(photo by Ken Papai via Google)Three years ago, I heard about an epic ride on San Pedro Mountain that takes place around April Fool's Day ever year. It's an "underground" endurance ride focused on riding every trail on the mountain in one day.
If you have done a couple of casual loops of China Camp in the past you'd say, "what - that's an endurance event?" If you are a China Camp local, you have a better sense of what this is all about. San Pedro Mountain is composed of a number of different smaller parks: China Camp State Park on its north east side, Harry Barbier open space preserve on the south side and some small miscellaneous parcels of land on the far west side. It is literally covered with trails - they are everywhere, some that are little more than deer tracks, almost none of them mapped. The place is a freakin maze. I've spent my whole life exploring that hill and I still find new trails all the time, I actually rode three trails new to me yesterday.
The ride was billed as a 50 miler with 10,000 feet of climbing, almost entirely on technical, narrow single track. The first time I heard about it I had just started riding seriously and I knew there was no way. Last year I decided to show up, went out way to hard trying to stay with some older guys that didn't look THAT fit, cramped badly within 2 hours and only made it through half. This year, after a solid winter of riding, I was headed back with the NAV crew and a bunch of other friends with the intention of finishing.
The day started early and started cold. I showed up at about 6:45 to an already full parking lot and a brisk, completely beautiful morning. 37 degrees when I got out of my car and the turnout was incredible........100+ riders. With very little messing around and no dramatic pre ride speeches (thank you Joe) we were off and rolling at 7:10. Very punctual for a ride like this.
The ride was split into 4 chapters, all of them super fun, super steep and pretty technical. All four of them had some great moments but in terms of pure fun, the 1st was my favorite (last years second). It inluded 3 of the best descents on the mountain, Hitler, JCC and Oakwood, all while still fresh enough to enjoy them! It also included almost 3k of stupid steep climbing in like 5 miles, but that's how this ride goes.
The second chapter was the most technical, with miles and miles of tight side hill riding with consequence for a mistake. Thanks to the trail ferries out there, hummingbird is awesome right now and was one of the highlights of the ride.
Third chapter was flowy, fun and covered some of the most obscure trails in the park. It was also a bit less steep, which was welcome.
Fourth chapter was pretty blurry for me with some steep sections and some descents that would have been killer if I had any coordination left.
Rather than go into a huge amount of ride details I'll just say it was a super long day on the bike, much suffering was had by all, trails were in really great shape with recent rains and almost all the crew I started with finished. That and it was super fun.
I can't speak for others but I would never have made it through if it wasn't for the people I met and rode with at different points in the day. What sets this ride apart from almost any other ride I've done is the strength of the crew, the diversity in terms of age and personality, and how fucking cool people are. Over the course of the day I met and rode with:
- Two different guys celebrating their 50's birthdays with an epic day on the bike.
- One guy who had his prostate removed less than 3 MONTHS AGO. Are you kidding me? He had his prostate removed this winter and he was in for a ride like this. Riding strongly and talking about anything and everything. He knew everyone on the trail, had something cool to say to everyone he passed and was burning bowls the whole way! Man, if you are out there, you are an inspiration and made that miserable chain strecher climb float by.
-More guys on hardtails and fully rigid bikes than most would think possible on a ride like this.
-At least half the crew on SS's.
-A super friendly EMT volunteer ripping in jeans and a tee.
-Some super strong female riders charging the climbs and descents.
-More peeps in their 50's than in their 20's.
-All in all tons of laughs, smiles and good vibes.
The trails up there are so narrow I find them as mentally tiring as they are physically. There is no break from the concentration, no time to space out like you can on most all day rides. By the end of the day yesterday, my mind was just mush. Coupled with the fact that I lost one of my contacts at Victor Jones Park, the last hour of the ride was completely weird and surreal - I felt like I was tripping. Thanks to Davey and the rest of the crew I met at Victor Jones for the pull home. I had to walk half the last descent cause I couldn't see shit, then ahhh - The Glory of Bucks and a cooler full of cold cokes, non alch's and salt and pepper chips.
Final stats: 52 miles, 9115k climbing and 8:03.
Crashes:
-I had a really solid OTB on my way down 7-11 at the end of the 3rd chapter. I was flowing well and having a ton of fun but already tired and clipped a bar. Hit my right side hard.
-One of the guys I was riding with went off the cliff on Q2 and literally fell 15 feet, down a rocky, poison oak strewn slope. Super Gnarly. He was ok though, and was right back on his bike a few minutes later.
Joe, your the man. Thanks for organizing. I'm sure this was a huge effort and it was appreciated.
There's no single track in Marin, right?
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