Ride Report What Happens in Mammoth goes on STR!!

[allison]

I had a bit of a stomach problem Friday ::cough cough::

The morning started out pretty early, with Justin, Nam and I jumping in the Max (truck) around 4:25 am, on our way to Ontario Mills to pick up I_Have_too_Many_Names_to_keep_Track_Youth, who fell asleep at 2:30am and never showed up at our place.

I got a photo message from DenMother around 8:30 or so at the Main Lodge of sunny skies, but a little bit of snow on the ground. Looked gorgeous. We planned to meet up with them for a Lower Rock Creek shuttle a bit after lunch, before the afternoon thunder showers were going to hit.

I called the Inn around 11:00 to see if we could check in early, and they said they were ready for us! We checked in around 11:30 or so, then drove back into town to check out Footloose, and grab some taco's at Salsa's.

We went back to Footloose to wait for DenMother, Roger, Winston, and HoosierDaddy, and we ran into JasonMason and CC, so they joined us for the ride.

It started raining while we waited for the shuttle trucks to be left at the bottom, so we all started out kinda cold and wet. "This is a really bad idea, guys!!" However, about 5 minutes into the trail the rain had stopped, and I warmed up enough to take off my windbreaker/rain jacket.

Shortly after that I came around a corner to see I_Taco'd_my_Front_Wheel_Youth hugging a tree. Luckily Roger had the foresight to hang out at the back of the pack, so he and Ryan tried to straighten the wheel enough to make it rideable.

Otherwise it was a good ride. No other mechanicals, and no big injuries...

It takes 2 women to equal 1 Dell:

The trailhead:

Threatening skies

Taco'd wheel

Lotsa green

Stomp on it!

Roger is too fast for the camera

Winston "No photos, please"

Hike-a-bike

Got Rocks?

The Friday group

continued...

 

[allison]

After riding we went back to the Inn, changed out of bike clothes, then headed down to the Brewery to hang out, grab some grub, and get our beer on.

I was in bed probably by 10. Ann and Andy rolled in around 12:30 or so, at least that's what they said. I was asleep!

Saturday we all woke up to BreakfastSpokes, who was on FIRE! She was really rocking it.

Everyone enjoyed some bitchin' breakkie before hitting the slopes...er, the trails.

It was dry out when we headed out Saturday morning

Fairly dry ground

Different story at the peak... kinda white-out, at least for riding.

We all were questioning our sanity, at least for a second or two

11,053

At least the trail was clear

Now it's really starting to come down

A few corners later it was gorgeous

Hot Pants in a rock garden

Justin cleans the entrance to bullet

Winter is coming...

Andy cranking along

Second run from the top

Who needs dirt when you have snow?

SnowSpokes

Not so sunny down below this time around

Velocity

The group dwindled, but we picked up a few of the Incycle guys

Fresh tracks

Bike pic

 

[allison]

continued...

JRA in the snow

Log jump

No one in our group hit the Flow drop with 2" of snow on the wood...

STR takes over Giovanni's

Steppie and Nam

Steppie and Son of Steppie

The whole group (minus Jeff from Kernville)

Dino and his Odouls

The 3 Jeff's

Believe it or not, we were all in bed by 11 or so!

 

[allison]

We weren't sure whether or not we'd need snowboards or if bikes would suffice on Sunday morning... Everyone was somewhat slow getting up after Saturday night's festivities...

The view from the gondola house

Yep, we're going up...

The peak is up there somewhere

Getting ready to head down Velocity as the first run of the day

Singletrack

The group grows

Snow

Brad

Part of the group at the bottom

Pretty much everyone at McCoy (someone mentioned that STR was accounting for about half of Mammoth's income yesterday)

Rolling out

Hilary's Drop

Did he make it?

Nope... (The other side of Winston's shot)

Jump at the bottom of Velocity

Edog

Jump_Sims

First time to the top

Got snowdrifts?

Riding down Skidmarks

 

[allison]

continued (last)

Clear down below

Winter wonderland

Flow drop was all dry

Brad hits it

ContainerDropSpokes on Bullet

Roger

Justin throws some style

Brad

Guy on Demo 8?

