Mountain Cyclist – Sept. 1999
Club News
...by Paul Nam
On Sunday, June 20, 1999, nineteen dedicated mountain bikers gathered at the base of Windy Hill in order to ride over 10,000 feet of dirt climbing during the course of the warm and sunny day. The group departed shortly after 8 AM on an odyssey that would become a parable for life, a macroscopic metaphor of the seasons ending in thirst, hunger and darkness – all in all, what an epic mountain bike ride is all about.
It was a real pleasure to ride up the first climb, a warm-up up the gentle pastoral hayfield of Windy Hill. All bicycles ran in quiet precision as the large group discussed a whole range of topics ranging from chain lubes to disk brakes, all the while imagining how good beer really, really is and how good it would be if and when we finished!
We soon rolled all over the San Andreas rift zone, crossing tectonic plates like a Finnish booze smuggler crosses the Baltic Sea, in erratic, jovial fits and spurts. The worst climb of the day, Table Mountain and Charcoal Road, became an inevitable contest in denial, and the moment we found the sandy intersection we conveniently forgot how hard it was to climb in the granny while simulating the middle ring. Here some of us headed to a nearby car in which were stashed carefully selected ice-cold beverages and junk food. Eventually, the other riders found us gorging on our sweet sticky delicacies in the most decadent of manners. We offered to share some of our valuable calories in exchange for friendship and emergency bike parts, say an ice cold A&W root beer for an XTR derailleur or a whole bag of chocolate chip cookies for some nice Mavic rims. Giddy with sucrose, fructose and totally gross, we headed over from the Pacific plate to the North American plate. By this time we were a stinking string of laughing mountain bikers on another boring coast down the Grizzly Flat Trail.
The ride did have its problems, however. At one point a few riders missed the Abode Creek Trail and ended up descending a firebreak, a heinous dirt-clod highway of eight-inch ossified mud balls, down to Page Mill Road, resulting in a (in retrospect) comedy of riders in search of riders like a dog chasing its tail. Somehow we regrouped and continued on in our merry oblivious way, hell-bent on 10,000 feet of climbing.
Eventually, I suffered through my own worst moment of the day. At the beginning of the ride, I talked my face off and totally forgot to drink for the first 2200 feet of climbing. This resulted in a hydration deficit which became apparent after 8000 feet of climbing to the Black Mountain backpacker camp. My stupidity manifesting itself in a headache and a hallucination of sorts. When I got to the camp, I imagined that I saw about a dozen happy riders laughing and partying by a keg of beer tapped just an hour ago. I joined them only to discover that some of those happy souls had gone off to bag Black Mountain properly, and to dispel the hallucination, I rode up there myself to check it out. When I got back down, they were still partying but the keg turned into the non-potable water spigot, and beer mugs became water bottles.
Of course, I am not telling the story in the sequence in which it actually happened. My memory of the event is like a pack of snapshots passed around a party: all mixed up with some shots completely missing. All things come to an end, as did the 10,000-foot BARF ride. My personal theme song was Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused" that we blasted on the way home; it pretty well summed up the way I felt at the end.
David Belden, Bill Brick, Peter Donohue, Geoff Fanning, Kathleen Meyer, Paul Nam, Greg Norman, Fred Stanke, Jim Strenfel, Phil Strenfel, Chris Voci-Nam, Vincent Von Loenel, John Weathers, and Ligaya Yrastorza all completed this ride. Most notably, the three women were the first to ever complete this annual 10K event. Congratulations to all who attempted the ride, and double congratulations to all who finished.
Back to top
...by Jane Taylor
A quick reminder: if you haven't done so already, please submit a summary of your volunteer hours from January 1 – June 30, 1999, using one of the following three methods:
- Use the web form.
- Send email. Compose an email including your name and the number of hours you spent in each type of activity, described in July's newsletter. Send your email to volunteerdata@romp.org.
- Complete the tally sheet. Fill out the green form included in July's newsletter and mail it to Jane Taylor, 406 Iris St., Redwood City CA, 94062.
Remember, you do not need to be a member of ROMP to submit your hours, just a local mountain biker who has done volunteer work. Send your hours in now, before you forget about all the hard work you've put in. Thank you for volunteering in the first place, and thank you for submitting your hours!
Back to top
...by Glenn Wegner
Each month the "strenuous" physical workout of getting this newsletter distributed is accomplished by a group of volunteers. This time, twelve folks folded, sealed, and labeled more than 400 newsletters and delivered many of them to local bike shops. Thanks to Bob C., Don B., Ed N., Henry P., Jim L., Jim O., John and Karen, Linda P., Rob P., Toni G., and Linda W. for making quick work of this task.
This fun is repeated monthly, usually on the fourth Wednesday or Thursday of the month in Cupertino. If you would like to help with next month's newsletter (and eat some pizza and talk bikes at the same time), contact Glenn Wegner at 408-257-8284 or newsmailing@romp.org for more details.
Back to top
|
