spring at the mountain house

In a recent three-day span...I got to play in the mud on some long trail rides after heavy rains... ..."Flo", Adria's classic Bianchi, got tuned up for a spin around Pleasure Point...
...a storm ripped through Felton and tore a branch from a huge tree in Adria's front yard. Luckily, the winds dropped it on the road, and not on the roof of her house...
...but before it landed on the road, the branch snapped the electrical line and started three small fires on Adria's property. Luckily, neighbors saw it happen and Adria stayed up all night on fire watch until PG&E came out to fix it.

(the branch) (life hazard!) (one of the fire spots)




Luckily, the storm and resulting damage wasn't enough to keep spring from popping and Justin the painter from finishing some projects around the house.

Saturday random-ness

I went for my first mountain bike ride in over a month on Saturday. We've had a lot of rain lately, and it's bad trail-etiquette to ride most trails when they are wet, so I haven't been on my mtb in a while.

I left my house around 1pm and was challenged the entire time by a stiff wind blowing directly from the north. This is what I rode into for the first nine miles on the road, as I made my way to Wilder Ranch.

Honestly, the nine miles on the road to get to the trails were not fun. In the 45-minutes it took to ride to the trails, I had the following thoughts:

Thought #1: "This is not fun."

Thought #2: "You should quit if you're not having fun."

Thought #3: "No! No quitting. But you should at least turn around and get the car and drive to the trails, instead of riding." (I've got a rental car this weekend - grabbed it on Friday to visit a shipper in Salinas, and kept it for the weekend.)

After stopping for the second time to check the drivetrain for issues because the bike was so sluggish, I realize that the bike was fine. It's a single-speed, so the drivetrain is pretty straight-forward. It was me who was sluggish.

Then, something that Amber said here (http://correambercorre.blogspot.com/2009/03/4-miles.html) motivated me to press on. She reminded me that the first few miles can be the toughest. So I settled in, content to suffer, knowing that I would soon find my groove.

Made it to Wilder and enjoyed the early glimpses of spring popping:

The great thing about mountain biking in California is that there is a lot of climbing. I like to climb. I really climbing on a single speed. It's hard, and it forces me to find the balance between effort and ease.

The route I put together for today rewarded my first climb with this view. Looking north at the Pacific Ocean, the fog line is just hanging out there. It never came any closer.

On my first descent, I blew it and went over the handlebars into this stupid little mudhole. Turns out that one of my bar-ends was loose, and as I lifted the front wheel to ease over the hole, the bar-end came off in my hand, the handlebars did NOT come up, so neither did the front wheel. This is the result.

Notice that the handlebars are completely backwards and you can see said bar-end lying nearby. Good times.

The rest of the ride was pretty normal - no falls, but definitely not on my game. I think I'll re-ride it today.

When I was coming back into my neighborhood, I took these pictures of a surf contest down the street from my home.

Longboard attached to Pleasure Point street sign:

Groms watching the contest atop Sector 9 van:

Groms recycling a six pack of Coors. I'm sure they were recycling. Not drinking it. No way.