Nam, NOT keeping his tires on the ground

Ryan

Lee

Downtown Dino Brown

JasonMason needs to go bigger on the Demo8!!

Roger

Air_Sims

Going back for more

Lee

Justin

Nancy

All in all, despite the inclement weather, snow drifts, cold, etc... the 24~ of us had an absolute blast. Our first run down Skidmarks on Saturday Sims was riding behind me laughing like a school boy.

I don't think any of us ever would have assumed we'd choose to ride in conditions like that, but it was a total blast. Lots of laughs throughout the weekend. It was great to see a bunch of different people, and hang out, and have so many varied riders all out having a great time.

Dinner Saturday night with the group was a ton of fun. I think there were at least 5 pitchers consumed at Giovanni's and probably something like 4 at the Brewery after dinner. That's a lot of beer!!

Thanks to Ann for breakfast both mornings!!

To everyone else - thanks for coming up and riding with us. I had a lot of fun. Can't wait to do it again

late edit: long-azz video coming tonight ?

 

[Dirty D]

Looks like good times. Man, I get the shivers just looking at some of those snow shots.

Glad Winston got down ok and was able to continue after his mechanical!

D

 

[ShinKen]

this has to be the best pic from the rest!! my fav soo far!! u guys rock!!!:bang:

 

[maxwell]

Sweet!!

Man Allison, those are some of the "coolest" pictures yet!
This belongs in Bike!

I wish I could have joined the fun.

 

[SSinGA]

How did they get white dirt? It's always red here.#-o

Nice pics!

 

[allison]

Man Allison, those are some of the "coolest" pictures yet!
This belongs in Bike!

I wish I could have joined the fun.

Apparently Decline mag was up there shooting some photos for their Christmas issue. I think it'll come out really nicely

 

[soul rider]

i should have gone...it all looks so great...i love the crunch of snow under the tires

 

[PacMan]

Winter wonderland

This pic is without a doubt one of the coolest pics I have ever seen:bang:

Yet another awesome RR Allison:beer:

 

[Winston]

Here is my Mammoth recap from Friday September 21st.

The day started early for me. Beep, beep, beep…3:00 AM. I hopped in the shower, got dressed and then into my loaded truck. I packed so much stuff that there was only room for me and my bike…DOH!

Come 3:30 AM I hit the road. My mission was to meet up with Denmother and Roger in Mammoth for an extra day of riding. (They had headed up the night before.)

Sometime after sunrise I got a call for Denmother asking me where I was on the drive. (They had stayed the night in Bishop.) She asked if I wanted to meet them for breakfast at Jack’s. I said sure. Sometime before 8:00 I pulled into Bishop for breakfast. Denmother, Roger and I went in and got a table. After we were settled a guy walks over and asked if he can join us. Sure, it turned out to be Hoosierdaddy.

Good food, a little more driving and we arrive.

Getting ready to ride:


Denmother:


CPT Amer…Roger:


We did our first two runs down Velocity. This would be my favorite trail of the weekend. Fun, short and easily accessible. (Translates into many runs.)

Exiting McCoy (mid point)




Heading back up – Hoosierdaddy, Denmother & Roger:


On our third run we jumped off at McCoy and took Brake Through and other trails down into town:


Denmother testing out her 34 tooth ring while Roger tests out his shoes:




Hoosierdaddy plays in the rock garden on Bullet:






Next it was time to meet up with the rest of the STR early birds for run down Lower Rock Creek. (This would be my first time.) Heck, this was my first trip to Mammoth in 5 years.

Because of impending rain, I switched to my point and shoot camera.

Denmother, Tacoed_youth, Allison & TKblazer getting ready:




Mechmann, JasonMason & Tacoed_youth:


Allison – “I love it when it is cold and wet.”:


Lower Rock Creek seems to be 3 parts down for every 1 part up. Flowy at first, then chunky towards the end.

Denmother & Mechmann waiting for the others to catch up:


Here the group waits at the end of the first section. From left to right: JasonMason, Denmother, TKblazer, Meckmann, CC & Hoosierdaddy:


What we didn’t know was that chauvinist_youth had tacoed his front wheel. Roger, Mechmann and others were able to straighten it out good enough for him to finish the ride.



