Another Wednesday Ride

5 of us met up for a ride up the 396 yesterday. Shawn and Tim were newcomers to our riding gang, and they fit right in. We started up from the White Spar trailhead and Kent the climbing monkey was immediately out of sight. The rest of us plugged along at a more human pace. About a mile into the ride, Ken was having trouble with his rear brake dragging, and decided to turn back rather than to hold everyone else up. That’s a team player.

We only took 396 over the first hill, and when we hit the valley that Hidden Valley Ranch is named for, we took an unnumbered trail that the Forest Service doesn’t want to recognize on up to Senator Hwy. From there, we boogied the mile or so up the pavement to the top end of 396. When we hit the pavement, I knew Kent was going to put the hammer down, so I immediately jumped on his wheel stayed there (as painful as it was) all the way to the turn off to the trail. When Tim and Shawn joined us, we chatted for a minute about important issues like……….ok, we just BS’ed for a bit. Then we headed back down the 396.

Shawn flatted on the way back, so we stopped while his pit crew put a new tube in. The ride back to the vehicles was great! Everyone stayed together and we pretty much bombed it. I say pretty much, because for every guy out there that is slower than me, there are probably 10 that are faster!!

stats:

• distance 8.9miles
• riding time 56min.
  
• avg. speed 9.3mph