STR motivational speeches, infact, Rob announced that we couldn't leave the play area til Gonz did the roll, thank goodness he did it, and he looked like a pro, nicely done eh! I think that is it for the crashes, Dale rounded the corner about 1/2 way into our huck sesh at the bottom and he wasn't wearing a shirt, his face was filled with dry/crusty blood, that bubb looked crazy!!! Wisely, Dale chose to skip doing anymore hucks on this ride, I think he went OTB a couple times coming down T&A.
We regroup at the bottom of T&A and get our mtb pelaton going down 133 and head back up to Steps for the hike-a-bike. It was warm, but not too bad. There was a nice breeze which helped out a lot. Once back in Aliso we decided to hit Lynx and then head out. No crashes on Lynx and nothing more to really report about the ride after this point. Checked out some more T&A over at Wahoo's, then called it a day.
Dave, thanks for joining us. Mark is was cool to meet ya and ride with ya.
Stay tuned for the pix and videos, they WONT disappoint!!!