Some ride/hike shots:




















Continued...

 

[Winston]

Regroup:


JasonMason – Dreaming about a bigger bike:


TKblazer:


Allison sets up for a group photo:


Boys, I think we are about to see a show:


CC in action:


Hoosierdaddy – Man of many ride kits and skills:


Allison sequence – STR ratings going through the roof!








Finally, Mechmann:


That’s it for day 1. I will get to day’s 2 and 3 later on. (The good stuff.)

Oh, Friday night we ate at some bar. Luckily we caught the 50% off happy hour discount for our meal. It was probably the worst meal I have ever attempted to eat. I mean, I could have broken a tooth on a french fry there.

 

[CC]

Hey Winston, you were supposed to catch me coming through that rock garden. Uhhh...oh that's right I did the post "pretend" I did the rock garden shot. It wasn't quite the super woman pose I was looking for though..Can we go back and do it again!!! LOL!!!

Thanks and it was great meeting you!

 

[denmother]

Hey Winston, you were supposed to catch me coming through that rock garden. Uhhh...oh that's right I did the post "pretend" I did the rock garden shot. It wasn't quite the super woman pose I was looking for though..Can we go back and do it again!!! LOL!!!

Thanks and it was great meeting you!

You must be refering to this shot!!!

 

[DasBrink]

I am so jealous it hurts. :bang:

 

[CC]

You must be refering to this shot!!!

THANKS DEN MOTHER!!! Ya know, looking from this side...I can actually see the line! LOL...Hey my puni 4" did ok, espeically since I completely blew out my rear shock by the end of Sat. Good news is that Incycle is going to send it in and give me a loaner bike to use. Hmmm...decisions, decisions..what bike to demo?

 

[tkblazer]

awesome weekend guys! thanks to everyone for coming out and joining in on the fun.. props to everyone for steppie'ing up their game.. no major crashes, injuries or mechanicals besides winstons mangled derailleur.

my RR

thursday night i drove over to the Mann household and justin was working on allison's bike when i pulled up. After hanging out for a few hours it was time to get some shut eye. 4am come by way too fast and it was time to start packing up the truck for the drive to mammoth. Justin calls idecidedtosleepandnotshowupontime_youth and he was sleeping still and it was almost 430am. An hour later we and after a few detours we meet up with the infamous Ryan. the drive over was pretty uneventful, maybe because everyone but justin was sleeping :bang:

once in mammoth, we pull into the parking garage and some bubb in a matching moto kit wheelies to the truck... i wonder who that could be... ended up being nonother than HoosierHangover :beer: Nancy, Roger and Winstud followed soon after. After getting some lunch we head over to lower rock creek trail head and it was looking to be a good ride. About 10 minutes before the shuttle drivers return it starts raining and the wind picks up. I think i heard allison say "this is a bad idea guys" :lol: (don't cut me) It turns out that it had rained just enough to pack the dirt down a bit and it was nice and tacky except for a few corners. Ryan managed to crash and taco his front wheel. after some finesse from roger, he was able to complete the ride. we ended the night with dinner and beers at the brewery.

sat-

the str group reunites! there was a surprise appearance by Jeff Simms, who managed to get out of work early and get in two days of riding. Dean, Lynn, Jeff, Lee and Scott also arrived soon after. When we got to the top, i just thought to myself "this is nuts" i tihnk my fingers froze soon after that thought. I will admit tho, that riding in the snow is awesome! i'm going to have to bring some warmer gloves next time eh. It was cool running into Adrian and Franky on the trail as well... those incycle jerseys helped for sure.

 

[denmother]

Roger's crash

awesome weekend guys! thanks to everyone for coming out and joining in on the fun.. props to everyone for steppie'ing up their game.. no major crashes, injuries or mechanicals besides winstons mangled derailleur.

What, you missed both of Roger's spectacular crashes?

1. He went to slow over the log jump yesterday on Flow and ended up sliding out in the hole on the landing, resulting in a nice gash in the palm of his hand.
2. He tried to do the rock drop at Canyon Lodge (bottom of Shotgun) and went to slow. Resulting in a bruised ego and some very sore ribs (see photos below compliments of Winston).

Take-off

Botched landing