iRide

My friend Ben and I decided to SS Lake Hodges, a fairly tame trail in Escondido, San Diego county. It is a good place for a newbie SSer like me to practice SS’ing. Final tally was 15.88 miles with +799 / -799 elevation.

So Ben and I had both heard that some knucklehead tried to drive a Chevy Tahoe down a section of trail and rolled it and the vehicle was still there. We wanted to go find it, not only to see if it was true, but also because it was on a trail neither one of us previously knew existed. So, SUV or no SUV, at least we could explore some new (to us) trail.

We found the start of the trail section just fine. The trail was in pretty bad shape–rutted and loose. To top it off, almost the entire trail was lined with cactus.

Ben was out in front when we rounded a slight downhill bend and saw the SUV up ahead. I decided at this point that scanning waaaay ahead to the SUV was more important than watching where I was going and promptly clipped a large cactus and got tossed off trail.

At first I thought I hit a large branch of some kind. I distinctly remember yelling “OH $H!T” and thinking “this is gonna suck” as I got launched head first into the off trail bushes. Fortunately, the bushes were pretty thick and I didn’t go too far, which was a good thing because the slope was pretty steep and I could’ve gone 20′ or so down the hillside.

Ben ran back and helped me up which was actually a bit of a chore as neither one of us could get any leverage. I then realized I had clipped a cactus and not a tree, as I had 20-30 needles sticking out of my left arm. Ben was nice enough to help pull out the needles in the back of my arm I couldn’t see.

About 10 seconds into this, I realized I had bigger problems than the needles in my arm. I suddenly became VERY aware that I also had needles poking me in my “Southern rear flank” if you get my meaning. I decided right away that removing these intruders was more important than working on my arm.

For some reason, Ben refused to help me remove the southern section of needles. Some friend eh?

Ben took a walk and I found a nice secluded section of trail to have a little “me” time and rid myself of cactus needles.

I managed to get them all out with the help of the needle nose pliers on my multi-tool and we decided to have a look at the SUV. It ended up being a Chevy Blazer and not a Tahoe. It must have been a fairly recent occurrance because it was still in pretty good shape.

We rode the rest of the way back without any issues (fine by me!!). It could’ve been much worse I suppose. I got all the needles out and am only left with a rather sore arm.

On with the pics

I clipped these

And got launched 5-6 feet into these

The SUV

Ben sports the latest in CamelBak fashion: the CamelBak “Cougar”

Obeying the new DMV Bicycle Registration Law

We are planning on riding Daley tomorrow morning. Should be more good times. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride Lots…